Heading for a Good 2019 Vintage at Muse Vineyards

It’s mid-summer and it looks like we are heading for a good 2019 vintage. Hopefully the current good weather conditions will prevail. 2018 was pretty challenging with continual rain and disease pressure. Two of our red varietals that we would have normally made into nice aged vintages, Gamay and Nebbiolo just wouldn’t hang on long enough without rot and disease so we pick them earlier than usual and made—Rose! Or to be exact a Rose from the Nebbiolo and a Vin Gris from the Gamay. Both are lovely and you can taste them in the tasting room or stock up for lovely summer imbibing. As they say, when life hands you lemons, make lemonade—or maybe even limoncello!

We were in good company on Sunday, June 23, when the Virginia Wineries Association invited Muse to participate in the SomCom welcoming reception at the Westin Hotel in Washington, D.C.  SomCom is one of the premier events for sommeliers in the U.S., and we were proud to join King Family Vineyards, Barboursville, Early Mountain, Paradise Spring and Williamsburg Winery to show off Virginia vintages to this knowledgeable crowd.

We brought along two just-released wines: our newest Muse, Urania 2017 (the Muse of Astronomy) a blend of 65% Teroldago’ 35% Sangiovese and Calliope 2017 (the Muse of Epic Poetry) a blend of Grenache and Mouvedre.  Both were well received with many commenting on the fact that they didn’t know anyone in Virginia grew these grapes! (spoiler alert we are one of the few and in fact may be the only producer of Teroldago which originates in the Northeastern region of Italy). You can find both of these wines on our current tasting menu available for sale in the tasting room.

Robert and the vineyard crew are busy staying on top of any potential disease in the vineyard by maintaining an active program of shoot-positioning, leaf pulling and judicious use of anti-fungal agents when necessary. The self-guided wine trail of 1.8 miles will take you up and down and around all of the vineyard from the banks of the Shenandoah River to the upper vineyards some 500 additional feet above sea level.

So please take advantage of these lazy, crazy hazy days of summer and pay us a visit here on our bend in the river.

Best regards,

Robert and Sally