Winery Tour: Attimo

Attimo Winery in Christiansburg, Virginia

        This past weekend, I visited the Attimo Winery in Christiansburg, Virginia with my girlfriend, who is my wine tasting partner . It was only a 30 minute drive from Blacksburg, and very much worth the trip. The weather was great, which made it a perfect day to go to the winery. The first thing we did upon arriving was my favorite of the day: the wine tasting. We were able to try nine different wines, starting with crisp white wines and moving on to dryer reds, then rounding the tasting off with some far too sweet dessert wines. After the tasting, we each chose our favorites and had a glass. I had seconds of the A.D. 325, which is a chambourcin varietal that is aged in clay. It had a very noticeable coffee smell, which our server said was caused by the pots the wine was aged in. It was very dark and tannic, but also unlike the other things I have tasted. 

Inside the tasting room, there was a fireplace with many of the different wines we could try 

on display on the mantle. The wines have the awards they've won draped over them.

My favorite wine of the day, the A.D. 325, with the rest of the wine tasting menu. 

We were able to try nine of the eleven wines listed on the left.

A bottle of my wine of choice, the A.D 325.

        After the tasting, we signed up for a tour of the winery. First, we took a stroll through the vineyard, where we were told that Attimo has 17 acres of vineyards in Christiansburg, and leases land to several other locations around Charlottesville and Roanoke. The first thing that is done each season is the pruning of the vines. This happens during winter. In April, the buds break, and by June, they will have grown to their full size. Starting in August, the vines are checked regularly for ripeness. When the correct sugar to acid ratio has been reached for each grape variety, the harvest begins. This typically happens near the end of September. The harvest starts at 4am, with lots of workers handpicking the grapes and placing them in crates. These crates are then taken to the crusher and destemmer, where they are pressed and put in containers for fermentation. For the wines that require cold fermentation, dry ice is used. After a month, the pH of each wine is tested in order to find the correct acidity. 

Attimo's Vidal Blanc Vineyard

Once the correct acidity has been reached, the white wines are immediately bottled to retain their freshness. The red wines are then aged, normally in oak barrels, but sometimes in plastic containers with oak chips, depending on the style the winemaker is trying to create.

The storage shed, where the wine is fermented and aged in barrels.

That concluded our tour of Attimo. Overall, I was extremely impressed with the quality of the wine, and the knowledge of the winemaker. He certainly knew his wines, and had many accolades to prove it. I had never thought of giving Virginia wine a chance when compared to the super powers of Italy, France, and California, but Attimo proved to me that Virginia can make some top class wine.