Winemaker Notes

Attractive deep garnet color, elegant aromas of blueberry, black currant, fresh flowers and dry herbs, the structure expresses medium body, silky tannins and a cool, refined finish. Drinkable now, yet with a long future and evolution in the mouthfeel and aromatic profile . It is very reminiscent of the stellar Octagon 2009 from a vintage considered by many Virginia winemakers as “the perfect one”.

About the Name

Octagon could have been a white wine. Named to celebrate the estate’s diverse connections with the legacy of Thomas Jefferson, symbolized in the central octagon drawing room in his design for Governor Barbour’s mansion, there was nothing in Jefferson’s confidence in Piedmont Virginia as a winegrowing region, to suggest that the ultimate wine of any vineyard would necessarily be red. This we were told by our own ground, even as we grow ever more pleased with our development of white varietals since the turn of the century.

Our pre-eminent wine therefore is red, because its consistent core varietals, Merlot and Cabernet Franc, happened to outshine all others in the qualities of a wine of such stature, sooner than everything else, and at a time – the earliest 1990s – when we were motivated to craft a small blend to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the estate. Those qualities include, in no particular rank, a recognized compatibility for blending with each other, not as a correction but as an illumination of each other’s strengths; a capability for development in bottle toward greater elegance and nuance over a long cellar life; an inherently graceful opulence of body and duration of finish; a many-layered dynamic range of red fruit and non-fruit aromas and flavors; and textural suavity, color intensity, and allure of earth proclaiming not merely a passion for fine dining, but a gracious dialogue with the senses.

Blend: Merlot 62%, Cabernet Franc 34%, Petit Verdot 4%