New releases at Vu Ja De Vineyards

Vu Ja De Vineyards released four new wines recently that are a further testament to the winemaking skills of vintner Bryan George. Operating from his tiny boutique winery located in the rolling hills of Roane County, WV, George masters the art of blending like few others in the region.

Two new Vu Ja De Vineyards proprietary blends

The first two of the new releases are wines for drinking now.

His 60% estate-grown blend—Remember Your Dreams II— is a standout. In this red beauty, George shows just how lovely his estate French-American hybrids can show when balanced with a portion of high quality vinifera juice.

This 2013 vintage Remember Your Dreams II is a complex blend of Frontenac, Norton, Marquette, Landot Noir, Cabernet, and Tempranillo. Barrel aged in Hungarian and American oak for 15 months, it is an easy drinking dry wine you can totally enjoy today with dinner.

His estate plantings of French-American hybrid grape varieties are really just coming of age, so they should continue to provide a solid base for many years to come.

When using primarily estate-grown fruit, many Appalachian region vineyards have had difficulty producing dry red wines that suit the taste of a public raised on California reds. Vu Ja De seems to have found the right technique in its blend that definitely would appeal to those who normally drink California Cabs and Merlots.

The second release—Family—is a perfect wine for socializing with family and friends. It is informal and easy-going. This 2012 vintage Tempranillo, Cabernet and Malbec blend is aged for over two years in a large oak barrel giving it softer edges while preserving nice fruit.

All the reds used in this blend were sourced from the Sierra Foothills region of California. George’s ability to source top-notch juice from other places is unsurpassed in his region.

Overall, Vu Ja De blends are unusually good, dry, food-friendly table wines, that owe their excellence to George’s keen fermentation, aging, and blending skills.

“I want to be different,” he says. “I’m coming up with blends that are not mainstream and what everyone else is doing. I’m following my palate. That’s always worked for us, being a small boutique winery.”

Syrah and Petite Syrah: two very limited releases

His second two releases are classified as single varietals rather than blends. These wines are special, very limited releases that will improve with age.

The first—Sexy Syrah—is a softer Syrah, still a young wine. With 95% Sirah and 5% Petit Syrah, George has created a solid example of the features that make New-World-style Syrah a popular red in today’s wine market. It is medium bodied with a fruit forward style emphasizing not only dark fruits but also more complex earthy qualities.

The last—Beyond Pearls—George calls his “big bad boy.” This wine is really the star of the show, with 95% Petite Sirah and 5% Cabernet Sauvignon.

The winemaker describes Petite Sirah as almost like a tart blackberry cobbler. When young the wines are full of fruit acid and tannin. At maturity, they are rich, smooth, and silky.

“Petite Sirah is a small little grape so its very concentrated,” George says as he explains his thought process in making this wine. “It’s quite tart, so the Cabernet I added kind of helps take away a bit of that edge.

“I aged the wine in a brand new Hungarian oak, medium-plus toast barrel. A wine like this—one that’s very tart, very big, jammy, 15% alcohol— it can withstand that.”

In Beyond Pearls today, you’ll taste smoke, graphite, leather, earthy flavors. Because it’s young it still has a very big dark fruit nose. Properly cellared, this wine should last 20 years or more.

“We use a lot of Hungarian oak, which I really like. It’s kind of between American and French oak.”

Having previously worked in the wine industry in California, he smartly maintains his contacts and it pays off in the high quality of the juice he sources from select vineyards there. While George strongly believes that the quality of the fruit is by far the most important thing, good fruit alone does not a great bottle of wine make. It also takes knowledge, experience, a superior palate, and an innate talent for winemaking. George seems to have all of these bases covered.

Though not required, he labels his wines with the exact proportions of the included grape varieties. George uses different barrels sizes, different oak varieties, and different barrel toasts to manage the aging of his wines.

At its estate vineyard, Vu Ja De primarily grows six French-American hybrid varieties: four reds (Noiret, Frontenac, Landot Noir and Marquette) and two whites (Traminette and Cayuga White).

He also has an experimental plot of popular California varietals growing. Always seeking improvement, George continually tries out new grape varieties.

“We’re getting ready to plant a new Cabernet–Norton cross called Crimson Cabernet,” George says. “It was developed at U.C. Davis. We’ll be the first ones around here to be planting that, and it’s supposed to be amazing.”

Vu Ja De Vineyards practices sustainable agricultural, using biodynamics, permaculture, and organic farming methods. All vines are dry-cropped; they do not irrigate.

Plan Your Visit

To visit their tasting room, you should call ahead to schedule a date and time. Once there you can expect the personalized attention of the proprietors as you tour the vineyards and winery. Samples are free and bottle prices range from the low $20s to high $40s.

The winery is located a couple miles off U.S. Route 33, about 6 miles outside Spencer, West Virginia. It is approximately a 25 minute drive from I-77 at Ripley, WV through the peaceful wooded hillsides of Jackson and Roane counties.

Link: Vu Ja De website

Contact

706 Reedyville Road, Spencer, WV 25276
(304) 377-1404
Email: bryanorganic (at) gmail.com