Winery Visit-Chateau Morrisette

Last weekend I was able to go on my final winery visit to Chateau Morrisette, which I was excited about since it had pretty high reviews. It was a gorgeous day and the Blue Ridge Parkway was absolutely beautiful.

Open in the 70s, it has that classic outdoor, dog friendly and a relaxing appeal. Loved how everything was buy a bottle, come sit out and enjoy the view!

We tried 10 wines while at the winery:

My wino buddy! 

Chardonnay Reserve-2013 the notes provided "Lemon, fruity, toasted almond and cononut with a crisp buttery finish." I definitley smelled a lot of oak, a little nuts and butter. It was very zesty but classic chardonnay smell. There was a slight grapefruit taste on the mid palate, overall not impressive due to its extreme oakness.

2012 Vidal Blanc- Their notes: Citrus and apple with pear, melon and pine
apple." It was similar to a Pinot Grigio, definitely could smell the coconuts and pineapple. It was very fruity and sweet. It was smooth with surprisingly no oak and a slight hint of melon. It was extremely light.

2014 Vin Gris- Their notes "Strawberries, gigner, raspberries and white peach." It was compared to a dry Rose. Kind of an old fruit smell to it, definitely ginger and spicy. However it was kind of waterdown almost and then hints of peach. Nothing really going on and not complex.

2011 Pinot Noir- Their notes "Berries, strawberry, tannins, smoke." The pourer mentioned that it was not a good year for the grape due to a lot of rain and it was noticeable. It was very water down and lighter in color. There was hints of wood and vanilla, overpowered by the oak and then very fruity. It was bland to the taste, very tannic slight strawberry but way too bitter.

2012 Archival 1- "Rose petals, mocha, black cherry, curarnt, espresso." It was majority Merlot at 42%, it was very fruity and smooth. Slight chocolate and sweet. There were hints of all the classic Merlot tastes such as Cherry, strawberry, raspberry. It was a very flowerly taste as well and like all of these wines I noticed more spice.

Giant Press 

The Black Dog- "Fruity, berries subtle spice." This one was described as a training wheels red. It had a very peppery and fruity smell. But it had a sweet pepper taste, which was odd in wine. And then classic cherry and blackberry on mid palate. The pepper overpowered it though.

Nouveau Chien- "Fruit, citrus, full and smooth." There was vanilla and spice and citrus. It was kind of Chardonnay and Moscato feel and taste. There was too much burn though to really get much out of it.

Farmhouse Sangria- "Fruity, sweet, cherry, orange and lime juice." It had a Merlot taste and you could just smell all the fruits in that. It was dryer than I'd expect for Sangria and very smooth. If I had bought it, I would have put the actual fruit it in because it needed more to it.

Red Muscadine- "Fruity, sweet, lightly-sparkling." This was was interestly it had a cherry and cotton candy smell to it. The taste was all dry grape soda though which was kind of not appealing ot me at all.

Sweet Mountain Apple- "Sweet, smooth apple." I've always decided you cannot go wrong with another fruit wine if you want something light and refreshing. It was 100% VA apple and it was just an alcoholic apple juice, not really heavey like some ciders are. Was just blend but okay would be great at breakfast.

All the wine bottles! 

The winery was beautitful, gorgeous overlooks. There were no chances for tours, so I just walked around a
nd it was cool just to see the faciliaties, how everything works and the winery. Though I was not super impressed by what I tasted it was still a great experience to see how a big winery operates!

Overlook to the Blue Ridge Mountains