Winery Visit - Chateau Morrisette

I went to visit a winery for the first time this past weekend on Saturday, the 12th of April 2014.  Located along the Blue Ridge Parkway, even the drive to the winery is beautiful.  It really sets the mood for an enjoyable and relaxing afternoon sitting on the hillside and sipping a glass of wine.  The Chateau Morrisette features a 4-star restaurant adjacent to the winery for people that want to keep the party going late into the night.








Walking up to the winery the views are breathtaking, but I found the exterior facade of the building slightlyt tacky.  It seemed like an obvious attempt to recreate a classic French chateau appearance with cheap materials and was poorly executed.  The interior was much more pleasant but still seemed to be trying to hard to me.  It did have a warm atmosphere with soft lighting and exposed heavy rafters, and the various bottles of wines were artfully set out in the center of the room. Tours of the facility are offered throughout the day and are even included in the very reasonably priced 10 wine tasting events held at regular intervals.  Unfortunately, my friends and I arrived a few minutes after the last tour of the day had started.

This was the first disappointment of the trip, which rapidly went downhill.  When trying to purchase tickets for the wine tasting, my friends ID was closely scrutinized because of its unique features being from New York.  A manager was eventually involved and denied my friend service, claiming that the ID was likely a fake and that it could easily be duplicated at home in 45 minutes.  We were all very upset, but did not want a 2-hour round trip to be wasted when an assignment was involved, so the rest of our party continued with the tasting.  The staff was rude and condescending when speaking to our group compared to other people in attendance.  I was also disappointed in the serving size of each sample, but we did try the 10 following wines.

• 2011 Chardonnay:  This chardonnay was very dry and one of the best I've ever had.  The aroma was grassy with green apple and caramel.  It tasted toasty with strong butterscotch flavor and it was very smooth and creamy.
• 2011 Cabernet Sauvignon:  A delicious cab, I could immediately smell raspberry, blackberry, spice, and mint.  Tasting it, the blackberry jumped out with balanced tannins and then finished with blueberry and black currant.
• 2011 Merlot: This was a mediocre merlot that was very smoky on the nose and very light in color.  It was very tart with cherry and cranberry making the strongest impression.
• 2011 Petit Verdot:  I'd never had a petit verdot before and this one was ok in my opinion.  It did leave me interested in trying more.  It was spicy and oaky with notes of cherries and rasins in the aroma.  It had very velvety tannins and went smooth with flavors of raspberry and blackberry.
• Angel Chardonnay: This chardonnay was not nearly as enjoyable as the first one.  It was very pineappley and fruit forward but was smooth.  It was too sweet and fruity in my opinion for a chardonnay and made me think of an oaky pinot grigio.
• Our Dog Blue:  One of their signature wines, it was all fruit and very sweet with flavors of melon and apricots.
• Cherry Wine: Cherry, cherry, and more cherry.  This was too sweet for me and as advertised, tasted like cherry syrup.
• Red Muscadine: The first note I made after tasting this wine was "NEVER AGAIN".  Needless to say, I didn't enjoy anything about this wine.  The nose was very funky to me and seemed sour and tart and reminded me of spoiled fruit.  The flavor was like stale cotton candy.
• Blackberry Wine:  A sour and floral fruit wine, I did like this one.  It was slightly sweet and very enjoyable.
• Heritage:  This was a fortified wine and really reminded me of a port, although the server mentioned that they were not allowed to associate it what-so-ever with the name port.  It reminded me of coffee, plums, and chocolate.

I did enjoy a few of the wines, but refused to purchase any bottles due to my negative experience.  It began as an exciting and lovely day, but ended with my friends and I feeling bitter and upset.  I hope that it was only a case of a long day for the staff and that others have not had to go through the unpleasant day that my friends and I had.