Surprise! For the first time on this blog, I am ranking a trio of winemakers – not a winery per se – but three amazing individuals alongside the established vineyards in my “top 4 wineries” rundown. I’m doing this because these craftsmen don’t necessarily have dedicated tasting rooms, so you can’t just stop by for a flight… But if you find their wine in your local store you can bet on a great experience.
Jake Bushing:
Jake captured my attention during a recent trip to Early Mountain Vineyards. I saw an interesting-looking bottle which didn’t quite fit in with the others, and asked my server about it. The wine was called F8. It is a Tannat Petit Verdot blend and it was hands down the best wine I’ve had in Virginia. It stopped me dead in my tracks on the first sip, and I was forced to close my wine notebook for a moment and just enjoy the wine. It was so impressive I immediately fell in love and found Jake Bushing’s website (he ships!) – though I ended up buying a bottle from that tasting room (with a significant markup!) because I simply couldn’t wait for shipment.
As if that wasn’t enough evidence of Jake’s winemaking talent, I had follow-up surprising experience tasting at a different winery which solidified my opinion – I was tasting three different tannat-based wines, ranking the two older ones as sublime examples of the varietal. I was again completely enamored with their taste profile. When I found out the winemaker was Jake, I was absolutely shocked!
He is now the winemaker at Hark Vineyards where his personal wines are for sale: https://harkvineyards.com/index.php/our-wines/. I haven’t had the privilege of tasting Hark’s lineup since it is relatively new, but I ordered some of their wines and they were delicious as expected.
Jake: you have my attention and deep appreciation! I can’t wait to see what you will do in the future and I hope to visit Hark Vineyards soon.
Thibaut-Janisson:
This amazing duo make some amazing Virgina sparkling. These two craftsmen share a wealth of knowledge, a lifetime of experience, and have perfected their trade.
I didn’t know much about these guys during my last trip to the Monticello AVA, and kept seeing their wine for sale at different tasting rooms, shops, and stores. I finally took a shot on their Blanc de Chardonnay, and WOW! Ladies and gentlemen, when you get two traditional-method experts working together towards the finest sparkling wine they can possibly produce (there are six methods to make a sparkling wine and the traditional/champaign is considered to be the highest quality), you pull the trigger.
They make four different sparkling wines which you can read about here: http://www.tjwinery.com/wine.html. I have tried their Blanc de Chardonnay and Virginia Extra Brut, and both punched well above their price point. I personally prefer the Blanc de Chardonnay, but both are very high quality. With regards to price – I had a hard time finding a steady price point. The same bottle can be found anywhere between $12-$45 in the local stores, but honestly I would gladly pay at the top of that range for their product. I found the lowest priced examples on clearance at Taste (fine sandwiches and snacks!) in Norfolk, VA, where I was informed it simply wasn’t selling well. My only guess here was that the rather bulbous shape of the bottle may turn off the naive wine shopper… so of course I purchased everything they had in stock, and walked out with one of my best wine deals to date!
Their website is here http://www.tjwinery.com/ and fortunately they just revamped their website and now ship their wines outside of Virgina via Timeless wines. They also now list the prices of their wines.
I am so impressed with these three winemakers and the fabulous wines they make! Collectively they share the #2 spot on this list. I’ll be watching them for years to come, and I hope you get a chance to taste some of their art-in-a-bottle as well.