Wine Enthusiast Best 100 – Octagon 2019

Buongiorno ~

Elevating a wonderful 12 months for Octagon to yet another, higher peak, Wine Enthusiast has just named Octagon 2019 among the Top 100 Wines of the World for 2023, just as JamesSuckling.com had done for Octagon 2016 5 years ago, for wines of America. Along the way, Octagon 2019 has won 92 Points at Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate as well as at Wine Enthusiast, 94 Points from JamesSuckling.com, and the Gold Medal of two international competitions in California.

Each such attainment, while not unusual for any vintage of this singularly consistent wine, reminds us that it mirrors the wine itself. This was the great virtue of last November’s “Long Tasting” of 18 consecutive vintages of Octagon, to witness the uncanny continuity of character in them all, across a broad spectrum of growing seasons at up to 20 years of age at the time. Every iteration of Octagon is now an instantly recognizable creature of exploration, discovery, and celebration – driven by the hard-won assurance that there is gold in these vineyards, if its pursuit in annually shifting “lodes” of ideal fruit is up to the challenges of variation in the season’s weather. These exploratory, discovering searches are not random, but predicted by methodical plantings over many years. What is within our control, we are constantly enhancing.

Our vow, that there will never be an Octagon except in a superior growing season, would seem to be contradicted by our skipping only 2003 and 2011 in this century. But it is not. We are not desperate, we are resourceful. As we have reported over the years, we are continuously identifying superior plant materials for our conditions, and opening painstakingly prepared new growing sites of optimal exposure. (Here, viticulturist Fernando Franco and I prepare one of our Goodlow Mountain sites for Octagon, several years ago).

The dramatic distinction with Octagon, is that capturing this promise in the vineyard depends not on one varietal, but on three to four — Merlot always, Cabernet Franc almost invariably, and Petit Verdot and/or Cabernet Sauvignon in alternation or combination. Further complicating Octagon’s creation is that the blend is never a mere raid of what’s “best,” but best in its rapport with other varietals. Given the stature of Reserve wines we craft, in each of these varietals, every Octagon is first rivaled by its cousins here.

It’s in the mastery of blending, that we are tested in the winery as bracingly as the grapes are on the vine. It’s a task, nonetheless, of absolute joy, akin to shaping a choir for its harmonies in earliest voice, but fundamentally for a lifetime of unfolding depth and resonance. A wine crafted for immediate consumption is not an Octagon. I am conscious of being supported in this privileged rôle by my senior associates, Fernando Franco – left in the photo above and Daniele Tessaro, right – and by the guidance of 20 richly Gold-medalled vintages before us. It will always be true, that it’s harder for a grape to get into Octagon, than any other wine in the region.

With this latest, gratifying recognition, we celebrate with all of this wine’s followers, the validation of yet another beautiful wine of long age-worthiness in bottle, expressing still the best of its season on the vine. The honor lends support also to our nomination as Winery of the Year, and the final selection of this area as Wine Region of the Year. In this regard, we also salute the placement of our neighbor, Keswick Vineyards and winemaker Stephen Barnard’s wine in the Top 100. Now, Octagon 2019 enters Virginia’s longest tasting of viticultural excellence, with the unmistakeable character of this place and our people. This vintage will remain available through December, and will be retired to the cellar to make way then for the gorgeous 2020 Octagon. To support your celebrations, it is available here and online in 750ml, 1.5 liters, and 3 liters – as well as, at the winery only, 5 liters and 9 liters.

We are proud that our commitment to Octagon and its following extends to setting aside appreciable allocations of every vintage, for indefinite aging in our cellars for the life of the wine. As you’ve seen, our Library 1821 will almost always offer a tasting flight and purchase opportunity, including selected senior vintages. Certain annual feasts at Palladio feature Octagon in advancing maturity. Our bond with the wine is our bond with its followers, and in the year-end holidays to come, there’s common cause to celebrate with any of its vintages.

In the season of celebrations to come, please remember that your dining room is also here, whenever time allows you to visit. Please do call ahead, for lunch or for dinner (540) 832 – 7848. For Octagon 2019 and the vast selection in our cellar, of superior vintages in all our leading wines, I extend the heartiest Thanksgiving wishes.

Cordialmente ~
Luca Paschina Winemaker