Kisha's Wine Blog: Winery Visit - Beliveau Estate Winery

Beliveau Estate Winery Visit

My obsession with Beliveau Estate grew every moment I spent there. I'm not even kidding - I spent the entire time walking around planning my wedding! It's a very small winery tucked in the hills about 25 minutes outside of Blacksburg that just opened in May 2012. They grow a few different grape varieties and have the rest imported from various places around the country. I went with my boyfriend, Ryan, who is hands down the funniest person to watch swirl a wine glass.

A panoramic view of the winery from our lunch seats

The winery does not do tours, but I asked a few questions about their wine making and walked around the building to see the facility.

Behind the tasting room is where they grow their grapes. The winery grows a few different grapes, but the two mentioned were Vidal Blanc and Traminette. The Traminette is a French-American and German hybrid that is used in their Reflection wine. They are having a planting ceremony this Sunday, so I would imagine they are branching out and planting more vines.

The hillside behind the winery where the grapes are grown

After the grapes are grown/imported, they are processed in the small building. The rest of the wine-making facilities were off-limits to customers, but they are fermented in stainless steel and some of the wines are aged in oak.

The wines at Beliveau were delicious. They were all very dimensional and described perfectly by the lady who ran the tasting.

The tasting room

The first wine we tasted was the Destiny 2012, a dry Vidal Blanc. It was a white wine that was described as being "full-mouthed". It had peach and apricot aromas, but on the palate it hit every part of your tongue (what I took to mean "full-mouthed") and had a long finish. It had a very light spicy flavor that brought some depth to the wine, and balanced well with a slight hint of lemon and apricots. The wine was very complicated, and I could have spent much more time thinking about all of the flavors I tasted on my palate. I almost wish we had started with a more simple wine so that I could have warmed up my palate before tasting it. This wine was on reserve and is not usually open for tasting most day, but I appreciated that they let us taste it!

Destiny 2012

The second white wine we tasted was the Reflection 2011. It was a dry Taminette with lychee and tropical fruit aromas. On the palate it was very citrusy with hints of lemon and tangerines with acids on the finish. The acidic flavors were well-balanced with a very slight sweetness.

Reflection 2011

The third white wine was Lovers Quest, a semi-sweet wine made of Vidal Blanc grapes. It had apricot and honeysuckle aromas that overall smelled very sweet. However, on the palate it was much more complicated. The sweetness was off-set by a very slight tang that I could not quite place the flavor of. It had a long finish and was slightly dry. Overall I found it to be very well-balanced.

The tasting lady did not recommend rinsing glasses with water between whites and reds, or between any wine for that matter. She said you should rinse your glass with the next wine, but did not give us the opportunity to do so.

The first red wine was Silhouette 2012, a Cabernet Sauvignon. On the nose it had dark berries and cherries with a hint of chocolate. Overall very sweet aromas. I was surprised when I tasted it and was immediately hint by spicy pepper. The peppers were a little overwhelming on the palate, but they blended nicely with the hint of chocolate and plums. (I missed a picture of the label of this wine.)

A picture of me during the tasting

The second red wine we tasted was the Sunset Sipper. It had slight peppery aromas that were hinted by plum. On the palate it was dry, with a tannic finish. I picked up on plums and sweetness, but there were undertones of spices. The wine had a very cool aromatic pourer that I almost bought, but chickened out at the last second reminding myself I rarely drink a whole bottle of red wine myself.

Sunset Sipper

The aromatic pourer on the wine

The third red wine was Sweet Surrender, a Concord grape wine. It smelled exactly like grape juice, and tasted very similar. Surprisingly it was 16% alcohol, but I still found it to be extremely sweet. The grape juice taste was complimented by hints of baking spices that reminded me of jam.

Sweet Surrender

The final red wine I tasted was Serenity, a sweet dessert wine made of Chambourcin grapes. It had dark berry, cherry, and plum aromas that seemed to match it dark purple coloring. On the palate I picked up on cherries and baking spices. They gave us a piece of dark chocolate to try with it, which made the wine much more tannic and picked up and complimented nicely on the cherry flavors.

Serenity

After we were done with the tastings, we decided to grab some food and sit up by the gazebo and eat. They had a very limited menu, so we ordered the only TWO things they offered: a bacon, spinach, tomato panini and a cheese platter. We spent the rest of the time taking pictures and roaming around the estate.