Any opportunity to swing by Mount Alto Vineyards is a blessing, partly because of the amazing wines, and partly because of the amazing people. So while hubby was away at a conference, I took the opportunity to check in – they had released the 2023 and 2024 vintage since the last time I was there, and there were rumors of the elusive 2024M.
I met up with David and Robert working in the vines with two friends. They were doing some maintenance to cut down the weeds between rows – we are about to have a major heatwave week with little chance of precipitation, so the vines didn’t need to struggle any more than they already are this year. As we are seeing elsewhere, vintage 2026 seems to be all about extremes at Mount Alto with very small, tight clusters and some signs of uneven ripening.
Robert pulled a ripe berry for us to taste – no green, no pyrazines, some tannin to it, but not a strong sense of the fruit yet. More time is needed – good wine will likely come forth- but how much? Their yields are down significantly due to frost damage from April and the ongoing drought. We were due for a rough wine growing year in Virginia, hopefully this is the extent of it, and then 2027 will echo 2017 and 2023. Fingers crossed.
Speaking of 2023, that vintage of Tributary has been released and I had yet to consume any since it came out. We went back to the winery building with their friends and sampled across the 19, 21, 23, and 24 vintage, along with the 2024M. This was an incredibly fun tasting, and every vintage continues to sing a beautiful song of this mountainside.
The 2023 vintage here is akin to many of the 2023 wines I have raved about from this year – stronger tannins, bold flavors, but holding on to silky wonderfulness characteristic of Mount Alto’s Cabernet Sauvignon. The 2024 vintage is made with 55% Cabernet Sauvignon, 40% Merlot and 5% Petit Verdot so with a good bit more Merlot in it, is much more fruit forward, but retains that elegant quality that comes from grapes from this site. As you may recall, they are sourcing Merlot from Mount Juliet Farm/Grace Estate. The 2024M is their play on things that inverts the percentages that are Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon. With more Merlot, the 2024M comes across even more fruit forward, but retains that tannic structure I love from their wines.
Robert and David pulled out older vintages they had Coravin’ed for a tasting a month or so back. They were very worried these wines may be ruined due to the amount of time passed since they were first drank, but the Coravin science held, and these wines retained their plush and gorgeous mystique. David suggests that there is one year left on the 2019 vintage. It’s still quite intact, even if the punch isn’t as intense as it used to be. The 2021 retained all of its beautiful and elegant fruit and silk. I really love this one. I have one 2019 left. I expect to sip that fairly soon, (stay tuned, a famous Texas Wine Blogger may join, and who knows, maybe the Mount Alto Team will too!), which will at least open space on the “hold” rack. Yes, I am doing the “hold” thing again. No, I don’t know for what. Sigh.
This was a really fun visit and update. One of their friends with us was Booth Hardy, who owns Barrel Thief in Richmond, and who may be planting some vines in Virginia in the not too distant future to make some wine under a Bottle Thief label….. stay tuned for more on that.
So your news update is: Mount Alto is still awesome. Grab some bottles of the 2023 and 2024 asap. I suspect 2023 is getting to be in short supply, and 2024 is incredible. Don’t sleep on this one. I also am mindful that there will be limited supplies of future vintages until we have that great Virginia reset year in which the climate returns to something more typical of the 2012-2017 years.
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