Wines of the Weekend

I’m trying to do better and only have wine on Friday-Saturday-Sunday. The reality is that with doing Orange Theory at 5 a.m. Monday-Friday, having wine the night before really depresses my performance and doesn’t leave me at my best for the workouts. Generally, taking a few nights off is do-able since the current job doesn’t make me want to consume in high quantities.

This weekend I did start indulgence on Thursday (we took Friday off from workouts due to early morning surgery for the doggo and it was a very long week for both of us). We started with this one:

While I’m not a massive Chardonnay fan, if it’s crisp and light I will enjoy it. This one doesn’t show any of the buttery/toasty business that comes from lots of Oak and California/Kim Crawford treatment, so I loved it. Only slight hints of green apple and actually lower acidity than I expected and a faint trace of minerality in this wine. I feel like when I went to Slater Run before the pandemic their white wines had a good bit more minerality to them, but I barely detected that in this one. Since Thursday hit a high of 77 degrees, (in March? What climate change?), this was a lovely and refreshing end to the evening.

Friday was a day where I planned to leave work by 4 and ended up leaving at 5 – Hubby and I were both exhausted so it was a pizza night. While I don’t normally put effort into pairing wine with dinner, pizza really does call for reds, and tough days call for Petite Sirah. And so it was that this one was opened:

I haven’t seen much change in this wine over the past few months. I can say that between release in September 2023 to the holidays there was a huge shift taking place in this wine, with added depth and complexity, bolder fruit forwardness showing up, and it just kept getting better and better. At this point it’s really a great wine and I’m drinking away at my stash. I don’t know how long I can cellar this wine, but I only have two bottles left anyway. Arterra’s Crooked Run blend generally has a bit of Petite Sirah in it, but the Tannat and Petit Verdot tend to be the backbone that gives the longevity to that blend. A Crooked Run Vertical….. mmmmmm I can almost do one, though I have no 2018 left – but some steaks on the grill with those…… yum.

Saturday evening came and I was just tired. To be fair I didn’t sleep well and hubby had a conference for work and had to get up at 4:15 a.m. (grrrr) and so I did take a 3-hour midday nap to adjust and recover. That left me out of it for the entire morning and scrambling to do household and other chores. After a ton of running around I came back and opened this lovely:

This is the 2022, not the new release of 2023 (my first bottles of 2023 vintage!!!!). I’ve put a 2023 in the wine fridge now and it will be opened soon. Saturday was very sunny and hot, and this was the perfect refreshing wine to go with it. Crisp berry notes at the front and I get a good bit of acidity from this wine. I did sample the 2023 at the tasting room, and I actually find the 23 to be a little more subdued than the 22 – I’m going to have to re-sample all of this :). The 22 has a darker color to it, and I need to check in with Ankida to see if they held back more for the Pinot Noir due to the incredible 23 growing season – I am so curious about how they managed the vintage. This is a wine I consistently loved last summer. I do expect it’s going to be very difficult this summer with so much incredible white wine and rosé coming out – deciding what to drink and when – there will be so many great choices! We really are going to have to throw some patio parties here because there will be a ton of incredible wine in my home.

Sunday I expect to finish that rosé and indulge in a Manhattan or two, since that is also my new favorite thing. A Sunday evening Manhattan after dinner sets a nice tone and wraps the weekend up so I can organize myself for Monday and get my frame of mind right.

What were your wines of the weekend?

And don’t forget that with the beautiful weather here, you can contemplate wine in the woods, or at least your backyard, and the best meme of all time makes for a great Virginia Wine T-shirt:

You can always order this one, or any of the great MyNovaWineBlog merch at this link. The prices are a little higher cause shirts are made on-demand (as ordered) not in batches, my profit is set to $1 per shirt. The material is pretty high quality, and I’ve been pleased with what I’ve gotten so far. Just wait til you see what is coming….