On Saturday we met some friends at Cana Vineyards and Winery to taste some wine and enjoy the afternoon.
We selected to do the bar tasting outside in the Sunset Pavilion. We tasted through the current line up of wines and highlighted our favorites. The consensus was the 2021 Chardonnay was our favorite white wine. We were split between the 2019 Le Mariage and the 2020 Unité Reserve as our favorite red wines. Both were very good. Our friend Michael really enjoyed the slight sweetness of the 2022 Petit Manseng. He also enjoyed a taste of the 2022 Rhapsody in White. We had a chance to chat with Don, the tasting room manager. He let us know what was new at Cana and suggested we try a few more wines. He provided us a taste of the 2022 Albariño and the 2021 Norton. We all agreed the 2022 Albariño was our favorite of the extra pours.
After our bar tasting, we selected some food items to have for lunch and selected both the 2022 Rhapsody in White and the 2019 Le Mariage to enjoy with our lunch items. It was a fun afternoon of food, wine and friends. While finishing our lunch and wine Melanie Natoli, the winemaker came by and chatted with us about her wines and what she’s working on. It was nice to chat about Virginia wine with her. She is the first and only woman (so far) to wine the Virginia Governor’s Cup with the 2019 Unité Reserve.
Before leaving we bought some of our favorite wines and said our goodbyes. We had a wonderful afternoon at Cana and suggest you plan a trip to Cana soon! And when you do, tell them Virginia Wine Time sent you!
The wine paired nicely with the filets. We noted dark seed berries, cedar, spice, a whiff of dried herbs and a hint of sandalwood. We thought it was a wonderfully smooth and elegant wine. It’s always fun to pull an older bottle wine from the rack to see how it’s progressing in the bottle. We think the 2012 could last a few more years on the rack. If you have it, consider enjoying it now or holding on to it for another few years.
