Winery Visit: Pollak

The last stop on our day wine tour in Charlottesville was Pollak Vineyards. Pollak sits on a beautiful piece of land, complete with a porch that overlooks a lake and some of their vineyard plots. Founded in 2003, this winery is also family owned and prides itself on creating wines using the traditional French varietals. Their 27 acre vineyard includes Chardonnay, Viognier, Pinot Gris, Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Petit Verdot, and Petit Manseng. Like Veritas, they are an estate winery meaning they grow the grapes and produce the wine on site. Today, this winery makes about 5,000 cases.

Pollak's sign at the entrance to their winery.

The beautiful house and scenery of Pollak.

What I really enjoyed about our visit here was that our pourer was really passionate and knowledgable about Pollak's wines. She was more than happy to answer all of our questions and provide lots of information about their wine making processes. Another really interesting part of Pollak was that the tasting room was very modern, which was a different set up from most wineries.

The tasting room and bar - very modern and elegant.

Here are my thoughts on the wines we tasted:

• Chardonnay 2010: The golden color of this wine was very enticing. The creamy oak mixed with the crisp citrus fruit was nice combination. Though the wine was tart at first on the palate, the typical buttery Chardonnay came through on the after taste.
• Durant White 2010: This house white is made from Chardonnay, Viognier, and Pinot Gris. The crispness of this white came out on the nose and the mouth. It had a light taste with just enough sweetness and pear.
• Pinot Gris 2011: Our pourer told us that this is the first vintage of this varietal. It is fermented in stainless steel and has about 1.5% residual sugar, creating a pale straw color and allowing the tropical fruit and crisp aspects to come out. This wine had a frizzante as well which made an interesting taste and feel.
• Durant Red 2010: Their house red is a Merlot and Cabernet Franc blend and is made to have a lighter body with an emphasis on the red berry flavors. I really enjoyed the dry and sweet combination with this wine because it was well balanced. This wine was also chilled when they served it to bring out the sweetness.
• Merlot 2009: This Merlot won the Riverside International Wine Competition Silver Medal. Our pourer also told us that 2009 was the best year for reds. The dark color of the wine immediately caught my interest and the dry, tannic intensity was something I really enjoyed. I found that this wine smelled sweeter than it tasted.
• Cabernet Franc 2009: This wine also won the Silver Medal in the competition mentioned above and was my favorite we tasted at Pollak. The nose on this wine was great - an intense mix of dark red berry jam with pepper. The palate gave similar hints but with a blackberry finish. The wine itself was bold and balanced and very enjoyable.
• Meritage 2009: Meritage is a lovely blend of Cabernet Franc, Merlot, and Petit Verdot. It was given a 93 point rating by the Beverage Testing Institute (BTI), a blind tasting in Chicago. There was a limited production of this blend because it is made from their best grapes grown on site. The mix of raspberry and earthiness made this wine rich and complex. This was my second favorite wine we tasted here.
• Petit Verdot 2009: This wine was award 93 points BTI as well as the Gold for the Chairman's Choice. Virginia is really the only place to use this grape in a varietal wine. Because it is so small, the skin plays a large part in creating the tannins and color. I found this wine to be very bold and earthy. There were hints of plum and spice which added a lot of complexity. 
• Mille Fleurs 2009: We talked to our pourer about talking the wine class so she let us try the Mille Fleurs, a Port of Viogner wine. This wine has 17.5% alcohol so it was extremely bold. It was fermented in Brandy barrels which gives the wine high sugar as well as high alcohol. This Port was very unique because it is white. I got a lot honey flavor with sweetness then a big kick at the finish. I had never tried a Port before so this was a unique experience for me.

Standing on the balcony after our tasting at Pollak.

The tasting at Pollak was a great experience and I would definitely go back again. After we finished, we sat on the porch for a while and talked about our wine tasting experiences over the day. Going on our mini Charlottesville was not only a lot of fun but I learned a lot about wine as well. I can't wait to go on more visits!