Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, April 24, 1990 TAG: 9004240092
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: E-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: CHRIS GLADDEN STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
But the folks at Prince Michel Vineyards, near Culpeper, have a lot of faith in Le Ducq, their first entry into the arena of top-dollar wines.
Prince Michel general manager Joachim Hollerith and the winery's sales and marketing manager Dan Layman were at Blue Ridge Beverage in Roanoke County for a small introductory ceremony on Monday.
They recently returned from California where Le Ducq made a favorable impression on wine judges and restaurateurs, they say. The wine has also received some favorable reviews among wine writers. Jerry D. Mead, who publishes a wine newsletter in San Francisco, wrote that Le Ducq "is a well-made wine and not outrageously over-priced considering the field in which it chooses to compete."
Michael Dresser, wine writer for the Baltimore Sun, noted that "the entire idea of spending $50" for a bottle of wine is "questionable for most sensible people." But he also gave the wine high marks, calling it excellent.
At any rate, the fact that Le Ducq seems to be the most expensive product so far from the upstart Virginia wine industry can't help but raise Prince Michel's profile.
"We sell about 99 percent of our product in Virginia," Layman said. "The only reason for going out to California is image and press and to establish our reputation."
Prince Michel is the largest winery in Virginia, but at 110 acres is no giant compared to California wineries.
Most of the company's wines sell in the $6 to $15 range. According to Hollerith, Le Ducq is the dream of Vineyard owner Jean Le Ducq, who has wanted to produce a world-class wine since the operation's beginnings in 1983.
The current batch is called Lot 87. Because it is a wine blended from different grapes, it legally can't use the term vintage. There are other factors as well that separate Le Ducq from traditional classification.
It belongs to a category of wines that use the recently coined term Meritage, blended wines that aren't allowed to use the name of any one classic grape, such as cabernet sauvignon, because they don't contain the legally required percentage of wine from that particular grape.
Meritage are mainly California wines that sometimes blend French grapes with California grapes. They bear contemporary names such as Opus One and Insignia and are the wines against which Le Ducq was designed to compete.
Unlike other Virginia wines, Le Ducq uses California grapes from Jean Le Ducq's 24-acre Napa Valley vineyard along with Virginia grapes.
They're shipped in small containers from California by refrigerated truck. The wine itself is made completely in Virginia. There were 10,100 bottles (750 mililiters) and 90 magnums (1.5 liters) in the initial bottling and each bottle is numbered. The label is decorated with a colorful reproduction of a Raoul Dufy painting.
Bill Philips, a manager for Blue Ridge Beverage, says that his company distributes products from several Virginia vineyards, but this is the first one to approach the super-premium market - wines in the $35 to $75 range.
"There's nothing close, he said.
The winemakers are careful not to over-emphasize the Virginia connection; they want Le Ducq to stand on its own. At the same time, they expect it to raise some eyebrows because of its price tag.
"I went to one of my distributors - the guy's a wine connoisseur," Layman recalled.
"He said `You must be crazy expecting me to sell a $50 Virginia wine.' But after he tried it, he ordered his allocation. The wine turned him around fast."
by CNB