“Tell Matt that Virginia Wines CAN age!” As if he didn’t already know that… While Matt scooped me on this post (darnit, I hate it when I don’t beat him to posting), it really was an exceptional experience showcasing the reality that Virginia wines age gracefully and continue to develop in exciting ways. While I sip broadly from Virginia wines, I don’t see myself as a deeply educated wine drinker, and I pick up something new every time I visit this place.
Linden is the quintessential spot for wine sipping with a great side of education. What makes a visit there so worthwhile is that they embed a learning experience into your visit, with comparisons on the tasting menu, and special tastings geared toward building your understanding of how wine expresses differently as it ages, and how different growing years or sites impact the flavors of the same grapes. We got to experience all of the above during a cellar experience at Linden last weekend.
It started as a plan to check out a vintage comparison of the same wines in the cellar and maybe hang out for a bit, and rapidly expanded to adding a bar tasting and then heading to Barrel Oak for an immersive experience with the winemaker. Weekends full of wine aren’t for the faint of heart, people! Kathy, Kenny, Matt and I got our tickets (thanks Kenny!) and set up to meet at Linden for the 11:00 edition of the cellar tasting.
We were greeted in the cellar by three vintages of the Hardscrabble Chardonnay – 2020, 2019 and 2015. We tasted in that order, moving from youngest to most aged. McKenzie greeted us and got us ready to do our tasting. The setup for this emphasizes Linden’s focus on place – check this out:
They want us to understand how the terrain on which our wine grapes are grown impacts the eventual wine that comes from grapes grown there. It’s simple touches like this that make tastings at Linden special.
McKenzie walked us through the fermentation process – the 2020 Hardscrabble Chardonnay was fermented at higher temperature, and the oak was well integrated, leaving us with only a light toast sensation. You all know I prefer my Chardonnay to be clean fruit and I tend to dislike toast and butter with it. This was nice. It comes from a cooler vintage year so there was less sugar in the grapes at harvest and better acid retention due to cool nights, McKenzie explained. That leads to a lower alcohol wine that is going to develop more complexity over time.
We moved to the 2019 Hardscrabble Chardonnay which comes from a hotter year, and the malolactic fermentation left us with a slight buttery sensation in this one. It was nice, and the butter didn’t overwhelm, but this was my least favorite of the trio.
Finally the 2015 Hardscrabble Chardonnay – lovely, light, minerality – easy sip but enough complexity that it made me pause and think. I adored this wine. I didn’t take notes on the growing season (rats) but I think it was one of the warmer good growing years in Virginia if I recall correctly. Kathy noted that this was really good, and unlikely to get better, though it may stay at this wonderful plateau for some time. This was my favorite of the trio, and we eventually took a bottle to the deck to share that afternoon.
We moved on to the Avenius Red trio – 2020, 2019 and 2015.
The Avenius Red is a blend that is rebalanced every vintage between Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, and Petit Verdot. The grapes grow beautifully on the site, which is not far at all from the Linden tasting room (you can see some pictures in posts I have about Crimson Lane and Fox Meadow). I still remember the barrel sample of the 2023 Merlot from Shari’s site.
The 2020 had some nice underlying fruit, but there was a touch of brettanomyces on it. As it sat in the glass, the sense of barnyard and bandaid became more pronounced. Avenius is often my favorite Linden red blend, so I was saddened by this. It’s interesting that some folks enjoy the flavors added by “brett” (its affectionate nickname). For me, it adds this harshly earthy element that I don’t enjoy.
The 2019 Avenius however, was my favorite Linden red blend when it was released, and it was just gorgeous right now. It still had some strong tannins in it, but it is refining itself, and the fruit remains very present. I loved this wine, and it is still for sale in the tasting room as a library wine – its on the tasting menu sometimes, but we’ve had luck asking for older vintages that they’re willing to pull for you.
The 2015 Avenius Red was also stunning this morning. It was very subtle and refined, and age has been very kind to it in the bottle. This is a gorgeous wine, and like the 2015 Chardonnay, you can certainly drink and love it now, and it may potentially get even better, but why wait when it’s so good right now? This is truly the wine drinker’s dilemma.
McKenzie also treated us to a 2024 Petit Verdot barrel (ok, tank) sample. Now we’re talking my language. I love my straight-up PV, and barrel samples give us such a wonderful glimpse at the wine it may turn into. She said this wine had a short maceration and it showed up as big and jammy with subtle tannins – I actually expected stronger tannins since it is less than a year after harvest, but it’s just great right now. I’d drink this now as a young PV, but I know Linden will bottle this blend from their three sites and it will age incredibly gracefully. I am here for it.
As we wrapped up our tasting and chat with McKenzie, who took us through the tank / fermentation room and to the area where they store cases of wines and bottle them, we headed upstairs, resolved to enjoy the current tasting menu and a bottle of the ’15 Hardscrabble Chardonnay.
At the tasting bar we ran into Jim Law himself, who is still focused on his farming. It was great to see him on the tractor hedging in the vines when we arrived and while we sipped on the porch.
We enjoyed working our way through the current tasting lineup, which included:
2020 Riesling – they’ve pulled out the Riesling vines now, and if I recall correctly, once they release the 2022 vintage, it will no longer be produced. This isn’t my jam – this grape needs high altitude in Virginia and there are people doing fun things with it to produce sparkling. I cannot think of a Virginia Riesling that I was crazy about. This is a simple and refreshing wine, and I didn’t dislike it, it just doesn’t get me excited.
Comparison of 2020 and 2019 Villages Chardonnay: This is a blend of grapes from all three Linden growing sites. The 2020 was just stunning, bright and enjoyable. I loved this one. The 2019 had an oakier feel to it and was simply not the style of Chardonnay I love. I’d be team 2020 all day long – at least something good came from that year.
Comparison of 2023 Hardscrabble Sauvignon Blanc and 2023 Avenius Sauvignon Blanc: Once again – same grape, same vintage, different site, very different wines. With hot, dry 2023, the Hardcrabble Sauvignon Blanc vines made very ripe grapes that turned into much higher than normal alcohol. To counteract that, they blended 20% Semillion from the site into the wine – it significantly lowered the alcohol (but you could still see a big impact). This left us with a complex and layered Sauvignon Blanc that was really interesting – stylistically I don’t think I lean toward this, but it was quite different from what I’m used to, and if you seek complexity in your white wines, you will enjoy this. Likewise the Avenius was very ripe and higher alcohol, but it showed up not as bright. It was a hot summer that lacked the cooler nights that retain those acids in the grapes that translate to crisp and bright. Avenius Sauvignon Blanc usually shows up with very high acidity, which makes a beautiful bright wine – I guess with the long hot season it just couldn’t keep the acid. I still enjoyed this and brought two bottles home with me.
Finally we had the 2022 Claret and the 2022 Cabernet Franc. I so loved the 2021 Claret from earlier this year and tore through the bottles I brought home (we’ve previously noted that I am impatient, right?). The 2022 was also a very good vintage. The blend is likely different, and I took no notes on what I got from the sips – but it had a nice earthy and grounded note to it. I brought four bottles home to enjoy over the next few months. The 22 Cabernet Franc was nice, lighter Cabernet Franc, and again I did not keep notes on this wine. I enjoyed it, it was nicely made with either good oak integration or lower levels of new oak, and good fruit flavors coming forward. Sadly, my notes are poor.
We needed to scoot out of there to get to our appointment at Barrel Oak, but it was such a wonderful day with temperatures in the low 70s, and the deck felt perfect. Linden has now opened deck seating to folks not in their club, and if you go, I’m pretty sure you’re going to join!
Linden’s way of doing these tastings is just exceptional, and it’s the model I adore. Plenty of discussion of growing season and site and the way they tie together to make our wines. Virginia is so much more impacted by season and site than other growing regions. While California can make consistent Cabernet Sauvignon every year, that’s because they control the moisture, and the sites are always hot enough to ripen it. Virginia’s secret joy is seasonal and site variance that add so much – you can truly taste time and place in your glass in a way you simply cannot with wines from other regions. Linden’s well-versed team walks you through that as you sip in ways that a wine drinker with any level of background and education will enjoy. Haven’t been there in a while? Get there soon!
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