3/18/2022
Paradise Springs Winery - Clifton, VA
The Saturday following my 22nd birthday, my family and I took the 30 minute drive out to the small, historic railroad town of Clifton in Northern Virginia. The heavily-wooded rolling hills revealed a smaller winery, at least compared to some of the ones I have seen (primarily in the Finger Lakes region of NY), with an old wood cabin look and a steep hill of vines (interestingly, right across the street from the Bull Run Occoquan Trail).
My family and I parked and headed down the gravel trail towards the main cabin, passing the vines along the way. We filed in with a small tour group and were greeted by our guide Kyle. Kyle worked as a wine producer for several years and while he now works a different job, he works in the Paradise Springs Winery on the weekends for the love of wine.
The old cabin was closed for a private event, but we got a tour of the main cabin, the production facility, the vines, and the barrel room. The barrel room I found specifically interesting. The room contained an impressive amount of barrels but for the success of this winery, was not extensive. As it turns out, Paradises Springs Winery sits on a historic property, and the winery is not allowed to manipulate the existing property, so the barrel room's capacity cannot expand.
As I will get into with the wines later, they are not able to age some of the wines the way that they want to, due to the limits in space. They do not age off of the facility either as we were told it is heavy and expensive. We were shown a wine barrel with glass casing on one side and could see the wine aging inside, which I found unique.
I have seen wineries with smaller main buildings with much larger vineyards. I did not take notes on this tidbit, but I believe it was said that plenty of grapes are from a farm in the Shenandoah region. Overall the vinery had a quaint, intimate feel, especially with its relative isolation.
We ended the tour and my parents and I experienced a wine-tasting with just our tour guide. We let him know our wine preferences; my mom Chardonnay, my dad and I generally bolder, drier reds. He put us together a tasting of six different wines, and it was my favorite experience with wine yet.
We began with a 2021 chardonnay. My mom ended up buying a bottle, and I found it to be an extremely pleasant wine. With the lack of space for barrels, this chardonnay does not spend a lot of time in an oak barrel. Instead, it spends an initial phase in an oak barrel, but then a longer period in a stainless steel barrel, and then finally again in an oak barrel, however one that has already been used by other wines, so that most of the oaky notes have already been "soaked" up. As a result, this chardonnay is extremely neutral and smooth, lacking some of the oaky notes and acidity. I am not as much of a fan of white wines, but I think this really nailed what I like in a white wine: crisp, smooth, refreshing, and not overly sweet.
We then tried a vidal blanc, which has a unique history in Virginia. Originally it was a grape that unleashed a lot of green pepper notes and thrived in the climate, but as practices improved, and across VA winemakers were able to get the leaves to drape further over the grape, they were able to eliminate the green pepper notes, even entirely. Thus, at this point it is mostly a choice for how much of that flavor to have, and the winemaker at this winery did not want any. This was a slightly sweeter and more acidic wine than the chardonnay, but was also very good and fun to learn about.
Third, we tried the rose. We took note of the large bottle of rose displayed on
the table, and were shown even larger bottles (which names I already knew through this class, funny enough). Rose is never my favorite; it is typically way too sweet for me and has harsh, unpleasant notes all over. This rose was much smoother and mild, by far the best I have had to this point.
We tried a cabernet franc from 2019. This was the first red I had ever had like this. It was not a typical grocery store red wine, even some of the more expensive ones I have had. It had a smokiness and smoothness that was truly impressive to me. I loved this wine and found myself a little shocked with every sip. I ended up getting a bottle and plan to let it age for a bit and open it for a good occasion.
Our guide was nice and offered us two petite verdots from two different vintages so we could try and taste how a red wine ages. The first vintage was a 2019, described as an almost unparalleled wine vintage, and 2021, a more run of the mill vintage, with obviously less aging. It was hard for me to tell, but I did get less harshness from the older wine, and I enjoyed both of these for a lot of the same reasons as the franc. I probably preferred the 2019 but the difference was negligible to me.
Finally we tried a red blend called PVT from 2017. It is comprised of 50% Petit Verdot and 50% Tannat (this is from the website, I couldn't keep track of the notes but it got as few as 5% for some grapes). The blend was created to make a very bold red; an almost interminable feel after swallowing, tannic on the sides of the tongue, fruity on the front, yet smooth. Kyle told us he almost felt bad uncorking this wine so early, the boldness of it was perfect to let sit for many years. This was an amazingly complex wine. I was so impressed and taken aback by every sip. It covered so many notes yet had no harshness.
Overall, I truly had a great time at this winery. I loved the wines and cannot wait to uncork my cabernet franc. I am eager to return and discover more. They have won many awards for their reds and I can see why; the wine they specialize in is directly up my alley. I would absolutely recommend this winery to anyone who can go, especially those who like bolder reds.
