Second Stop at Septenary

This weekend we took two friends to the Virginia Wine Love Meetup at Septenary. This was a special scheduled event for a small group with a guided tasting and tour and was really fun. I’ve been to Septenary before and enjoyed the wine and venue, and today was even more fun than last time!

General Manager Andrew greeted us when we arrived and we went to their event space. It had a nice bar and was connected to the barrel room.

These kinds of events are fantastic because you can hear from the winery team about their winemaking style and process, history, and ideas about the future. While Andrew doesn’t make the wine, (Corry Craighill has made it since 2020), his longevity with the winery team gives him a lot of insight into what they’re working towards.

This VWL event was capped with a limit on attendance due to space, and because the smaller size lent itself to more education and an opportunity to ask questions and get answers. Septenary doesn’t allow large parties unless they rent space for an event and that makes the smaller, boutique feel more pleasant, more relaxing, lets you just breathe the fresh air and go ahhhhhhhhh. Or is that just me?

Anyway, Andrew started the session by talking us through some of the history of the property and the winery. The property itself dates back to 1751, and at one point had a tavern on it (and you can see the log cabin-style building that was the tavern when you exit the property). This was a vineyard prior to the Zimmermans buying it, though it had a focus on growing grapes and selling them, rather than making wine. The Zimmermans purchased the land in 2014, along with some acreage under vine in Essex, Virginia, and began making wine in earnest, opening for sales in 2017 and selling 2014 and 2015 wines. In 2018 they sold the Essex property and purchased land in Goochland where they grow grapes. This means they no longer grow Cabernet Sauvignon, so the 2017 blends are the last to have this grape in the mix. I’m not worried about that since that grape favors very steep slopes that have incredible drainage, and in my humble opinion, there are a limited number doing that grape really well in Virginia. The historic farm name is Seven Oaks, and as such the winery is Septenary Winery at Seven Oaks Farm. (For my Wahoo alum friends – the seven oaks were seven on the property named for the seven presidents from Virginia – six oaks fell due to Hurricane Hazel some time back, guess which one still stands? You got it, our man TJ).

The winery produces 2200-2500 cases annually under the Septenary label, and also makes the wine for Valley Road (nearby on the Nelson Wine Trail), Chisholm, Southern Revere, and a few more he didn’t name.

We wandered over to the production room and Andrew talked us through their process, using lots of neutral oak and only a limited number of barrels of new or newer oak. They also use the concrete tanks for fermenting and aging, which I always find interesting, and Andrew did a lengthy explanation of what punchdown is and why it’s important. With nothing fermenting, I didn’t get to try this experience out myself, but that’s a personal bucket list item (actually I’d totally dig doing some of this for one day, and since hubby and I put down about 200 bags of mulch today in the yard, I figure wine-making crossfit can’t be much worse).

Back to the barrel room we went, and we walked through the four wines they had selected for this tasting.

We began the tasting with their 2023 Viognier, and Andrew told us it wasn’t released to the public yet! I’ve only had a tiny fraction of 2023 wines – rosé’s that have been released and Ankida’s Verday. That year should knock our socks off. Andrew noted that Viognier is typically not a winemaker’s favorite grapes because it tends to have a lower yield than other vines, it’s not cold hardy, and it can be tougher to work with in the cellar. You already know it’s rarely a grape I enjoy, but I keep an open mind.

This Viognier had the typical tropical aromas on the nose, and they were really pleasant. The flavor for me was what I typically find with Viognier, and it was not my preferred wine. Our group of four doesn’t generally enjoy Viognier. The larger group seemed to enjoy it however, and expressed that it was a great example of the grape.

We moved on to the 2022 Chardonnay. I thoroughly enjoyed Andrew’s explanation of malolactic fermentation. It’s so simple, even I can understand it. To paraphrase him, the first fermentation of a Chardonnay gives you malic acid which provides that granny smith apple flavor I almost always get (and enjoy!). The second fermentation turns that malic acid into lactic acid, which has more of a creamy/dairy taste and texture, which is less my preference. The notes for this wine say that there was a partial malolactic fermentation, and that’s probably why I thoroughly enjoyed this Chardonnay. There was the tiniest hint of a buttery and creamy note in the wine, but there was crispness too, which I appreciate. All four of us enjoyed this taste.

We moved on to the 2017 Carriage House Red Blend. I’m impressed that they are serving 2017s still – that was a banner year in Virginia, and the wines are exceptional from that year. This was a nice blend, bold and enjoyable, and would be great with some food pairing. Generally our group enjoyed it.

The final taste was the 2017 Grand Manor, another Merlot-dominated blend. Andrew explained that they were after a more balanced Bordeaux style with this wine. We all enjoyed this blend a lot. Of the four wines, it definitely was our favorite.

My real wonder after all of this was about how Corry’s style would show up in the red wines. They’re aging their reds a nice, long time before serving them, we will go through the 2019’s being release over the next 12 months before we start seeing Corry’s influence on Septenary’s red wines. I’m not sure who was making the wines prior to her arrival at Septenary, but I’m very curious to get insight into her style. We saw a glimpse in the white wines, and I spied some 2023 Sunroom in the Production facility (if you don’t know, Sunroom is a collab between Corry and Nate Walsh at Walsh Family – they each take a share of Malvasia Bianca grapes grown on the same site and make a wine from them to show how the same grapes express differently based on the winemaker’s process):

This is such a fun concept, and I will have to visit Septenary again to see what Sunroom yields this year…

After the formal tasting of the four wines was done, we moved back into the bar area to settle down, get some food, and enjoy some of the wines. My crew really wanted to taste the rosé (the amazingly named 2023 Summer Kitchen Rosé) and so we ended up with a bottle of that while we enjoyed chicken salad, hummus, and pasta salad.

After a bit, I wandered to the bar to talk with Andrew, who I tried to recruit to be a teacher again, but he really is good at this work, so it’s a win at the end of the day that he is sticking with Septenary….. I wound up choosing to test out a glass of the 2017 Merlot. You may know that I have pretty strong feelings about Virginia Merlot – it’s either really good, or it just misses the mark and is a big, oakey mess. This was lovely, and I wound up taking two bottles home (along with that amazing rosé, and not just cause of the name!). The Merlot has a dark, inky quality that maintains the fruit character but is also pleasant and doesn’t need to be paired with anything. This will be an “I had a long week, it’s Friday, and I deserve this” wine sometime soon.

This visit reinforced my respect for Septenary – I feel like they get overlooked because they are along the route between big heavy-hitters like King Family, Hazy and Veritas, but their wine is solid and their team is great and friendly. The overall vibe at the winery is so relaxed and pleasant, and I cannot imagine going there and not leaving feeling refreshed and happy. Septenary will remain on my go-to list in this area, and I’m really looking forward to their 2019 red blends in a year or so!

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