Saying Goodbye to the Clarksburg Wine Region (Especially Todd and Gloria Taylor)
My last day in the US, Brett and I decided to take a little trip down to Clarksburg to taste a little more wine and to really say goodbye to Todd and Gloria. We had gone out with them the night before but Brett did not get to do any tasting of their wines and quite a bit has come out since he was last in.
We started by stopping off at Scribner Bend which is in Clarksburg and on the other side of the river from the Old Sugar Mill. We ended up meeting Mark Scribner, the owner, but found that he employs the services of a wine making consultant so he is more hands on with the business end of things but certainly knows what he wants and understands the wine making portion of it as well. It was very interesting to talk with him and we then headed off to stop in at another local favorite, Bogle Winery.
Sadly, Bogle has become even more commercialized as compared to what I remember from the last time I was in. I had been in a couple years ago and it still had that "Mom and Pop" feel even though they have a high case production (we even saw their wine in Taiwan) but today, it just feel more like one of the "big dogs" of Napa that is always such a turn off to me. Their wines are still good overall but it was sad to hear them talking to a wine club member how they wouldn't be willing to switch out a bottle from her shipment that she really did not like. They told her to give it as a gift or something. What a shame!
That's ok as we were now off to my favorite place of course, the Old Sugar Mill. We stopped in to see Todd and Gloria and did a little tasting which was nice since I had talked Brett into buying some stuff that he had not got to try so *whew* glad he liked it all! We did a little barrel tasting, some super special barrel tasting and then we wandered next door to Heringer so Brett could try a couple of their wines. After spending some more of Brett's money (hee hee), we went back over to say bye to Todd and Gloria which was super sad! The good thing is I will be back home in a few months and hopefully volunteer a few days while up there! :-)
