Vineyard VIEW - Bravo to Breaux at Governor’s Cup Competition

Vineyard VIEW - Bravo to Breaux at Governor’s Cup Competition

By Peter Leonard-Morgan

Loudoun County was well represented in the 2021 Virginia Governor’s Cup competition, with two of Breaux Vineyards’ excellent wines being included in the Governor’s Case, an honor bestowed on only a dozen top Virginia wines each year.

This year’s annual competition attracted more than 100 Virginia wineries to submit their best vintages to be critically reviewed by 16 respected judges.

During the course of the first 10-day round of the competition, 544 wines were tasted, with each being sampled by seven judges in what is referred to as a ‘blind tasting.” Each judge is told only the grape and category, but not the vintage, winery or name.

The judging methodology uses Wine Spectator magazine’s scale of 100-95, 94-90, 89-85, 84-80, 79-75 and 74 and below. Scores are then averaged into one score for each wine, with the lowest being discarded from the competition.

For the final round, 12 judges decide upon the highest ranked wines from round one, during a three-day event in which each judge tastes every wine which made it to this stage of the competition. As with round one, the scores of all the wines are averaged, with the lowest being dropped. A new average for each is then calculated to decide on the final 12 which will be included in the coveted Governor’s case.

The ultimate accolade, the Governor’s Cup, is then awarded to the highest overall scoring wine from the case. For 2021, this prestigious honor went to Barboursville Vineyards, located just 16 miles northeast of Charlottesville, with its 2015 Paxxito, a dessert wine made using the Italian Passito method.

With this process, grapes are air-dried for four months before crushing and pressing, followed by a further six months of slow and cold fermentation. Finally, the wine is barrel-aged to ensure a delightful sweetness and optimum acidity.

The two case winners from Loudoun County’s Breaux Vineyards were its 2016 Meritage and 2016 Nebbiolo.

The Breaux Meritage is a Bordeaux style blend of Merlot, Cabernet Franc, Petit Verdot, Cabernet Sauvignon and a soupçon of Malbec, aged in French and American oak barrels for 14 months.

The word Meritage is a contraction of merit and heritage, created in 1988 from a competition to describe an American blend of a minimum of two of the French noble grapes.

The Nebbiolo grape hails from the northwestern Piemonte region of Italy, and is aged for 17 months, also in French and American oak. Nebbiolo generally produces a nice light-colored red wine with cherry, raspberry and tobacco aromas.

A first for the Virginia Governor’s Cup in 2021 was best in show cider. Lost Boy Cider, based in Alexandria, came away with the inaugural winning submission with its 2020 Comeback Kid, a sugar free dry cider with a tangy flavor, and a wonderful option for anyone requiring a gluten free diet.

Lost Boy was founded in 2019 by Tristan Wright, and creates its ciders using selected apples from the Shenandoah Valley. Congratulations to Lost Boy and Comeback Kid, and we look forward to an exciting future in this new category.

All in all, Northern Virginia was well represented at the Governor’s Cup, so keep up the good work.