| 3 Winery Standouts Lead Annual Wine Honors, Out of 350 Entries
Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve 1998, Virginia Governor’s Cup 2007
With the Governor’s Cup for 2007, this region’s most honored wine crowns an incomparable career as the Secretariat of Virginia viticulture, saturated in Gold. In infancy, not even two months in bottle in 2000, this wine was cited by the Beverage Testing Institute as its highest-rated red wine of any varietal from any State in the 1998 vintage, and quickly won international and regional Gold Medal after Gold Medal -- often twice in consecutive years against entirely new competitors. Thousands of fine wines have fallen to this one.
Its signature finesse and vitality had never left a doubt, from the validation it won for this growing region from The New York Times in 2000, to its citation as an Example of American Greatness, that the Virginia Governor’s Cup was simply bred into its destiny. This wine well earned the right, over the years, to recognition as Puccini’s Prince to the aloof Princess in Turandot confident that a secret locked in itself - il mio misterio è chiuso in me - would win her embrace at light of day. At 9 years off the vine, almost 8 in bottle, this creation remains in a class by itself, a historic turning point in our region, an inspiration, and a fundamental benchmark of our techniques and values in viticultural expession. Consult our Events Calendar for announcements of special dinners and tastings.
Nebbiolo Reserve 2004, Governor’s Cup Gold Medal 2007
To our Secretariat’s success was brought superlative proof of its example, by two wines bred by Italian tradition to be our Native Dancer. This vineyard’s regionally unrivalled success with Nebbiolo - the first vintage, winning the only Gold Medal bestowed for Nebbiolo at the San Francisco International in 2002 - had been resoundingly affirmed by the Critics Challenge International Gold in 2006, and the Tasters Guild International Gold in 2007, before this Governor’s Cup Gold Medal for Nebbiolo Reserve 2004. Its trajectory is only beginning.
Malvaxia Passito 2003, Governor’s Cup Gold Medal 2007
Shining perhaps brightest of all, is this back-to-back Governor’s Cup Gold Medal for Malvaxia Passito in the 2003 vintage this year, after the 2002 vintage last year. This brilliant adaptation of the classic Northern Italian vin santo style of winemaking joins our most consistently Gold Medaled varietals as an undeniable beacon for international acceptance of the Virginia appellation, drawing Louis Roederer Wine Critic of the Year and Decanter editor Andrew Jefford to cite it in Britain’s Financial Times as his decisive favorite in the famous Virginia Wine Experience in London this year. But Malvaxia Passito is as much about wine making as it is about winegrowing, and in this sphere, we look to our left, we look to our right, and find only one Luca Paschina. Fortunate is the man, Virgil had said, who knows the causes of things... that they may speak for themselves.
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