Winery Visit- Barrel Oak Winery

My lovely mother was clearly very excited about all the yummy wines at Barrel Oak.

On March 9, 2012, I visited Barrel Oak Winery in Delaplane, Virginia with my parents. We did a wine tasting, talked to the owner, and ended the visit with a bottle and a cheese platter. Unfortunately, they were not doing tours of the winery at the time we visited, but I've visited this winery a year ago and did the tour at that time.

The entrance to the tasting room at Barrel Oak

We talked to Brian, the owner, about the history of the winery. He told us that they started planting vines in 2006. They have roughly 20,000 vines that produce 90 tons of grapes and they get some of the grapes from local vineyards. The 22-acre vineyard grows Seyval Blanc, Vidal Blanc, Petit Manseng, Viognier, Chardonnay, Merlot, Petit Verdot, Traminette and Chambourcin. The sun was setting and the view from the tasting room was amazing.

View of the vines from a window in the tasting room at Barrel Oak.

Brian said that they really strive to make the winery a community place where everyone feels free to come and hang out. While we were there, a group of parents in their children came in with pizza boxes for the kids while some of the parents did a tasting. I thought it was a little odd, but it definitely showed that people felt comfortable here and thought of it as a great place for everyone to get together. Brian handed us over to one of the tasting room mangers who poured each of the wines for us.

An upstairs section of the tasting room where they sometimes do tastings if the downstairs area is too crowded.

The pretty glasses we tasted from. After the tasting, you were allowed to buy them for $3.

Below is a list of the wines we tasted from my favorite to my least favorite:

2009 Bowhaus Red- this was my favorite wine of the day. It smelled like berries with a little bit of spice. It was semi-sweet with great body and complexity. The spiciness, woodiness, sweetness, cherry and fruity flavors all came together really well and made for a very tasty wine. We were told that there were four different types of red grapes in the wine and that it was aged in three types of oak

2009 Viognier Reserve- a very well-rounded wine. It was also very tropical on the nose and somewhat citrusy, but creamier and felt heavier in my mouth. This wine definitely had an oak component, but it wasn't overwhelming. The tasting room manager told us that it had undergone partial malolactic fermentation, which was evident on the pallet. 

2010 Bowhaus White- a Riesling style wine that had a very tropical nose and flavor. It was a little too sweet for me, but would probably be enjoyable slightly chilled and on a nice, hot summer day.

2009 Merlot- a medium body wine with lots of tannins. This had a dark fruit aroma and a little more spice to it. The bottle we tasted from was just opened so I think it might have been better after decanting for a little while. This wine definitely had a lot of potential, but needed to breathe more.

2009 Cabernet Sauvignon- a bold, dark wine. It reminded me of toasted almonds and plum. This was definitely a bold wine, but a little softer because the bottle had been open for a while. This was a good wine, but didn't have as much depth as some of the others.

2009 Chardonnay- described as a new world style with hints of oak. However, I definitely got more than "hints of oak" in this wine. I wouldn't say it was an oak monster, but it was a little too much for me and made it hard to taste other flavors in the wine. It smelled really buttery and had the buttery finish as well. Not the greatest Chardonnay.

They are almost as passionate about dogs as they are the wine. Each bottle has a cute picture of one of their dogs and a nice quote and description on the back.

A bottle of the 2009 Bowhaus Red that we had with a cheese platter.

After the tasting we decided to get a bottle of the 2009 Bowhaus Red and a cheese platter. The platter included varies types of cheese like Drunken Goat Cheese which tasted really good with the wine. We also had baguettes, salami, mustard, grapes, apricots, and figs on the platter. Almost everything tasted amazing paired with the wine.

Our cheese platter with baguettes and our bottle of Bowhaus Red.

We had a really great time at Barrel Oak. The winery is located only a few minutes from my house so I will definitely be returning with friends over the summer.

My Dad and I enjoying a glass of the Bowhaus Red in the upstairs area of the tasting room.