2019 Virginia Governor’s Cup Case Seminar

Last week we traveled to southwestern Virginia to attend the 2019 Governor’s Cup Wine seminar. The featured event included the top 12 winning wines chosen from some of the larger Virginia wine producers. 

Our travel plans included visiting four boutique wineries in the region. This included Whitebarrel Winery which was also the location of the satellite wine seminar. We also visited Spinning Jenny Vineyard which recently opened in the spring of 2019. Next we stopped at The New River Vineyard and Winery, another small winery that offers a large deck for enjoying a glass of wine. On Monday we enjoyed a personalized wine tasting at JBR Vineyards. The last winery to visit was Whitebarrel Winery where we arrived early to interview the owners before the seminar was to start. Next month we will post online articles about each of these boutique Virginia wineries.

The Virginia Governor’s Cup Competition

The process includes 18 judges. The event takes place for 10 days. Seven judges taste each wine. While judging the wines, the judges knew the grape or wine category. However, they did not have knowledge of the winery producing the wine or the vintage of the wine. 

According to the Virginian Wines website regarding the final round, “Over the course of 3 days, 12 judges assess the highest ranking wines from the preliminary round. Unlike the preliminary round, each judge samples all of the Final Round wines.

Each wine in the Final Round receives a final average score after lowest is dropped. The 12 wines with the highest average score are identified as the “Governor’s Cup Case.”

The wine with the highest overall score is the Governor’s Cup Winner.”

Rating Scale

The scale for the wine judging:

Gold – Outstanding/Classic 90 -100 points
Silver – Very Good 85 – 89 points
Bronze – Good 80 – 84 points

Statistics

For the 2019 Competition there were 510 entries with 133 entries making it to the final round. Gold medals were awarded to 68 entries; silver medals to 327 entries; bronze medals to 108 entries.

It is interesting to note that Gold medals were awarded to different Virginia wine regions as follows.

Blue Ridge: 1 Gold
Central Va: 40 Gold
Eastern Va: 4 Gold
Northern Va: 19 Gold
Shenandoah Valley: 3 Gold
Southern Va: 1 Gold

It is interesting to contemplate the reasons that might apply to the disparity between the regions. Is it due to the number of wineries in the region, the size of the wineries, the terroir of the regions or the age of the vineyards???

The twelve wines tasted in order of the tasting.

The 12 best Virginia wines in the competition were chosen as the 2019 Virginia Governor’s cup Case Winners. Below is the list of the Case winners and our wine notes about each one we tasted during the seminar.

• Barboursville 2017 Vermentino Reserve
  Light yellow color
  Aroma of citrus and flowers
  Smooth mouthfeel with notes of citrus, honeysuckle
  Medium/full bodied
  Finish was crisp with some mineral on the after taste
  Price: $22.99
• 2016 Hamlet Vineyards Eltham
  Blend of Merlot and Petit Verdot
  Color:  Translucent ruby with a very light ruby rim
  Aroma: Black fruits
  Taste: Black berries, black cherries and leather
  Medium-full body, medium tannins
  Finish: Fruity with a bit of oak
  Price: $26
• 2014 Upper Shirley Zachariah
  Color: Opaque dark ruby with a ruby rim
  Aroma: Black fruits
  Taste: Blackberries, blueberries, some leather and licorice
  Full-bodied, bold tannins
  Finish: Fruity with minimum oak
  Price: $50
• Glen Manor Vineyards 2015 Cabernet Franc
  Color: Opaque dark ruby with sienna hue
  Aroma Black fruits
  Taste: Blackberries. Leather
  Mouthfeel: silky
  Full bodied, Medium/bold tannins
  Finish: fruity with slight oak
  Price: $35
• Early Mountain Vineyards 2016 Eluvium
  Blend of Merlot and Petit Verdot
  Color: Translucent dark ruby color with a dark pink hue
  Aroma: Black fruits
  Taste: Blackberries, black plums, black cherries, leather
  Full bodied, Bold tannins
  Finish: fruity with a hint of oak
  Price: $38
• Paradise Springs Winery 2015 Meritage
  Blend of Petit Verdot, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Cabernet Franc
  Color: Translucent ruby
  Aroma: Black fruits
  Taste: Black berry, blueberry, black cherry, leather
  Mouthfeel: Velvety
  Full bodied, bold to medium tannins
  Finish: fruity
  Price: $49
• King Family Vineyards 2016 Meritage
  Blend of Merlot, Petit Verdot, Cabernet Franc and Malbec
  Color: Translucent dark ruby with a pink rim
  Aroma: Light aroma of black fruits
  Taste: Leather, blackberries, perceived sweetness, plum, black cherry
  Full bodied, bold tannins
  Finish Fruit forward with mild oak influence
  Price: $39.95
• Michael Shaps 2015 Tannat
  Color: Opaque dark purple to black color with a ruby rim
  Aroma: Black fruits
  Taste: Black berries, black cherries, leather, blueberries
  Full bodied, very bold tannins
  Mouthfeel: Silky
  Finish: Fruit forward
• King Family Vineyards 2016 Mountain Plains
  Blend of Merlot, Cabernet Franc, Petit Verdot
  Color: Translucent dark ruby
  Aroma: Black fruits
  Taste: Jammy blackberries, blueberries, black cherries, perceived sweetness
  Full bodied, medium to bold tannins
  Mouthfeel: Silky
  Finish: Fruit forward with minimum oak
  Price: $69.95
• 2016 Michael Shaps Petit Manseng
  Color: Dark yellow
  Aroma: tropical fruits and some oak
  Taste: Pineapple, mango, some citrus
  Full bodied
  Mouthfeel: Velvety
  Finish: fruity
  Price: $32
• Horton Vineyards 2016 Petit Manseng      Winner of the Governor’s Cup 2019
  Blend: Petit Manseng, Early Pick Viognier, Rkatsiteli
  Color:  Yellow
  Aroma: Tropical fruits and flowers
  Taste: Pineapple, melon, citrus, mineral
  Full bodied
  Mouthfeel: Silky
  Finish: Fruity with different layers at different times. Fruit yields to mineral on the long aftertaste
  Price: $25
• 2016 Michael Shaps 2016 Raisin d’Etre White
  Blend of Petit Manseng and Roussanne
  Color: Gold
  Aroma: Sweet jammy fruits
  Taste: Sugar, pineapple, jammy apricot jam
  Mouthfeel: Very velvety
  Finish Very fruity, jammy – Delicious
  Price: $25

According to one winemaker and winery owner we met, one of the qualifications for entry into the 2019 Virginia Governor’s Cup Wine Competition was to have 50 cases of the wine with 10 cases submitted to the competition and another 40 cases available for sale. For many boutique wineries that make delicious but small quantities of wine this requirement automatically excludes them from entering wines. Should the Virginia wine industry also offer a wine competition for small wine producing wineries? Maybe so.

Cheers!
Kathy and Terry