They Served Me Robitussin!
Usually if we spend a lot of time near a winery, we stop there frequently. Despite regularly driving by Prince Michel Vineyard and Winery, we rarely stop in for a tasting. This is true even through one can do a substantial tasting flight for free. We’re just not fans of this very large facility. Some of the wines are fine, but we’ve never really liked them, and the location is not one that invites pastoral picnics and slow afternoons of vine watching. Nothing on this visit changed my impression of this place or the wines.
Prince Michel is very visible on route 29 between Culpeper and Charlottesville. The 3 wine glass wind sculptures draw attention to this place, and while the whimsy of them appeal to me, the space just has too much of a rest stop feel (albeit a very pretty and well appointed one). The interior has a lot of space with many small conversation areas where one could snack with a glass of wine or enjoy conversation, but the place just feels a bit cold and unwelcoming to me, likely because of its large commercial size. This is clearly a place that could, however, handle a tour group with room to spare.
The tasting bar is in the middle of a large gift shop. We have found some nice gifts here in the past, so if you’re tasting, make sure you browse a bit. There are things at many different price points. Prince Michel also offers a winery tour as part of your experience. This tour is a self-guided walk through parts of the production and storage facility via a catwalk. It’s fine, but many places offer actual tours where you can talk to people who work with the wine, so I’d definitely seek that experience out rather than this one.
The wine tasting experience is also somewhat impersonal. While some of the tasting staff likely know a fair bit about wine and enjoy talking with visitors, many of those working seem to be highly scripted and fairly uninterested. I also didn’t enjoy that the young woman taking us through our tasting seemed frustrated by having to wait while I slowly sampled and took notes.
The complimentary flight includes 4 dry whites (including a sparkling), a dry rosé, 5 dry reds, and 7 sweet wines (of all types). The Rapidan River Sparkling Wine had a flora nose and tasted of cream soda. It was very strange, but a bit fun. It’s sold in small picnic size bottles, so I would actually consider this one for that purpose were I in the market given the novelty factor. I didn’t care for the other whites, but the 2006 Barrel Select Chardonnay was the best of the three – if a bit generic.
The merlot rosé didn’t start the reds off well given that it had a skunky odor and off flavor. Most of the reds, however, were fine if a bit boring (they seemed to lack the character often found in wines from smaller producers). The best red by far was the 2005 Symbius, a meritage-style blend. It had dark fruit flavors and was smooth and rich with mellow tannins. I wasn’t willing to pay $29.99 for a wine that still was a bit bland, however.
Sweet wines appeal to me only for specific purposes (e.g., as a summer sipper or to drink in place of dessert), so I wasn’t expecting to be thrilled with these offerings. Some were okay and some were bad, but the port (the final wine) was where it all went pear-shaped as the Brits like to say. I smelled cough syrup and tasted Robitussin. I hated this taste as a kid when I was sick, and I sure don’t want to encounter it in a wine. Just a final note on these…many of the grapes used for their sweet wines are bought in from out of state. I understand that all wines can’t be estate wines, and I know that all varietals don’t do well in VA. There’s no need to do this kind of grape importing, however, given all the grapes that do grow here.
Since our last visit, Prince Michel has expanded their tasting to allow you to add in 5 vineyard designate wines for $1: a sparkling, 2 dry whites, and 2 dry reds. We tried them and found them to be the better wines (although the Symbius from the complimentary flight is at the same level in my opinion), although most were still priced at more than we’d pay given what they are. The 2006 Mt. Juliet Petit Manseng was the standout from this list with great pineapple flavors that were really unusual.
As a final note, they had one thing I’ve never seen anywhere else. They’ve got a frozen drink machine so that people can buy glasses of frozen sangria. I didn’t want to buy a glass given that they weren’t even sure which wine had been added to their mix to get the frozen concoction, but it was just too fun not to mention!
To wrap up, we just don’t like these big commercial producers. It’s as though the soul is missing from the wine given the scale of production. If you’re looking to try a lot of wines for a low cost, however, this place may fit the bill.
The They Served Me Robitussin! by Swirl, Sip, Snark, unless otherwise expressly stated, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
I believe I described the frozen sangria machine as “awesomely trashy.” How else does one refer to a Mister Margarita at a roadside winestand?
Prince Michel’s wines didn’t suck nearly as much as I remembered; I went under protest, but it was an ok tasting. I agree with VA Wine Diva’s analysis of the Mt. Juliet Petit Manseng; I described the Rapidan River Sparkling as “like cream soda- champagne by A & W!” Of everything we tasted, those are the two I would buy. For the price of the tasting, it’s worth the trip.
Enjoyed the post, especially since I just visited last weekend. I’m still laughing at the “rest stop” reference (I wish all rest stops were like this;-) That said, I agree 100% with your summary. Very commercial, and just odd. Was not impressed with the wine (although the reserve tasting was an upgrade). I believe I read somewhere that Prince Michel has a few tasting rooms throughout the state. I’ll have to confirm. Cheers!
They do have two other tasting rooms, although I haven’t been to either. One is in Old Town Alexandria, and the other is at Carter Mountain near Monticello.