Barrel Tasting at 53rd

The best things in life are often spontaneous. You already know that getting to barrel tastings of the 2023 vintage is a major goal of mine right now – I am curious about the consistency of the wines across growers/sites, given the amazing growing season and incredible things being reported about the quality of the vintage. The announcement for this tasting event appeared in the my facebook feed and since it was an event with available times the next day, I went ahead and clicked “purchase.” This isn’t like me – I map things out weeks or months in advance, and hate surprises. But it’s a barrel tasting and hubby agreed to join me, so off we go!

Two connections we have to 53rd Vineyard and Winery – first, it was originally established as Cooper Vineyards, and a friend of ours helped to plant vines there when Cooper was established. This was long ago when he was working at UVA hospital and knew the owners at the time, and he lost touch with them before they sold the vineyard and it became “53rd.” The second connection – it is smack dab in the middle of the zone where husband used to run volunteer rescue squad duty and he knows the neighborhoods all around it quite well. It’s interesting when these connections show up and remind us how connected the world can be at times.

The owner and winegrower, Dave, conducted our tastings of the wines and talked us through some of what is happening at the winery. I really enjoyed his comparison of the two vineyard sites with the winery site being at about 150 ft above sea level and the Simmons Gap site ranging from 800-1000 ft above sea level. They grow more Bordeaux grapes there – Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Petit Verdot, as well as Albariño and Chardonnay because the site has good slope and rocky soil that drains well and makes the vines struggle. The vineyard on site produces Chardonel, Vidal Blanc, Petit Verdot, Chambourcin, Cabernet Franc, Albariño and an experimental block of a hybrid grape from Cornell, Coret Noir (I hope I spelled it right!).

So we tasted a lot of wine, mostly 2023s. We started with a 2023 Chardonel. This smelled and tasted of Granny Smith Apple to us. It was bright and acidic and had a nice little bit of zing to it. Dave mentioned that they treat their hybrids exactly the same as they grow their vinifera – they control the vigorous growth and reduce the yield in the same manner, and they believe they achieve higher quality due to this way of growing. I have to say I don’t usually enjoy Chardonel as a rule, but this was a nice example – maybe it’s part of the amazing 2023 vintage year, and maybe it’s the influence of their growing practices. This sample will develop into a nice, bright, refreshing wine in the bottle soon. 

We moved on to the 2023 Viognier. You already know this just isn’t my varietal. I will tell you that this sample presented some lovely tropical smell and taste and a hint of creaminess that I’d bet will develop since Viognier tends to age well. It had a nice zing at the end that had a hint of tartness and was just really fun. I can honestly say I enjoyed this. 

They let us compare this from the just-released 2022 Viognier out of the bottle. I saw a significant difference. Dave described the 2022 growing season as much wetter, and as such the wine presented as quiet and subdued – it was balanced and had more creaminess to it than the 23 (impact of aging most likely?), but didn’t present the excitement of it’s younger sibling.

We moved to the barrel-aged Rosé – this is 100% Chambourcin. We sampled the 2023 vintage, and it’s actually a pretty good Chambourcin Rosé. Dave talked about how Lucie Morton (god-mother of Virginia Wine, one of the long-time great advisors who’ve really shepherded the industry and move it forward) advised them to try this with Chambourcin. The result is a very berry-driven, pleasant and refreshing Rosé. Dave described it as a good Fall-Thanksgiving wine. I got a ton of strawberry from this pleasant, dry Rosé.

53rd makes their reds in neutral oak, generally, and buys only a few new oak barrels per year. We started with 2023 Petit Verdot grown on-site. This felt like a very young version of the PV I know and love – it’s so early in development with only 3 months in barrel maybe. It was tough to pick up characteristic PV flavors in this sample, but the strong tannins that are so typical came through very clearly. This one will develop over time.

We moved to the sample grown on the Simmons Gap property. This showed more qualities I usually associate with Petit Verdot – very dark fruit, strong astringency, and this one clearly knows where it is heading.

We finished with samples of Cabernet Franc from two different barrels that 53rd acquired from Breaux Vineyards. These barrels are from the same clone that 53rd has planted on their sites that is not yet ready to harvest. While clones will share traits in terms of flavor profile, these grapes will be heavily influenced by the sites on which they are grown and the season from which they come. The samples from these two barrels were lovely examples of Cabernet Franc, and will develop either into a nice single varietal or blend in the future. It’s such an interesting idea to play with mature examples of the fruit from clones you have planted on your site to learn how to work with it and see what the grape expresses.

We finished with a sample of the Chelsey Port-style Norton (I believe it’s from 2017 but I am not certain). I went through a port phase in the early 2010s – after dinner a small glass of a tawny port with some really dark chocolate – that was a nice way to wind down the day. Port is much less my thing these days. Sipping this one brought back memories of the ports I’d enjoyed way back when, and I certainly understand the attraction – the brandy in it really warms you up on cold winter nights. This is a good expression of a port-styled Norton.

This was a very well-designed event with a ton of education underlying the wine samples – tremendous insight into their philosophy and process, and as always, a fantastic sample of what the 2023 vintage will develop into over the coming months and years. The group size was perfect – we got our samples in a timely manner and it wasn’t a crazy crowd that interfered with our ability to enjoy. I gathered from what Dave was saying that this is also how they do their wine club releases, and that’s a style I really love – you get to talk with those deeply involved in growing and making the wine and hearing what drove their decision-making during that season. I think they’re doing this two more times this winter, so if you’re interested in seeing how the 2023 vintage is coming along in barrel and tank, this is one good way to find out!

53rd is also doing some of the things that I really love that Virginia wineries are doing – they have an experimental plot and they’re reserving some blocks for future planting based on what they see growing well season to season and making good wine. 

I have a few more barrel samples lined up in the coming weeks, and I’m always looking for more, so shoot me a note if you see some coming up and as always, buy yourself a shirt, sweatshirt, or hat that shows how much you love Virginia Wine.