Ingleside Vineyards in Virginia.

Virginia, USA is known for a lot of things. This is where the father of this country was born, where all the oldest battles was held, but besides of history, pleasantly, Virginia is well know for quality wine. I had a change to visit one of the finest vineyards in the state, Ingleside Vineyards in Oak Grove.

Before I came here I’ve heard a lot about wineries in Virginia, was really looking forward to have it. On the day we visited George Washington’s Birthplace, we put Ingleside Vineyards on our itinerary. It was a pleasant afternoon, perfect day to be surrounded by beautiful wines.

Ingleside Vineyards produced their first wine in 1980, is the oldest winery on the Northern Neck and fifth oldest in Virginia with 3000 acre estate. Broad grate field on the drive way set the mood.

Tour & Tasting office was in a beautiful old barn, where they keep the way it was.

If you want a tasting, there are two tasting options basic for $5 and Premium for &7, and includes souvenir wine glass. What a deal! Of course you can just have wine by glass, or glasses.

I’ve been to wineries and drinking a lot of wines in New Zealand, like Villa Maria Estate. Actually that’s how my taste buds for wine developed. And sometimes I buy a bottle of wine because I like the funky names, such as Yellow tales, Innocent Bystander, or sometimes because of the pretty label like Franz Haas. Anyway, this is my first time trying Virginia wine, and wondered how much differences I could feel.

I choose to do premium tasting for $7. It includes seven different styles of wines. Genevieve kindly introduced and explained differences of the grapes, the preserve way, and how Ingleside is handling all different kinds of the grapes started with Chardonnay. I enjoy Chardonnay in general, but newly find out that I like stainless steel fermented one better than the one fermented in oak barrels. Chesapeake Chardonnay suits my taste. Move on to European style 2009 Rosato di Sangiovese which is 100% Sangiovese. Followed by Colonial White, 2008 Sangiovese, and finished with October Harvest (91% Petit Manseng, 9% Riesling). Sweet wine is not really my favourite but October Harvest was wonderfully rich.

Shockers were 2007 Cabernet Franc and 2006 Petit Verdot. These two are new kind of grapes for me, and totally got me good. Petit Verdot represents their pioneer character. It was Virginia’s first bottle of 100% Petit Verdot.