On a recent sunny Sunday we went to Chateau O’Brien to do a reserve tasting with Howard O’Brien. We always enjoy spending time talking wine with Howard.

He showed us to his wine cellar and opened a couple bottles of wine. Since we have tasted many of his wines before we concentrated on two this time. We started with the 2006 Reserve Chardonnay. This is a French Burgundy style chardonnay. It spends 18 months on oak and Howard produced 145 cases. Warren enjoyed the bigger body of this chardonnay and noted the toasty finish from the oak treatment. Howard informed us this is a restaurant favorite.

Next up was the 2005 Limited Reserve Tannat. Howard has spent time learning about tannat and traveling the world to make what is considered by many to be one of the best in the world. Howard’s tannat was inspired by tannat wines produced in Uruguay. Howard’s tannat is 100% tannat. It is aged for 3 years between the barrel and the bottle. Currently Howard only has about 10 cases left. It’s been a favorite of many of his customers. Once the wine was poured into our glasses we noted the deep dark color and blackberry on the nose. On the palate we noted layers of dark berries particularly blackberry and dark cherry. We also noted the smooth tannins on the finish. The next Limited Reserve Tannat will be released in early 2009.

If you find yourself at Chateau O’Brien plan to do a reserve tasting and be sure to bring home a bottle or two of the tannat before it’s all gone. And of course tell Howard Virginia Wine Time sent you!