Winery Releases Octagon 2006, Monticello Cup 2009

New Vintage Exposes Lively Rivalry

At last, the winery has released the Octagon vintage which so excited the elite tasting panel of The Washington Post in the 2-page article of last August 19th. And, again a release of a new vintage in the most honored wine in the Eastern United States has been met by the awarding of the Gold Medal of Chicago’s Beverage Testing Institute, and a numerical score in the “Exceptional” column. At present, the Tasting Room is offering Octagon 2006 alongside Octagon 2005, last year’s winner of the Institute’s World Wine Championship and its most highly rated wine. Not more than one point in BTI’s arithmetical ranking separates these two solid, distinguishable vintages.

This October, Palladio Restaurant’s annual Octagon feast will allow winemaker Luca Paschina to present these two vintages and two superlative predecessors, to frame a 10-year tapestry of this historic wine’s evolution in bottle, and in the vineyards it exemplifies. There is only one place on earth where this occasion could be shared. Reservations would be timely to make now, (540) 832-7848.

But if it’s harder for a grape to get into a bottle of Octagon than any other Virginia wine, it’s largely because not every deserving grape can find its place in a distinctly limited blend. Some must become Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve, and win as many Monticello Cups as Octagon has done. Some must become Cabernet Franc Reserve, and be so bold as to be the only wine to outrank Octagon at the Beverage Testing Institute’s competition this year. Smarting from last year’s 93-92 point “defeat” of its 2006 vintage by Octagon 2005, the 2007 Reserve in Cabernet Franc reversed that outcome this year, to be designated Virginia’s Best Red Wine. What makes it scandalously pleasant to confess to this intramural struggle, is that these rivals come from the same vines in the same vineyards, and from 3 consecutive vintages.

In the whites, tempers are cooler but not dulled. At this same 2010 wine competition, Beverage Testing Institute selected the Viognier Reserve 2008 for its Gold Medal, and the designation as Best Virginia White Wine. A style in Viognier praised last year by Michael Broadbent in Decanter for vividly recalling the finest Condrieu, while entirely avoiding oak as well as malolactic fermentation, the Viognier Reserve of this vintage is destined for some of the very happiest Summer dining of 2010, with the capacity to evolve in bottle at least through 2013.

Look to your left, look to your right. Is there a color of wine grape we’ve overlooked?