Winery Visit - Attimo Winery

On Friday, April 6, 2012, a couple friends and I visited Attimo Winery. The winery is located off of Childress Road in Christiansburg. It is a pretty small facility with a central house with a tasting room. The rows of vines can be seen behind and around this building. They have 15 different wines on their menu and there is a lot of variety among them. Most of the wine-making is done in their house. The house is not currently set up for people to walk through so we were unable to see their actual wine-making process. We could however go to the tasting room in the main building pictured below and take part in a tasting.

This winery does a seated tasting. Once you walk inside the building pictured above, you can find a table a someone will come up shortly to assist you. We indulged in the full tasting that featured 9 very different wines. The tasting included...

• Sonnet 98: This is a Vidal Blanc, named after Shakespeare's Sonnet 98. It had a very crisp floral aroma with a hint of greens (kind of like grass). It was extremely light and crisp with a nice acidity. It had a very earthy quality about it. This was my favorite wine from the tasting.
• I do: This is a blend of Traminette and Petit Manseng, named for the marriage/blending of the two grapes. Traminette is a cousin of Gewürztraminer and has a similar spicy taste. This wine had a sweet smell with citrus notes. It initially tasted sweet but had a spicy aftertaste. This is something that would probably pair nicely with Asian dishes, such as Pad Thai, or other spicy meals.
• Deep Silence: This is a Cabernet Franc. It has a pretty distinct cabernet aroma with notes of berries and a slight smokiness. It's not overly dry. The berry would pair nicely with a hard cheese.
• AD 325: This is a Chambourcin. It is a deep purple/red color. This wine is said to stain/ink everything that it touches so it is named AD 325 after the most inked book in the world: The Bible. It is unoaked so the taste comes purely from the grapes. It is rather tart with a subtle taste of cherries. Would pair well with chocolate. I almost prefer it when reds are oaked because this one does have a very tart taste.
• Sweet Berry Sunset: This is a blend of raspberry and red grape wine. It has a sweet aroma with a very strong smell of fresh raspberries. I like that they supplemented the fruit wine with grapes, it gives it a nice balance so the raspberries are not too overwhelming. This would be a very nice dessert wine with something chocolately. It also tastes too sweet to be 12.5% alcohol.
• Sudden Downpour: This is a blend of apple and white grape wine (mainly Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc). This blend is aged in bourbon barrels. The wine has an aroma of apples with subtle notes of bourbon. It's sweet and has a viscous mouthfeel without tasting overly sugary. This wine is said to be capable of being mulled and served hot. It would probably tasted like apple cider if that were to be done. 
• Masquerade: This is a Chardonnay. This is a pretty light-flavored Chardonnay. It has an incredibly smooth, creamy, buttery mouthfeel. The flavors are not that strong so it is a pretty light wine with a slight oakey taste.
• Vertex: This is a Cabernet Sauvignon. It is Attimo's most oaked red and the only one aged in French oak. You can smell berries on the nose. It is a dry, rich red but has a silky finish with the oak flavor at the end. This was a pretty nice Cabernet Sauvignon. The menu suggested serving this with rosemary walnuts.
• Seduction: This is a fortified wine made from Tinta Madera/Touriga Nacional/Souzao. They get the grapes for this wine directly from Portugal. It is brownish/red in color. Has an aroma of raisins and raspberry. It is 18% alcohol and has a pretty hot taste. I thought it tasted mainly like raisins. I don't particularly like raisins so I was did not really enjoy this wine.

We were informed that Attimo has about 100 oak barrels on hand, but they don't usually have all of them in use at one time. A majority of the barrels are made from American oak from Pennsylvania although Vertex is aged in French oak. After doing the tasting, we enjoyed a glass of the Sonnet 98 with a fruit and cheese platter. That wine was a very nice complement to the cheese.

Driveway leading back up to Childress Road

 Their driveway is lined on one side with grape vines (as seen on the left side in the photo above) and there are more row back behind the main building (as seen in the photo below).

My friends outside after the tasting

This was a very cute little winery and was conveniently located about 20 minutes away in Christiansburg. The staff is very friendly and welcoming and they offer a very relaxing atmosphere. This was a fun experience and a place I would probably visit again.