Winery Visit - Chateau Morrisette, Floyd VA

Name: Chateau Morrisette
Location: Floyd, Va

          Chateau Morrisette is located on the Blue Ridge Parkway in Floyd, Virginia. I toured the facility with a group of roommates and friends on Saturday, March 24th. Upon leaving Blacksburg, the weather was nice - warm and sunny. About halfway through the 45 minute drive to Floyd, we found ourselves in the midst of a thunderstorm producing hail and a few inches of rain. 

          We arrived to the winery just as there was the announcement of a cancelled tour due to the weather. We did, however, have a tasting of 12 different wines made at Chateau Morrisette, and were accompanied by a very knowledgeable sommelier who was able to detail to us the history of Chateau Morrisette, and what should be expected of each wine.

         The winery produces a variety of about ten dry, four off-dry, three sweet, and one fruit wine. Our sommelier explained the differences to us in detail as we proceeded with the tastings. As learned in class, dry wine indicates the lack of residual sugar causing them to be 'dry' or not sweet (Sweet wines are the opposite - those with residual sugars). Off-dry was a new type of wine to me. It means that the residual sugar is present but not very noticeable to the average palate. This makes it seem more sweet than a dry wine, but not nearly as sweet as a sweet rose wine.

         We also learned some about the history of the winery while there, and I found it very interesting. Chateau Morrisette was officially founded in 1978 and began with just a few cuttings. Since then, the winery has expanded to the point of being able to house about 180-190,000 gallons of wine (about 130,000 gallons of which is held in stainless steel). The following posts will be tastings of the different wines experienced on the trip.