Winery Visit 4/2/23

 

I went to AmRhein's Wine Cellars with 3 of my friends and one is in the class. This was all of our first times going to a vineyard. This winery is located around 50 minutes from Christiansburg. 

The first thing we did was have a wine tasting with the owner Paula AmRheins. We were able to try 10 wines she has available. All of her wines are made sweeter. She even let us try a wine that is not available to the public yet. She also gave us a little background on the winery. It orginiated in 1999, she has vineyards in franklin county, and this is the only tasting vineyard. She has to fortified wines and most of the alcohol levels are 13.5%.

All of the bottles we tried lined up

The list of wines we could taste

The list of wines we could taste

 

There were two wines she made us pay close attention to. They were the 2019 blush wine and the 2019 rose wine. These were made from the same grape except the Blush was fermented with the grape skins, plus some sugar was added. It was cool to see the difference of how much the skins impact the taste. I personally like the blush better than the rose because it was a little bit sweeter and had more fruity flavors. 

The Blush and Rose 

Then after the tasting me and my friends at lunch at the winery and took in the pretty views. 

The grape vines

Grape Vines shaped into Olympic Symbols

After we ate lunch she took us on a tour of the machinery. She didn't have much time to show us, so she just went over the basics. She told us that the grapes come straight from the vineyard into the crusher destemmer. Then after that they go into the press. 

Crusher Destemmer

And made into grape juice, then stored in the stainless steel fermentation tanks. She also noted they use more stainless steal than oak barrels. She said this was because they only use them to oak red wine which they don't do very often. 

Stainless Steel

Oak Barrels

She had a lab area where she would do the tasting and figure out what tastes the best. It was nice to see all the machinery in person instead of in pictures and videos. 

Left from a tasting

Tasting Jars

Testing Room

At the moment they also have to store all the bottle wine in the warehouse as well. 

Cases of their wines

 I ended up buying a wine called Ruby. I made notes on all of the wines as we drank them to see which one I liked the best and it was between two and I ened up going with the Ruby. There labels are drawn by two local artists. 

Ruby

Ruby

I ended up having a great time that day. At the end of our visit we got a picture with the owner. She was great host and I'm sure I will be back when the vines have flowered. 

Paula AmRhein, Me, Leliani Scott