The results are in from the 5th Atlantic Seaboard Wine Competition, and Reston Limousine’s Public Wine Tour friends have collected their fair share of medals!

The competition, sponsored by the Atlantic Seaboard Wine Association, took place July 18th and 19th at the Regency Country Club at Dominion Valley in Haymarket. More than 100 wineries in 11 states entered their best products, and here are some of our northern Virginia winners:

Chrysalis Vineyards
Best Of: 2005 Reserve Norton Locksley
Gold: 2005 Reserve Norton Locksley
Silver: 2008 Albarino, 2008 Barrel Select Norton , 2005 Estate Bottled Norton, 2008 Viognier

Fabbioli Cellars
Best Of: 2007 Chambourcin
Silver: 2007 Cabernet Sauvignon, 2007 Chambourcin, 2007 Reserve Cabernet Franc
Bronze: 2007 Tre Sorelle

Hillsborough Vineyards
Silver: 2005 Bloodstone
Bronze: 2006 Garnet, 2005 Ruby

Pearmund Cellars
Best Of: 2007 Petit Verdot
Gold: 2007 Petit Verdot
Silver: 2007 Cabernet Franc
Bronze: 2007 Ameritage

Sunset Hills Vineyard
Best Of: 2007 Reserve Cabernet Franc, 2007 Cabernet Sauvignon
Gold: 2007 Reserve Cabernet Franc, 2007 Cabernet Sauvignon
Silver: 2007 Petit Verdot

Veramar Vineyard
Silver: 2007 Estate Club Merlot, 2007 Norton
Bronze: 2008 Seyval Blanc

Veritas Winery (on Reston Limousine’s Charlottesville Day Trip)
Gold: 2006 Kenmar Dessert Wine
Silver: 2006 Othello, 2007 Reserve Cabernet Franc, 2008 Reserve Sauvignon Blanc, 2008 White Star
Bronze: 2008 Harlequin Chardonnay, 2007 Petit Verdot, 2008 Viognier

Willowcroft Farm Winery
Silver: 2006 Cabernet Sauvignon

If you’d like a visit these award-winning wineries, visit www.restonlimo.com for a schedule of our upcoming Public Wine Tours !

Unique Winery Opens

Vint Hill Craft Winery, the latest project by Chris Pearmund of Pearmund Cellars and Winery at La Grange, recently celebrated the first weekend of its month-long Grand Opening with educational wine tastings and tours.

“This is all about you through a customized experience specifically tailored to your interests” Chris says. “Taste wine with us and we’ll show you how the professionals do it and what they look for. Choose to make wine with us and it will be crafted to your specifications, in your style with your name, a label of your design and of course, your story behind it.”

At Vint Hill Craft Winery, individuals or groups will work with expert winemakers from grape to bottle to create a barrel of their own of their choosing. After a year of “hands-on education,” the new winemakers will be rewarded with the juice of their labors – about 25 cases of wine.

Baltimore Wine Travel Examiner Terry Sullivan recently posted that he’ll be making a barrel of Cabernet Sauvignon; read his behind-the-scenes tour of the winery on his site, The Wine Trail Traveler.

Vote for your favorite Virginia winery!

It’s time for fans to head over to VirginiaWineEvents.com and cast your vote for your favorite local winery! The poll ends Aug. 17 and accepts only one vote per computer network, fyi!

At the 2009 State Fair of Virginia Wine Competition, for example, Chrysalis Vineyards, Pearmund Cellars, Sunset Hills Vineyard, and the Winery at La Grange took gold and silver ribbons in a blind tasting of 239 wines from 48 Virginia wineries.

Gold Ribbon
Pearmund Cellars – Ameritage 2007
Sunset Hills Vineyard – Reserve Cabernet Franc 2007
Sunset Hills Vineyard – Petit Verdot 2006
The Winery at La Grange – “Fletcher’s” Chardonnay 2007

Silver Ribbon
Chrysalis Vineyards – Mariposa 2008
Chrysalis Vineyards – Viognier 2008
Pearmund Cellars – Old Vine Chardonnay 2007

Other wineries on our Public Wine Tour also won in the label competition: Hillsborough Vineyards took 1st place for its Bloodstone label, and Notaviva Vineyards and Fabbioli Cellars took 1st and 2nd, respectively, in overall winery presentation. Sunset Hills Vineyard received an honorable mention in that category as well.

The competition, which took place in Montepelier, featured wine varietals of Chardonnay, Viognier, Cabernet, Merlot, Cabernet Franc, Merlot and Petit Verdot.

“We had the most wines entered this year than ever before, and it is nice to see the industry grow and really go forward even from just five years ago,” senior judge George Davis says. “National industry trends reflect lighter, less tannic wines and less use of oak. We saw more un-oaked wines this year and the submissions of un-oaked Chardonnay is a perfect example. Among the reds, the Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot wines had less oak exposure as well. They all were well-made wines.”

The State Fair of Virginia will announce the top winning wine – “Best in Show” – on Sept. 23. The winning wines will be displayed at the 2009 State Fair of Virginia, which returns September 24 through October 4 at The Meadow Event Park in Doswell, Virginia.

Ready for your own tastings of these and other award-winning  wines? Visit www.restonlimo.com for a schedule of the wineries on our upcoming Public Wine Tours !

The tour begins at Chrysalis Vineyards, where the dedication to Virginia’s native grape, the Norton, is evident in what is believed to be the largest planting of Norton grapes in the world. That dedication apparently has paid off, with recent accolades including two gold medals at the first National Norton Wine competition in St. Louis in August 2007.

The estate winery also has been recognized recently for its hospitality efforts, as Chrysalis won a Loudoun tourism event of the year award in 2008 for its Annual Hottest Cool Jazz Festival at Chrysalis Vineyards (this year’s takes place May 16-17).

You’ll begin your own Chrysalis experience outdoors, where you’ll be taken through different stations for an hour-long educational experience of your choice: a reserve tasting, includes 12 wines, including most of their reds, or an estate tasting, which includes seven wines.

Among the new wines on the Chrysalis portfolio are the 2008 Mariposa, a dry rosé, and the 2008 Chardonnay, which debuts the weekend of the tour.

Next on the tour is Swedenburg Estate Vineyard, located on Historic Valley View Farm, where the Swedenburg family continues a more than 240-year-old agricultural tradition by raising pure-bred Angus cattle and premium Vinifera grapes.

During the tasting at Swedenburg, guests will be educated on the uniqueness of the estate-grown wines and the variations of flavors across the varieties grown at Swedenburg. New this spring is the 2008 Chantilly, a dry, crisp wine perfect for enjoying on the patio or deck with friends.

And just in time for Mother’s Day, the winery is sponsoring a special artisan jewelry show on April 25th, the day of the tour!

Cost: $35 per person (does not include tasting fees or gratuity)
Lunch option: A catered box lunch from Atlanta Bread Co. is available for purchase for $15.
Tasting Fees:

Swedenburg: Six wines on the tasting menu for $5 per person
Chrysalis: $10 for reserve tastings, $5 for estate tastings

Schedule:

10 a.m. pickup West Falls Church Metro Kiss & Ride
10:30 a.m. pickup Dulles Town Center
10:45 a.m. pickup Lansdowne Resort
~ 11:15-11:30 a.m. Arrive at Loudoun Valley Vineyards
~ 1:30 p.m. Arrive at Veramar Vineyards
~ 3-3:15 p.m. Depart Veramar Vineyards

To book this tour or to request more information, please call Reston Limousine at 703-478-0500 Option 1.