February 1, 2025 was a great day for wine in Charlottesville! Not only did our rescheduled exclusive tasting with Ankida Ridge go off without a hitch (and a great turnout!), a few attendees also moseyed over to Ethos Wine and Tea for the evening’s Jake Busching Bar Takeover. Tons of amazing wine poured in such a small radius, and great times were had by all!
Snowy and icy weather and Ankida Ridge being iced in with impassable roads for more than two weeks led to our special tasting at their AirBnB in downtown Charlottesville being postponed. Christine Vrooman along with Emily and Carmen came from the winery to run the event. We were also joined by some amazing allies, Kathy and Kenny (and Kathy brought Princess Cake and Bacon Jam, while Kenny brought incredible ham). The whole event was a resounding success.
We were welcomed with a pour of the 2021 Brut – their new release of bubbly. This crisp and refreshing wine is a great way to start a celebration. Christine welcomed everyone with a message about how the Virginia Wine “Industry” is better served by being called a “Wine Community” because here, in Virginia, wine is all about community. Indeed!
Christine spoke at length about how they found Ankida and decided what to plant, how Lucie Morton guided their decisions, and how the winery has evolved over time. Over the two hours, she took us through tastings of the 2023 Chardonnay, 2023 Rosé of Pinot Noir, 2022 Pinot Noir, and a bonus tasting of the library 2017 Pinot Noir. These wines all showed gorgeously, and all received a tremendous reception from the group. Several attendees previously had Ankida wines, though none had been to the winery. The Chardonnay and Rosé of Pinot Noir were definitely favored by the group. I was wowed by the 2017 Pinot Noir – of course that vintage year packs a much bigger flavor punch, and this wine has held up tremendously well.
To me, their 2023 Chardonnay is the best they’ve made so far. These vines are over fifteen years in the ground now, and in the great vintage year of 2023 showed with bright intensity and very high acidity making a tremendously refreshing wine. It holds absolutely none of the creamy or buttery notes we get from grocery store Chardonnay, but rather plenty of lovely apple notes. This could be my wine of the summer pretty easily. The 2022 Pinot Noir is also really showing wonderfully. I received my first bottle in 2023 in a club package at the end of the year, and I was shocked by how young it felt. Now it’s really coming into its own and is a smooth, enjoyable wine, easy to drink on its own or with food. The Chardonnay and Pinot Noir are their flagship wines. Christine hinted that the 2024 Rosé of Pinot Noir and Verday would be bottled in February and then released in April and May – these are two of my other summer go-to wines that I cannot wait to see return.
This event was held at the cottage that Ankida Ridge owns in Charlottesville and uses as an AirBnB. It’s a beautiful, historic property that sleeps 12, and this is the third time (that I’m aware of) that they’ve held a wine tasting here. Ankida Ridge provided two amazing charcuterie boards for folks to nibble on while sipping. I’m so thrilled that Christine and her team did this for Out and About, and connecting wonderful people with great wine is my jam. Oh, and if you’re wondering, Pinot Noir and Princess Cake do pair beautifully.
Part Two of my Wine Weekend quickly followed with this:
After cleaning up and saying goodbye to the Ankida team, I zipped down the street to Ethos Wine and Tea for the Jake Busching Bar Takeover – Jake released his 2022 Cabernet Franc from the Beacon Tree Vineyard. Kathy and Kenny also joined me at Ethos.
Kylie started me off by recommending a wonderful Portuguese Rosé. I sipped on that since I was there even before Jake, and chatted with Kylie and the team.
Once Jake arrived the fun began, as he walked us, and the tons of other folks who started arriving, through the lineup. He began with pours of the Cheninquisition. This is his 2023 Chenin Blanc from the Beacon Tree Vineyard. I loved this one all summer and into the fall. It’s highly likely to return to heavy rotation in my glass as we head into warmer weather again, since it’s aging wonderfully. In fact, it’s as bright as I remember from my first tasting of it!
The second wine he poured was his new, non-vintage white blend, titled “Blend.” This is a blend heavy in Chenin Blanc with Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay, and Petit Manseng. The Petit Manseng is from 2019, and the other grapes are from the 2021 vintage. Both vintages were hotter, drier years that produced some more acid and brighter flavors, as I recall. I really enjoyed this very fresh white wine, that also carried some layers to it. I’m always impressed when Virginia makes white wines that can carry some age, and I think it’s time to stop being surprised – we may have just reached this point where our vines have enough age, and we’re good enough at farming and winemaking to age our white wines for longevity. Praise be. This is going to be a great dinner wine, and my immediate thought is to pair it with something light such as chicken, or something spicy too – it will balance both well.
The star of the show came next, the reason we were all there. Jake’s brand new 2022 Cabernet Franc.
Jake and I have a running argument about whether Cabernet Franc is the best grape grown in Virginia. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy plenty of Cab Francs grown here, but my favorite? My heart belongs to Petit Verdot, in all honesty. Jake disagrees, and I threw down the gauntlet and have dared him to convince me he is right. This bottle is an outstanding effort at doing just that. This wine is from all neutral oak barrels and carries a lovely softness that doesn’t diminish and of the fruit expression. The 2022 vintage year was more balanced in terms of weather and more “typical” of a Virginia growing season – hard to believe since we’ve had so many extremes lately. Please note that by the time I got to this wine, I’d had eight other wine samples that day – my tasting notes will simply not be sharp. However, this wine is a great fit for Jake’s red wine portfolio – going nicely with his other wines. There is plenty of dark earthiness in this Cabernet Franc, and I’m excited to place the bottle I brought home on my rack next to my bottle of 2B, and let it age a little more. My goal is to try out both by a fire in the late fall this year.
If you get an opportunity to spend your Saturday with two amazing winemakers and some great winelovers, move heaven and earth to do so. I had several of the couples at the Out and About tasting tell me that they were now planning to get down to Ankida as the weather warmed up, and I hope everyone will find their way to a Jake Busching pop-up soon to check out his current lineup. Like I said a week ago, so much good wine is hitting the shelves now!
I wore the Drink Virginia Wine With Pride shirt – and you would look great in one! So grab one asap! Especially since it invokes DEI, and people who support DEI are just, well, cooler. Buy them here.
My NoVa Wine Blog 
Ankida and Jake B is the definition of a ‘double win’
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