Funday Saturday – Two Up Wine Down After Taking Wine Friends to Mount Alto!

It was a double bonus Saturday for wine in my life. Two different wine experiences, both focused on what is new and off the beaten path in Virginia Wine, and it made my weekend!

My morning started with serendipity – a visit with Matt, Kenny, Kathy, and AJ Greely at Mount Alto. It’s only been two weeks since I visited to pick up my Tributary order, but finding out that Matt was able to arrange for Kathy and Kenny to come, I had to swing by. Both Kathy and Kenny have expert palates and great taste and insight into wine, and getting to hear them respond to one of my favorite wineries was going to be a real treat. On top of that, after I shared with AJ Greely that I’d given a bottle of Hark Petit Verdot to Rob at Mount Alto, she mentioned that she’d been meaning to check them out. AJ is a rockstar winemaker and has plenty of great insight and I was loving the chance to hear her thoughts about the wine too. The stars aligned and all of us got to the winery for a morning of tasting and fun!

We started with a glass of something they make only for themselves – a co-ferment of apples from Albemarle Ciderworks with “secondary” Cabernet Sauvignon grapes harvested after the regular harvest. Different from a late harvest grape, these are later-growing shoots from the vine that produce grapes that ripen a few weeks after the main clusters. They don’t carry the flavorful intensity of the grapes from primary shoots, so they were harvested and pulled aside for a fun co-ferment experiment. This drink was effervescent and acidic and fun. It set the tone for the experience.

As Mount Alto does, we started our time there with a walk through the vineyards. Rob, David and Camila talked to us about their growing philosophy and lessons learned. Mary was also there and she has great stories about working the property too! It’s so fun to hear them recount the history of the vines and establishing the winery.

We tasted through their whole lineup and there was a good bit of technical talk about wine and tasting notes shared. This was tremendously fun to be a part of, since there was serious expertise in this conversation, and I learned by listening to them all. As a group I think we came to consensus that the 2019 Manteo Nason-Tatum was showing up just beautifully right now. The 2021 Tributary was loved, and the 2020 was open and gorgeous. There were 2023 and 2024 barrel samples too – 2023 Cabernet Sauvignon showing the cherries we tasted previously, with some very big, gripping tannins, the 2024 Merlot with a heavy oak influence but also really pretty fruit, and the 2024 Cabernet Sauvignon showing some nice fruit. Consensus was that the 2023 is going to be a very intense wine – compared to last time I had a sample, this morning the wine was warmer and more open, and a good bit more interesting – tons of structure – strong cherries coming in, and lots of evidence of future development. As I’ve said over and over, wine from this site responds more than typical wines do to aeration and temperature, and the 2023 vintage barrel sample shows that clearly.

After a drive home and a little time to play with dogs and relax, husband and I headed downtown to the Two Up Wine Down festival. Put on by Oenoverse, this event celebrates inclusivity in Virginia Wine. The crowd was much more diverse than I typically see at wineries, and there were a number of African-American winemakers pouring their wines. It was a fun atmosphere, and we enjoyed samples from Commonwealth Crush, Lightwell Survey, The Winery at Bull Run, Delaplane Cellars, Hark (hanging out with AJ twice in one day with the 2021 Merlot — yummmmm!), and Blenheim. We had a chance to sample this year’s Sunroom collab project between Septenary and Walsh, based on Gruner Veltliner – two very different wines made from the same vintage of grapes from the same vineyard. This is a really fun idea. But I had a main reason I went to the festival, I was after a hard-to-find new wine release:

Reggie Leonard was there with Lance Lemon, his partner in the Parallax Project. They were pouring the white wine What’s This? and red wine What’s That? These were so fun. The wines are made from the same 2023 grapes – a blend of Tannat, Chardonel, and Vidal Blanc, with small percentages of Albariño, Traminette, and Petit Manseng. I’m fascinated that they developed these into a red and a white wine – but that’s all about the time on the skins, right?

The white wine presents very bright, not highly acidic, but rather fairly balanced, very dry and tremendously refreshing. This is an ideal cold summer wine, even fantastic on a 65 degree fall day in the sun. I was surprised by it – Traminette has a signature sweetness that I tend to dislike, but this was soft enough in the blend that I loved it. Likewise Vidal Blanc and Chardonel are not grapes I tend to favor – I generally find them bland and uninteresting. In this blend they came together beautifully. I bought an additional glass to enjoy with an arepa at the festival and a bottle to take home. What’s That? was fresh and bright also as a red wine – definitely more of a nouveau style – also very balanced and drinkable – I expect summer and winter. A bottle of this also came home. I have an ongoing love affair with Tannat, and that is the primary grape in this wine, and this is a really fun manifestation of it. I’m also fascinated by the trend of blending white grapes into reds – while winemakers have made white wine from red grapes for ages, blending them in a red is always surprising. The white grapes added some sharpness/acidity to the wine, but didn’t take away the depth of it. I plan to love this bottle during the fall or winter. Parallax isn’t under distribution yet, as far as I can tell, so you will have to find them at a pop up or bar takeover. You can also purchase the red wine through Commonwealth Crush’s site. It’s hard to google though, so I recommend following them on instagram to see what they’re doing and catch them at a pop-up.

We finished our visit to the festival with an arepa from Arepas on Wheels. We ran into a friend at the festival from Out and About events, and made new friends in the lines for wine. I connected with Seidah from Sweet Vines since she was a Middle School Principal in a neighboring school division to where I was a school administrator. Her PYT was a beautiful blend that was primarily Petit Verdot, and felt like an almost port-style wine. She was fun to talk with and her journey opening her winery is really exciting.

As an aside, I absolutely love Arepas on Wheels, and I’m coming next time they’re at a winery near you. Get you an arepa from them.

I’ll definitely return to this festival next year. Tickets sold out again this year, so it’s worth getting in early. I may go for the VIP tickets next year to get in a little earlier, have the bonus comparison tasting, and get a meal ticket to redeem. The vibe was so friendly and fun at this event. I highly recommend it to get a sense of what is new and interesting in Virginia wine!

And to add to the fun, check out and order yourself one or more of our great T-shirts – super fun, great quality, and your friends will be jealous.