Vines & Wines: Petit verdot is earning a reputation as a top Virginia wine

June 9, 2011

The aromas don’t deceive. The taste that follows is intense.
Meet Veritas Vineyard & Winery’s 2008 Petit Verdot, a lush red wine that very well could be the star of the show at Saturday’s Celebration of the Vine wine festival at the Chesterfield County Government Complex.
At a recent wine judging for the event, two of three groups picked the Veritas Petit Verdot as the top red wine. For good reason.
Blackberry and dark berry aromas led to blackberry jam, plum, even some vanilla, among its many flavors in this complex wine from Afton-based Veritas. Tannins were light and soft.
That a petit verdot was a favorite among the judges is no surprise. Bob Kocher, who carries nine Virginia petit verdots among his 425 state wines at his Once Upon a Vine shop on MacArthur Avenue, explains.
“I carry so many petit verdots not only because it’s my style of wine, but because it’s a big red full-bodied wine with a nose that reaches you as you pour it into the glass,” he said. “It has so many flavors that explode in your mouth and gives you a pleasant, lasting taste on the palate.”
Veritas petit verdots often stand out.
“It is aged in oak a little longer than some of the others, which adds to its smoother and softer tannins and adds a taste of vanilla as well as deep complex flavors of fruit, spices, chocolate, leather and tobacco,” Kocher said. “The petit verdot is a perfect wine to cellar. It will only get better with age and become an elegant first-rate wine.”
Petit verdot is used primarily as a blending grape elsewhere, including France, where it’s one of the five classic Bordeaux grapes. Here, it’s earning a reputation as a top wine.
“Petit verdot is a nice fit for Virginia as one of our bigger reds,” Emily Pelton, Veritas winemaker (with her dad, Andrew Hodson) said. “As we are garnering more and more success with petit verdot in Virginia, it is becoming more and more popular, and therefore more people are making it as a single varietal, and it is ultimately a good fit as a beautifully tannic, very age-worthy wine for Virginia.”
Why the good match?
“We are able to ripen this fruit beautifully with relative consistency, and the aromas and flavors that we are able to produce are interesting and fun, and most importantly different,” Pelton said. “I really like working with petit verdot because of the massive intensity of color and richness.
“The berries are small and the clusters are relatively open, so disease pressure is typically low. I do have some problems in wet years with some splitting of the grapes, but am very happy to put up with this problem and mitigate its effects in order to have PV as part of my red wine program.”
A celebration

Veritas Vineyard & Winery’s 2008 Petit Verdot is a must-taste wine at Saturday’s Celebration of the Vine festival.
In the bottle: 100 percent petit verdot, 12.6 percent alcohol; aged 14 months in oak, 12 months in the bottle
In the wallet: $29 at the winery (www.veritaswines.com) and festival; discounts on multiple-bottle purchases; $25.99-$28.99 in local stores
In the store: Once Upon a Vine (MacArthur Avenue), The Vino Market, Private Stock
In the future: Celebration of the Vine, Saturday at Chesterfield County Government Complex, 9901 Lori Road, 11 a.m.-6 p.m.; 17 wineries; $20 advance, $25 at gate; non-taster $10, $12

Source: http://www2.timesdispatch.com/lifestyles/food-dining/2011/apr/10/tdflair05-vines-amp-wines-petit-verdot-is-earning–ar-955438/

Best restaurant in Clark Philippines offers award winning restaurant wine list, top rated fine dining resto bar outside Manila.

Where to eat in Clark Pampanga, good restaurants where children and kids can go? Listings of the finest and most frequently visited restaurants in Pampanga, Angeles City, Subic and Clark Freeport show that although Yats Restaurant is a world class fine dining resto bar, this top rated restaurant located inside Mimosa Golf Estate near the golf course and casino of Clark is a popular place to eat and dine out for families with kids. This popular restaurant in Clark is very child friendly and is also generally regarded as the best restaurant in Pampanga, Angeles city, Subic and Clark Philippines.

Manila residents and tourists look for a good restaurant in Clark to wine and dine, relax and unwind after a game of golf or a long day of work or business in Pampanga. Top rated and most frequently visited restaurant in Clark is Yats Restaurant and Wine Lounge. Even families with children choose to eat at this restaurant because of its child friendly facilities, good service and excellent food.

Best restaurant in Clark Philippines offers award winning restaurant wine list, top rated fine dining resto bar outside Manila, one in 650 restaurants in the world to win the Wine Spectator’s Best of Awards of Excellence for its fabulous restaurant wine list, the only restaurant in the Philippines to be given this award.

Each year, world leading wine and dining magazine called Wine Spectator gives out a special award to restaurants offering the best wine selections. The Best of Awards of Excellence is given out to less than 700 of the best restaurants worldwide. Here in the Philippines, Yats Restaurant and Wine Bar is the only one to receive this prestigious international award. Restaurant wine lists are judged not for the number of impressive bad names on the wine list but more on how interesting the wine selection is for the dining guests. Breadth of selection covering all the major wine producing regions of the world is an important aspect of a restaurant wine list and so is the depth of vintages offered. Yats Restaurant has long been recognized internationally as one of the best places to wine and dine for wine lovers and those who are used to world class gourmet dining. Winning this international restaurant award places the Philippines on the map of international travelers who are accustomed to fine dining at a world-class level. The famous restaurant wine list of this top rated restaurant in Clark Pampanga serves as an icon in the Philippines for international wine lovers coming over to visit the Philippines on business or leisure.

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Getting to this fine dining restaurant of Angeles City Clark Freeport Zone Pampanga Philippines
How to get to this fine-dining restaurant in Clark Pampanga? Once you get to Clark Freeport, go straight until you hit Mimosa. After you enter Mimosa, stay on the left on Mimosa Drive, go past the Holiday Inn and Yats Restaurant (green top, independent 1-storey structure) is on your left. Just past the Yats Restaurant is the London Pub.

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Clark Freeport Zone, Pampanga, Philippines 2023

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