Wine Dinner: Barboursville

In an area destined by history to viticulture, in 1976 Gianni Zonin realized the dream that belonged to Thomas Jefferson, the third American president, giving life to a large vineyard estate on the East Coast which covers an area of 500 hectares, 90 of which are vineyards.

In the temperate mid-Atlantic weather of our growing region, this estate presents the viticulturist with a dynamic mosaic of growing conditions. Some years favor one planting site for a given varietal, such as Cabernet Franc, and other years favor another in the same varietal. The resulting engagement with the vines is exceptionally active and verifies the truism that the human hand, learned, seasoned, and schooled by many previous vintages, must be incorporated in any conception of “terroir.”

OCTAGON

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. Our pre-eminent wine is this 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. There is a clear regional analogy between Octagon and the wines of Pomerol, blending the same varietals, from comparable clay soils, seasonal conditions, and ripeness levels.

LUCA PASCHINA

Luca is a third generation winemaker from Piedmont, Italy who studied enology at Istituto Umberto Primo in Alba. Asked by Gianni Zonin to study his winery operations in a year’s consultancy at Barboursville in 1990, he returned to Zonin’s headquarters north of Venice with an irresistibly audacious suggestion — if you will systematically re-invest in ideal trellising systems and techniques for this terroir, you will have the finest wines that can be grown on the East Coast. When he arrived at Barboursville in 1990, the winery had 38 acres under vine. Since that time, it has expanded to over 180 planted acres under vines as well as an inn and five star restaurant on the property. Luca is a former member of the governor-appointed Virginia Wine Board (appointed by 4 different governors). His wines have won accolades in competitions in San Francisco, New York, Dallas, London and more. Luca enjoys cooking, hiking, fishing, and raising his three children with his wife at home in Orange, Virginia.

Stay tuned for Chef Paul Gagne’s 5-course dinner menu that will pair with 8 memorable wines. Barboursville has kindly made available for this event three back vintages, the 2016, 2017, and 2018, of their flagship Octagon blend.