Beliveau Estate Winery Tastings

I went with a friend to the Beliveau Estate Winery store in Blacksburg, Virginia. This is the storefront to a local winery located in the Catawba Valley between Blacksburg and Roanoke. While we were there, I tried seven wines.

With an exception or two, I was overall really unimpressed with the offerings from this winery. I understand that this winery is very new and that this means they probably haven’t polished what they do, but all of the wines seemed unfinished and heinously overpriced for what they are.

Walking in, the storefront is an alright little shop. It’s nothing impressive or special at all, which unfortunately fits pretty well into what the wine itself conveys. I would really like to go out to the winery and see if it’s a nicer—I feel sure it would be.

Anyway, the tasting cost $5 for seven wines. I’ve paid for wine tastings at wineries before but this charge alongside the overpriced bottles cemented my resolve to not walk out of the shop with a bottle.

Full disclosure here: these seven wines were a selection from what they had open in the store. There’s also a “reserve” list with $18-$32 wines that you buy at the store but only taste if you went to the winery and paid $12.50 to do so. This already seemed snobby since I can go to Vintage Cellar and taste wines of this same price range for free every Saturday.

And now, onto the wines! I’ll do five all seven as I tasted them in the store. I wasn't able to take pictures because there were other patrons in the shop and was asked not to. 

Name: Silhouette 2011

Variety: Cabernet Sauvignon
Region: Virginia
Country: United States

Year: 2011
Price: $20 (Winery)

Winery review:  “Our Cabernet Sauvignon is a cornucopia of red berry flavors, topped with spicy overtones.” (Beliveau Estate Winery)

My review: Besides the unnecessary comma and the obvious use of a thesaurus to find the word “cornucopia”, the review gets this wine pretty correct. It was nothing special but a really good example of a Cabernet Sauvignon. It was very heavy on red berries, minimally spiced, and not nearly as thick on mouthfeel as I was expecting. I’m probably spoiled on California Cab Sauvs I’ve had the pleasure to taste, but this is no $20 bottle. I’d price this as about standard to what an $8 bottle at Kroger would offer. That isn’t to say I didn’t enjoy this one, it just wasn’t too exciting.

I tasted this on its own with no food.

Name: “A Capella”

Variety: 100% Landot Noir
Price: $16 (Winery)

Winery review: This 100% Landot Noir is semi sweet with distinct notes of blueberry. A smooth, delicious sipping wine.

My review: If I hadn’t paid to taste this wine, I probably would’ve bought a bottle of this. It was maybe overpriced at $16, but not too badly. I liked the balance of sweet and dry with this wine and enjoyed the berry notes. I got more blackberry than blueberry on this one. It was a nice wine to drink. This was my favorite.

Name: “Sweet Surrender”

Variety: 100% Concord grape (?)
Price: $15 (Winery)

Winery review: This sweet red table wine is light and fruity with a beautiful candy apple red color. (Winery)

My review: I didn’t want to finish this wine but the person conducting the tasting didn’t have a spit bucket or any way for me to pour this out. It was horrible. It was like drinking Welch’s grape juice mixed with a little Franzia.  I can’t believe they can sell this wine for $15. There’s so many cheaper, better wines that I could get if I didn’t want something to taste like wine. Worst of the tasting.

Name: “Serenity”

Variety: Chambourcins Blend
Price: $15 (Winery)

Winery review: An after dinner favorite, this blend of two Chambourcins is decedent yet mellow, and pairs fabulously with dark chocolate. Light effervescence upon opening.

My review: This wine was pretty interesting. If it was supposed to be sparkling, I guess it had sat out too long by the time we did the tasting. It was a table wine that was interestingly rich and easy to sip. Notes of light yellow fruit dominated this wine.

Name: “Kaleidoscope”

Variety: Pinot Grigio
Price: $18 (Winery)

Winery Review: A refreshing Pinot Grigio with hints of melon, apple pie, and distinct undertones of white pepper.

My Review: A buttery Pinot Grigio. Not what I was expecting out of this wine but it also wasn’t bad. It had notes of cantaloupe and also apple spice. I would never buy this wine at $18 but I guess that’s why they charge $5 up front here.

Name: “Mystique”

Variety: Chardonnay
Price: $16 (Winery)

Winery Review: This dry oaked Chardonnay displays notes of honey and vanilla with a refreshing lemon-lime finish.

My Review: This Chardonnay was apparently dry oaked for 2 months. I got some woody notes with this wine but think it could’ve been better with some more aging. Of the wines here, I think this one had the most potential. The winery hadn’t ruined it by sweetening or using weird grapes for wine (looking at you, Concord grapes). I liked a Chardonnay with a lemon finish and would probably put this wine at a solid $12 price point. It’s no $16 bottle of Chardonnay and for that price you could certainly find better, but this wasn’t a bad wine.

For a local Chardonnay, I highly recommend Chateau Morrisette’s Angel Chardonnay. This is a way higher value wine from a better-respected winery.

Name: “Discovery”

Variety: Niagara/Sweet Riesling blend
Price: $15 (Winery)

Winery Review: A sweet Niagara/Riesling blend with aromas and flavors that transport you back to the days of your youth.

My Review: Since that review said absolutely nothing about the wine, I’ll try to elaborate. It was syrupy, sweet, and had really big floral notes. Smelling this wine actually kind of had me excited. It had a lot going on. Gary V uses “Skittles” as a note for a lot of wines, and I definitely got this in this wine.

Overall, this winery has a long way to go before it can even be listed among great Virginia wineries. It needs to get a better handle of what kind of wines they’re producing and where the intent is. From this list I have, they’re producing 17 wines in a small valley in Virginia. There’s bound to be some overlap on grapes here, but there’s no way they’re producing grapes at the location with any degree of success.

Assuming that they’re probably also making some wines that aren’t on this list, they’re way over their head here. There were a few highlights on this list and I would definitely suggest pursuing those and forgetting about the rest.

If you’re looking for a local Virginia Winery, look at Attimo Winery or Chateau Morrisette. They have far higher quality wines that show a degree of polish that is lacking from Beliveau. Perhaps I’ll try this winery again in a few years but for now I will steer clear.