Walsh Family Wine Library Tasting

One of the best reasons to be part of a winery’s Club is the invitations to special events like library tastings. A library tasting takes you back through the winery’s offerings over the course of its history. Great things like this are even better when you get to spend it with the Wandering Winos AND you get to spend time with Nate Walsh. A retrospective of some of Loudoun’s best wine with good people preceding a snowstorm? I am all in. And Walsh is now ten vintages into their winemaking! It’s an exciting time to see what’s happening with their wines!

As Nate’s events usually are, this was a very informative walk through the selected wines (and barrel samples!). He noted that this time of year is when the winemaking team is preparing the cellar for bottling, tasting through the wines to see how they are developing. Having a library of previous vintages allows the winemakers to see how wines develop over time and evaluate readiness of wine in tank and barrel for bottling/release. I think it’s just so fun to observe the impact of the growing season on the wine, especially when the process is consistent year over year.

The first flight of three wines had the 2018, 2020 and 2021 Petit Manseng. Nate told us that he loves to see how wine from this grape evolves, since it does age well. Walsh’s current release is their 2021 vintage (now three years old!) and they’re preparing to release the 2022 in around a year. On an interesting note, the 2018 was 100% from the North Gate site, the 2020 was 88% North Gate and 12% Twin Notch, and the 2021 was 100% Bethany Ridge. Nate told us that they grow this grape in several vineyards, and keep looking to find their ideal, an acidic wine that is refreshing and will age. The 2023 vintage will come from a vineyard they began working with in 2023. Grapes from the other sites may be sold to other wineries or go into blends. They know exactly what style they’re after, and they’re going to keep hunting it down. Of the three selections, I enjoyed 2021 the most. While Kenny and Kathy really liked the aroma and flavor of the 2018, there was something off about it to me- stylistically it was less refreshing, having lost a good bit of the acidity present in the 2021. The 2020 presented with a bit of oak, which overwhelmed the subtler flavors of the grapes grown in that cooler, wetter year. The 2021 glass didn’t present all the tropical aromas and notes that the 2018 did, but the bright acidity made it lovely and refreshing.

Our second flight held the 2020, 2021, and 2022 Twin Notch Red Blends. These were all made with 10% new oak (relatively low, which I much prefer). Since this vineyard was planted in 2016 with an intent to make a Bordeaux blend from Merlot, Cabernet Franc, and Petit Verdot (with the exact same percentage every year!). Despite being made using the same process, the same blending ratio of grapes, and all from the same site, the three wines brought forward their vintage characteristics uniquely. Kenny and I agreed that the 2020 presented as very juicy with clean fruit coming through (and it was our favorite!). The 2021 was pleasant – Kenny, Kathy, and Matt described as more complex (to be expected from the drier, hotter vintage year) and we all found the 2022 to be a bit wound up, still feeling young. I expect that the wound up factor is the impact of the Petit Verdot – which will enable aging. The fact that the 2020 vintage is showing so beautifully really shocked me, given that it is generally a mellower vintage. In the past, I have taken very few Twin Notch bottles in my club shipments, and now I sincerely regret that. This is a wine that ages wonderfully, and that I will need to pay more attention to moving forward.

Our final flight held barrel samples of the 2023 Bethany Ridge Merlot, 2023 Bethany Ridge Cabernet Franc, and 2022 Bethany Ridge Petit Verdot. Nate told us that these components will become the Paeonia Red Blend, and the 2022 version will be released potentially this Spring. I’m very excited to see this come out. Bethany Ridge has 25 acres under vine right now and produces half of their fruit. From the first pour of this Merlot, I was in awe. Remember the 2023 vintage is knocking our socks off. This wine was put in a “2nd fill French oak puncheon.” A puncheon is a very large barrel, almost twice the size of a regular wine barrel, which allows for less oak contact with the wine (yielding lower oak influence) and less oxygen contact for less oxidization. As a 2nd fill, this barrel has reduced oak influence anyway, since it gave a lot of its power to the first wine it held. The Merlot was showing some oak influence, but this would be a lovely glass as it is now, unfiltered and unbottled. This will be blended and bottled in about four months. The Cabernet Franc pour was in 3rd fill Hungarian Oak – Nate told us that this oak imparts a spicy quality to the wines. The Cabernet Franc showed some interesting influence, but also felt extremely tannic. This will bring an exciting quality to the blend.

I assume the 2022 Petit Verdot is not for this blend, but was part of the previous iteration. This has been aged in neutral French oak (good, because Petit Verdot is gorgeous and shouldn’t be messed with at all!). This was also beautiful and tasting great as it was. Wondering whether this is leftover from the 22 blending and headed somewhere else, or if it will go with the other 23 components? Hmmmm. Kathy made a blend with a 1/3 of each remaining in each glass. I drank two-thirds of the Merlot and Cabernet Franc, and less than half of the Petit Verdot, so I had a much richer PV-influenced blend. They were beautiful together.

This truly was an exciting journey through some recent vintages that show where Walsh is heading as a winery – they are very focusing on finding what the fruit on each site is bringing forward and showcasing the best of it. The Wandering Winos decided to get some snacks and share a bottle of the 2021 Bethany Ridge Cabernet Franc. We had a wonderful time talking about our favorite Walsh experiences, as well as savoring the wines. Kenny ended up joining the club (I thought I got a free case of What Will the Women Drink when I referred someone to the club, eh, Nate?). I took home a bottle of Boden Young Albariño to continue to expand my love affair with this grape. Boden Young is the label for Kent, Head Winemaker at Walsh. I’m looking forward to opening this bottle.

And now, as I await the snowfall, I’m sipping some 2020 Bethany Ridge Tannat from Walsh. Kathy came up with some money quotes about Merlot while we gabbed, “Merlot is the comfort food of wines,” and “Merlot is a warm hug in a glass.” Walsh is making exceptional Merlot with the Russ Mountain site, and the Bethany Ridge is certainly extremely strong. I’m looking forward to seeing more Virginia Merlots, especially with very strong growing seasons like 2023 and 2024.