Hanging with Mr. Cooper
A lazy Saturday afternoon found us pulling down the long driveway to Cooper Vineyards in Louisa, VA. We were last here a little over two years ago. Our impression then was that the wines were ok, but nothing special. We hadn’t bothered coming back, because we felt we knew what the wines were; why make the trip?
This year, we’ve started to research a little more about Norton wines in Virginia. The more we read, the more we kept seeing Cooper Vineyards’ name as a winery doing some great things. Cooper? Really? With a mix of optimism and curiosity, we put them on the short list of places to try again.
Cooper Vineyards is nothing like we remembered! It’s the same humble little tasting room in the same location; any similarities end there (which is wild, because the owner/winemaker hasn’t changed). There were a number of high points, and had we not just paid an obscene amount of money to get the Winery Assault Vehicle fixed, we probably would have left with a case. There were two whites that stood out for me: the 2008 Chardonnay, which is a fruity, bright stainless Chardonnay, and the 2008 Viognier. Now, if you’ve read prior posts, you know I love Viognier. This one is something special: a pleasant oakiness, lots of coconut, and just the right amount of sweetness. Even VA Wine Diva liked it, which is a testament to how good it is!
The reds were even more impressive, beginning with the 2007 Cabernet Franc. It starts with a massive nose, and hits you with tons of smokiness and really nice pepper on the palate. The 2008 Petit Verdot was another winner. I may just get the hang of this wine yet. As for the 2007 Norton, the wine that brought us here? It was big, dark, and full, without being overwhelmingly tart. Why do I like Norton so much? Is it because I love an underdog? Is it because I want to be able to say, “yeah, I was a fan of Norton before he sold out and went pop?” I don’t think so. There’s something incomparable about the flavor of a Norton, a certain richness and complexity, with a massive fruitiness, that doesn’t appear with other wines. Our tasting host likened it to a zinfandel, but to me a Norton is like… a Norton.
From there, we tasted the four sweet wines, all of which I thought were great. At 3% residual sugar, the Rhapsody is a nice sweet, white sipper. The Vida is an “ice wine” styled wine, nice and light and not cloyingly sweet. Sweet Louisa is a blend of Norton, Concord, and Vidal Blanc, and is incredibly grape-y. I noted that it would be great for a granita. Finally, we tasted the Noche. The last time we were here, we left with several bottles- it was great then, and it’s still great now. The tasting notes describe it as “Virginia Norton infused with essence of chocolate.” I noted, “essence my a**! Tastes like a chocolate bar studded with grapes. Yummm!” We’ve been tasting dessert wines around Virginia this summer, and we haven’t run across anything like Cooper’s Noche. If you want a dessert wine that’ll knock your guests’ socks off, grab a bottle of this one.
One other note: Robert, who took us through our tasting, was great. Personable, enthusiastic, and passionate about the wine- that’s what we love about tasting Virginia wines. So, if you get the chance, take a ride out to Cooper Vineyards. You’ll be impressed!
The Hanging with Mr. Cooper by Swirl, Sip, Snark, unless otherwise expressly stated, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
As Grape Envy said, Cooper was a pleasant surprise for us. While we differed a bit in our impressions, we both really like the Viognier, Norton, and Noche. A few other wineries are now making chocolate desert wines. This is by far the best, so regardless of what you think of the others out there, you have to try this one. I was not as big a fan of their other dessert wine, the Vida, as I found it a bit harsh, and I could generally pass on their sweet wines, although they were fine – to each their own. All in all, I feel safe in saying that we’ll be back to stock up on Cooper wines in the future. They may be small, but they are impressive and constantly improving.
So far we have tasted 54 Norton wines from MO, LA, GA, AL, NC, PA, and VA. The two Virginia heavies in Norton wine production out of the state’s eleven Norton vineyards we have visited so far would be Horton and Chrysalis Vineyards. I would say that Horton’s mission is to introduce to the general public good wines at fair prices and to this they unquestionably succeed. Chrysalis, on the other hand, obviously wants to produce the very best Norton’s on the east coast regardless of price. And to that I would state, they do this quite successfully. Both are wonderful examples of the east coast Norton varietal. But I would like to add, our favorite east coast Norton wines at this time would be from two small farm-like venues: Cooper Winery and from Pennsylvania’s Stone Mountain Wine Cellars. Both were wonderful variations on a theme of Norton grapes. As for a soft and easy tasting table-wine Norton, don’t pass up Abingdon Vineyard’s Norton.
Funny timing- we just finished a bottle of the Cooper Norton, and it was every bit as smooth and complex as I remembered. Cooper’s is a darn fine Norton, but it was a tough call when Her Beautifulness saddled me with picking tonight’s wine. I knew I wanted a Norton; it came down to the Cooper, or either the ’03 or ’05 Chrysalis Norton. I’m very happy with what I picked. It’s good to hear from another Norton fan. We’re definitely going to check out the Abingdon Norton!
Cooper’s wine is at the top of our list of Norton grape favorites. 171 Norton vineyards now listed on our database, have visited 54 Norton wineries, and these are the Norton wines we would consider returning to or buying online (ranking 1-to-5 / poor-to-excellent):
Blumenhof Winery 5 MO
Chandler Hill 5 MO
Adam Puchta Winery 4 MO
Cooper Vineyards 4 VA
Heinrichshaus Vineyard 4 MO
Montelle Winery 4 MO
Robller Vineyard 4 MO
Abingdon Vineyard 3 VA
Barrel Oak Winery 3 VA (needs bottle maturing)
Bommarito Estate Winery 3 MO
Crane Creek Vineyards 3 GA
Chrysalis Vineyards 3 VA
Elk Creek Vineyards 3 KY
Lovers Leap Vineyard 3 Ky
Mount Pleasant Winery 3 MO
Rockbridge Vineyards 3 VA
St. James Winery 3 MO
Stone Hill Winery 3 MO
Stone Mt. Wine Cellars 3 PA
Three Sisters Vineyards 3 GA
White Oak Vineyards 3 AL