Monday, February 23, 2004

Hearts on the Vine International Wine Festival.

Interesting wine festival here in Richmond last weekend. Described as 150 wineries and 325 wines, from all over the world. A lot of California wineries - many were small Napa and Sonoma producers - but the Pacific northwest was represented, as were international producers: from France, Italy, Australia, New Zealand. It was a fund raiser for the American Heart Association, so it was a bit on the expensive side, but the majority of the wines you could taste were very good.

A couple of disappointments - there were some wineries that were present, but only barely. Cakebread Cellars was there, but represented only by their chardonnay, when I'd have loved to have seen some of their cabs. Kim Crawford wines were represented only by their unoaked chardonnay, which I certainly enjoy but I'd have expected to see at least their pinot noir and sauvignon blanc, as well.

My favorites: Barboursville's viognier, Smoking Loon's viognier, and Arrowwood's syrah.

The event was a lot of fun, and I hope that it was sufficiently successful that they'll do it again next year.

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