And the winner is…
Muse Vineyards 2009 Clio (a blend of 25% Cab Sauv, 25% Cab Franc, 25% Merlot, and 25% Petit Verdot).
The 2015 Virginia Governor’s Cup trophy was presented to Robert Muse and Sandy Cowal, owners of Muse Vineyards, by Governor McAuliffe, First Lady Dorothy McAuliffe, and Secretary of Agriculture & Forestry Todd Haymore this evening during the Governor’s Cup Gala in Richmond.
Secretary Haymore, First Lady Dorothy McAuliffe, Governor McAuliffe, Sally Cowal, Robert Muse (photo credit: Virginia Wine Board Marketing Office)
Purchased in 2003 by Robert Muse and Sally Cowal, Muse Vineyards is situated alongside the North Fork of the Shenandoah River in Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley. Muse Vineyards includes nearly 30 acres under vine, planted to 17 different grape varieties.
The 2015 competition marks the 33rd Vrginia Governor’s Cup competition and the fourth year of the revamped format under the leadership of head judge Jay Youmans, MW (see interview with Youmans about the new Governor’s Cup competition format, here).
There were 390 different wines entered from 94 Virginia wineries this year, down from 410 wines from 96 wineries last year. Thirty gold medals were awarded in this year’s competition, up from 20 last year (and 20 golds in 2013, and 13 in 2012).
Consistent with prior year results, red blends and big red varietal wines like Tannat and Petite Verdot dominated the Governor’s Cup gold medal category this year.
Of the thirty gold medal wines this year, 24 (80%) of them were red wines, including 13 red blends, five varietal Petit Verdot wines, and three Tannats. In terms of the gold medal-to-wines entered ratio, Tannat was the clear gold medal winner — three of the eight Tannats entered received gold medals (I suspect next year will see many more varietal Tannat wines entered).
The state’s official signature grape, Viognier, failed to place in the gold category this year. Another white grape, Petit Manseng, did show well with three gold medals (two varietal and one blend). As evidenced from the result of the competition, this small, thick-skinned grape most commonly associated with the Jurançon region of southwestern France is quickly becoming one of the state’s most promising white grape varieties.
White wines overall — especially lighter, subtle, elegant whites — are notably underrepresented again this year in the gold medal category. About 40% of the wines entered in this year’s competition were white wines yet just 20% of the gold medal wines were for white wines. Roughly the same is true of prior year results as well.
Even lighter red wines like Cabernet Franc were overshadowed this year. Of the 46 varietal Cab Francs entered just one earned a gold.
Why?
“Outspoken and bold seem to be more important than subtle or pretty,” said Doug Fabbioli, owner and winemaker at Fabbioli Cellars in Loudoun County. “I hope it will not always be this way, but I see this in the tasting room as well to some degree.”
Are Virginia red wines — specifically the big red varietal wines like Tannat and Petit Verdot and bordeaux-style blends — really that much better than Virginia white wines?
Or, are the gold medal results a reflection of the judges preferences for bigger red wines? Or, perhaps big reds dominate because the 2009 and 2010 vintages are showing beautifully right now.
“From the number of bigger wines like Tannat and Petit Verdot and the blends from 2010 [a hot year in Virginia] that won gold medals this year it seems the bigger the wines the better they score,” said noted Virginia and Burgundy winemaker and consultant, Michael Shaps, who scored three gold medals in this year’s competition, including two wines in the coveted Governor’s Case. “It’s easy for the lighter, elegant wines to get overlooked in the competition.”
The reason big red wines continue to dominate the Governor’s Cup gold medal category and Governor’s Case is a hybrid of many factors including preferences, wines entered, vintage considerations, and a little bit of that lady luck.
Regardless, a number of the winemakers I spoke to about the results of the competition expressed some concern about the perception that lighter, subtle (more elegant?) wines seem to be relegated to the silver and bronze medal category.
Could the perception that big wines win Virginia Governor’s Cup golds (there is some truth to this way beyond Virginia of course) be the reason that only 94 of the state’s roughly 255 wineries entered the Governor’s Cup competition this year?
Recognizable wineries like Linden, RdV, Glen Manor (2012 Governor’s Cup winner), Tarara, Blenheim, and Ankida Ridge have not entered the competition in a couple of years.
Is this big-red-gold-medal-perception part of the reason? (or, just a figment of the author’s imagination?)
“Because our production is so small, we cannot enter the competition due to the requirement that a minimum of 50 cases be available at the time of the competition,” explained Christine Vrooman, owner of Ankida Ridge Vineyards in Amherst, about an hour southwest of Charlottesville. “We typically sell out of our Pinot Noir and Chardonnay before the next vintage is released, so, truthfully, the exposure of the Governor’s Cup would sell out our wines even faster.”
Other winemakers like Tarara Winery’s Jordan Harris hold a different view of the competition.
“Other Virginia wines are not my competition nor do I think any quality Virginia winery needs to view other wineries in the state as competition,” said Harris of his decision not to enter since the 2012 competition (his Viognier-dominant white blend, scored a spot in the Governor’s Case that year). “The Governor’s Cup pits Virginia against Virginia but says nothing to the world about how we stack up on a national or international scale.”
Regardless of perceptions, reasons, or whether big, bold reds continue to dominate the gold medal category and Governor’s Case, the Virginia Governor’s Cup matters!
Since most major wine critics and publications do not regularly review more than the same handful of Virginian wines (Wine Enthusiast Magazine being the notable exception), inclusion in the Governor’s Case (the top 12 scoring wines of the competition) does provide wineries the opportunity for more media exposure beyond Virginia.
“Having our Meritage recognized as one of the top wines in Virginia and included in the Governor’s Case for the fourth year in a row is a great honor for King Family Vineyards and for me as a winemaker,” said winemaker Matthieu Finot. “Before helping promote King Family Vineyards or any one winery, the [Virginia] Governor’s Case helps raise awareness of the entire industry and gets people outside of the state talking about Virginia wine.”
The awareness impact can be even more important to the smaller, lesser-known wineries.
“Being recognized at the Governor’s Cup Competition is quite an honor,” said Sudha Patil, owner and winemaker at Narmada Winery, who earned her first two Governor’s Cup gold medals this year. “This is a giant step for us, and will hopefully get the word out that Narmada produces wines that can stand with the best in the Commonwealth.”
Virginia wine needs the Governor’s Cup and the competition needs all (ok, not all, but more) of Virginia wine.
While I am not qualified to second guess Jay Youmans, Director of the Virginia Governor’s Cup, or the competition format, it’s clear that a slight format tweak is needed.
My my personal favorite of the Governor’s gold medal winners poured at the Governor’s Cup gala – Keswick Vineyards 2010 Cabernet Sauvignon
Winemaker Stephen Barnard and Kat Barnard
Congratulations to all 2015 Governor’s Cup medalists!
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Drink What YOU Like 
Congratulations to all of the medalists . . . and especially to the Governor’s Case! Great to see so many new faces in the case this year. I feel some field trips coming on! Bravo, all!!
Yum!! Makes my mouth water. Great informative post….thanks!
Great article! Wish I could have been there.
I also wonder why more wineries don’t enter the competition. I really love the idea of the Governor’s case and it’s sad to see that the likes of RDV, Linden and Tarara are not in the mix. I don’t perceive the competition as Jordon does, ie Virginia vs Virginia. I think of it as Virginia with Virginia, helping improve quality through a rigorous competition. Some of our finest not entering doesn’t help the industry overall, amd personally I find it a bit selfish. Aren’t we all in this together?
Anyway… congratulations to Muse, I’m willing to bet (without tasting it) that it’s a world class wine. Too bad it didn’t get a chance against many of our best in VA.
Neil
Horton Vineyards
Neil! Thanks for commenting. I too would like to see more wineries enter the competition (only 94 out of ~250). Since most of the winemakers that I would like to see enter have done a lot of work on behalf of the entire industry I can’t label them as selfish. I respect their decisions not to enter based on their personal/business/other reasons.
I think the competition needs to be tweaked a little to bring back some of the wineries that have not entered in a few years and to attract those that have never entered (largely because of the case requirement).
And that Muse Clio was exceptional… although I really liked their Roussane that Tim Rausse made. Wow good!
What would be a good case requirement? It’s only 50 cases available for sale at time of announcement right now. That’s 2 barrels/1 pallet of cases. Is that # too high? I don’t know.
Maybe we could have a best wine of VA competition with no case limit run alongside this current Gov’s cup.
It’s been the same struggle for the last 25 years that I’ve been paying attention. The current format is the best one so far.
Neil
Neil. I’m of the opinion that this 50 case (or is it 40?) availability requirement is pointless. I understand the intent of the requirement however, not one winemaker I spoke to could attribute anywhere near 50 cases of wine sales directly to their Gov.’s Cup gold, silver, bronze medal. I can still find some case winners from two years ago for sale. Perhaps there are some that have realized a direct sales boost of 50 cases of wine as a result of a Governor’s Cup medal (‘the’ Governor’s Cup winner notwithstanding) but none of the dozen I spoke to. How about ‘no’ case requirement other than the ten cases the winery agrees to sell for $200/case? I think the larger challenge is finding a fair way to ensure the lighter, subtle, elegant but equally as good wines (in particular white wines) are not overshadowed by the bigger, bolder, higher-alcohol wines. I just find it hard to believe that Virginia reds are this much better than Virginia whites. This is of course just my opinion (not that I’m entertaining the possibility of being wrong) 🙂 . Cheers!
I support some kind of a case requirement. From my seat, media don’t want to cover a wine that isn’t available. Also if the wine is already sold out when the award is given the public gets irate too. Our office purchases 10 cases, that only leaves 40 left. Should it be 20? or 30? Or something else, I’ll leave that to others to decide. But I do think it should be something. If every wine that makes the top award is not available to the public, it uncuts our message that Virginia wines are ready fora national stage.
Thanks for the write up. I wasn’t aware of how successful Tannat is in VA. My wife and I are planning to rediscover and taste as many whites in Northern VA as we can starting this spring.
Thanks for stopping by to comment. Based on the number of high scoring Tannats this year, perhaps this is the tipping point of (informally) recognizing Tannat as Virginia’s red variety. Tasted a couple of fantastic Tannats last night at the event. Cheers!
Great article! And I loved the Muse Vineyards Clio. It was great to see both some newcomers and some familar faces among the Governor’s Cup Case and the gold medalists. I was also surprised at the geographic diversity of Governor’s Cup Case. I look forward to promoting them.
Thank you, Annette! Was a great evening and I second your comment on the geographic diversity — perhaps a function of winemakers learning more about what varieties work in their particular site and also vineyards maturing. Cheers!
Neil – given the grape shortage and you having a large vineyard you should go back to selling some fruit to some of these selfish wineries that also don’t have enough wine to enter. We are all in it together right as you said.
Jordan,
Selfish was the wrong word. Frank is right, wineries give to the industry in many different ways. I guess I was surprised by the very few wineries that entered and got a little irrate.
On a side note.. we sold 1/3 of our 2014 crop to VA wineries, either through fruit sales or bulk wine. We are leaning more towards bulk lately. We’re also doing a lot of re-planting and new planting, so a little less fruit the last few harvests.
Neil
P.S. never post at night 😉
Very good article, Frank. I was impressed by Muse Clio (and by the Roussanne white) that this new winery poured at the GC tasting. I liked the Clio’s cab centric flavors. If I remember correctly, it was also the highest alcohol meritage in gov’s case. So this supports your article. I was also a fan of the Cross Keys Touriga, which struck me as lighter, but sophisticated, meaty and blackberry notes, very balanced. Otherwise, from wines poured, hard not to put Keswick Cab Reserve and Barboursville Octagon among very top bottles.
Frank – I’ll chime in on the minimum case requirement. Sure, there is a small — very small — bump in sales after a little publicity, We experienced that when our 2013 Viognier was named “best in show” at the Virginia State Fair Wine Competition and had a feature write-up in the Richmond Times-Dispatch. Maybe a couple of cases went out the door from online orders, but that’s it. Fifty cases on reserve for sales so the consumer isn’t disappointed? Someone is dreaming. And because of the case requirement, we couldn’t enter because we’re down to our last 19 cases of it (as of this writing).
Our winemaker has suggested planting Tannat and Petit Manseng, especially because our site in Southern Virginia is on the hot side, and I wonder if at the moment it is a “winemaker’s grape” — I’m not imagining the public just yet seeking it out or asking for it, which makes it a marketing problem.
I have on my desk the entry application for the Finger Lakes International Wine Competition, and neither Tannat nor Petit Manseng are listed as Varietal categories, so they would both fall into “Other Vinifera” — Lord knows what they would be judged against (but the rather obscure Rkatsiteli (which is grown in modest amounts here) has a class listing). It seems to me that if a varietal isn’t well known, you’ll have a hell of a time selling it outside of the tasting room, where you will find yourself selling it one bottle at a time. If its a wine in distribution and on a restaurant list, perhaps a sommelier would take a liking to it and promote it, since they seem to like to promote the obscure as something special.
Hey — what happened to people pushing for Cabernet Franc as “Virginia’s grape”/
Sold 2000 cases of Cab Franc last year. Still fully behind it. Not a great competition grape, unless it’s one of those special vintages.
Stephen – totally agree about Tannat and Petit Manseng personally (and as a winemaker). They are easy to grow if winter doesn’t kill them and they are great to have in the cellar for blending in my opinion. The are full, loaded with acid, dark (Tannat) and aromatic. What they are not is elegant or approachable in their youth. They are also not well recognized as quality grapes by most of the wine world. They will however stick out for their intensity and often high alcohol making them great competition wines in places they have a category. In Finger Lakes no one grows them and they won’t ripen. I know that is an international competition but it is meant for the Finger Lakes and Rkats is a category because Dr. Frank makes it.
As for the case volume I also agree. Maybe make a minimum production but having to have a volume at the time of the award is something I’ll never sign on for. What if a distributer decides they want 100 cases between the submission and the award result: which would drop my volume below 50? Am I supposed to say no? I also agree the 50 cases is an unnecessary excersize. To be though of as relevant in the greater wine world it would be several hundred or several thousand cases which isn’t an option here. I have had many 50 case sales so having that volume does not make it accessible to the public.
Very much agree with your whole comment.
Stephen! Thanks for sharing your experiences here.
While I agree in theory with ensuring availability of wines that enter (and may win) I think 50 cases is silly. Aside from the ten cases that the Va Wine Board Marketing Office purchases for marketing (which is a great and very important component of the Governor’s Cup format!), I do not believe there should be any other case availability/set aside requirements.
Great point about wondering if Tannat and Petit Manseng are ‘winemakers grapes’ (of the moment). We should start a pool on how many varietal Tannts will be entered in the ‘Cup next year (this year three of eight entered won a gold – pretty good stats).
The following may come back and bite me at some point but I have to say — from my wine loving consumer point of view — that I believe Tannat is overrated. It’s ok at a tasting or if someone brings a bottle to dinner but I can never ever imagine an instance when I would order (or ‘want’) a Tannat. Petit Manseng on the other hand — love it! 🙂
Oh, how I do enjoy Virginia Cab Franc but, alas, maybe too light for Gov Cup gold.
See you Monday.
Cheers!
I know of at least one winery that only tasted and sold their Governor’s Cup gold medal winning wine to their club members. Is that what we should considered “available?”
Very exciting wines being crafted in Virginia! Thank you for great information!
Good balanced coverage of the GC. Its great to see a newer name win.
All competitions have positives and room for improvement. I don’t know what the right number of cases to set aside is but this does need to still be a requirement of the competition. Wine needs to be available since one of the points of the GC is exposure to Va wines. You pretty much make this point near the end of this post.
And really how many wineries do not enter just because of the 50 case requirement? I bet not as many as you would think. But you are right some tweaking needs to happen. Congrats to Muse!
Just realized I missed the most important part in my comments. Congratulations to the medal winners!!! There are some great wines being made here. Sorry for being rude and not making that my first point.
definitely a great article
Frank, a very good article indeed. That being said, I hope you won’t mind a couple of random (and highly personal) observations that have arisen in conjunction with other discussions I’ve had.
Red wines (and sweet dessert white wines) tend to dominate such competitions because, after tasting a number of wines, “big and bold” stands out more easily than “subtle and elegant.” The same is true for “lush and sweet,” especially *after* one tastes a number of big, tannic reds . . . This is one reason why some competitions taste (e.g.) late-harvest Rieslings in the morning, rather than late afternoon.
In other words, Michael Shaps was quite correct when he said, “It’s easy for the lighter, elegant wines to get overlooked in the competition.”
I also belive Jordan Harris was quite correct when you quoted him as saying, “Other Virginia wines are not my competition nor do I think any quality Virginia winery needs to view other wineries in the state as competition . . . The Governor’s Cup pits Virginia against Virginia but says nothing to the world about how we stack up on a national or international scale.”
BUT this is a double-edged sword and depends upon the specifics of the conversation at hand. For example, in a retail setting, not only is every Virginia winery in competition with every other winery in Virginia, but they are in competition with every other winery in the world — in terms of shelf-space, in terms of vying for the consumer’s attention (and dollar).
While I applaud the idea of the Governor’s Cup being limited to 100 percent Virginia-produced wines, a wine-judging competition that pits Virginia wines against one another will only result in knowing which Virginia wine — on that specific day, with those specific judges — was the favorite. The bottom line is some good local press, and (again, local) bragging rights. In a region still struggling for a national (and international) identity, this may not say much to the world at large.
On that level, a far more important result, I think, comes from the San Francisco International Wine Competition where, in 2014 for example, Cross Keys took a Double Gold for their 2012 Petit Verdot and another Double Gold was awarded to Jefferson Vineyards for their 2013 Viognier, etc., etc. I don’t have handy the total number of medals awarded, but I know that in 2013 the SFIWC awarded 43 medals to wines from Virginia. That says far more to me . . .