Winery visit: Belliveau Estates Winery

My roommate, Kelsey, and I decided that visiting a winery would be a great way to spend such a beautiful Sunday. Belliveau Estates is only about 20 minutes away from Blacksburg and is gorgeous! Not only is it a winery, but they also have a Bed and Breakfast on their 165 acre property.

Sign on the way onto the property.

Gorgeous view of the grounds on the way to the parking lot

 Once we got there we headed over to their tasting room where we were met by a very nice lady who ran our tasting for us. 

 There were two different sets of tasting options available, Flight 1 and Flight 2. Flight 1 is 3 Dry Wines and 2 Red Zinfandels, which is what I tasted. Kelsey opted for Flight 2 which was Semi-sweet and sweet wines. The tastings only cost $4.00 which is great for what you get!

Here is more information on the wines that I tasted:

"Afternoon Delight"- $18.00- "This lightly oaked dry Vidal Blanc has overtones of grapefruit, melon, almond, clove and a hint of white chocolate."

This wine was golden yellow in color and definitely had a lot of oak and melon taste. It reminded me a lot of Chardonnay. It was a nice wine to start out the tasting with.

"Destiny"- $16.00- "This dry, crisp Vidal Blanc is an excellent sipping wine, especially on a warm afternoon." This one won a bronze medal at the Mid-Atlantic wine show.

This was definitely my favorite, which is why I had to bring a bottle home with me! It was light, refreshing and left me wanting more. It was light yellow, almost clear, in color and had a nice citrus taste and a nice crisp aftertaste.

"Silhouette"- $20.00-  "Our Cabernet Sauvignon is a cornucopia of red berry flavors; raspberry, cherry and red currant, topped with spicy overtones."

Reddish in color, this Cab was nothing like your average Cab Sauv. It had a nice finish, not as full as a normal Cab, with lots of berry flavor and not a hot type of taste that you would have expected. I was definitely pleasantly surprised.

"Rainbow"- $24.00- "Full bodied with the peppery overtones that Zins are known for."

This Zin was very peppery and blood red in color. It had a pretty dry finish and would go great with a nice piece of meat.

"Sunset Sipper"- $24.00- "The Zinfandel has rounded spicy overtones and a smooth finish."

The lady said that customers usually like one of the Zins better than the other and this one was definitely my favorite of the two. It still had that peppery punch like the first Zin, but the finish was much smoother and not as harsh as the first one. It was definitely more well rounded than the other one.

"Reflection"- $ 24.00- "This hearty Traminette has complex notes of apricot, lychee, and lemon. This wine is a luscious and bold sipping wine."

We were very excited to get the opportunity to try this white wine because normally it is not available for a tasting. Luckily they had a bottle already open so she let us try it free of charge! It was not overwhelmingly sweet, but it had a floral punch and an almost overwhelmingly taste of Lychee. It was very different than what I was expecting. They entered it into a Mid-Atlantic wine competition though and it was a gold medal winner!

Just some of their wines on display

I enjoyed "Destiny" so much that I just had to take a bottle home with me! Kelsey decided to bring home a bottle of "A Capella." We're really excited about having these at our leisure.

                                 After the tasting we walked around the rest of the winery area.

We made a little friend while we were touring the property!

Patio space on the side of the tasting room

Back patio on the property

No one was around so we took a selfie!

Picture of the Vineyard

If you are looking for a place to go visit a beautiful winery, Belliveau Estates is definitely the place for you! Visit their website for more information of the tastings and other events that they have!