>>Well, I'm here today at the Hague Winery in Hague, Virginia and I'm joined by Cheryl and Steve.

And guys, thank you so much for having us here, for entertaining us with your wonderful wine and your stories about this winery.

So tell us a little bit about the winery how you got started, Steve.

>>Okay.

Let's see.

We bought the place in 2000.

It's 140 acre farm and we really got out of Washington and that's all that we wanted to do.

>>Yeah.

>>And we had two teenage sons who were challenges and being here meant shooting skeet over the field, going sailing, bringing their pals down here and so on.

Elder son eventually said, "Dad, I'll be the winemaker."

Of course he hadn't had any education for that.

But he went out to California.

He got all A's in junior college and he's a recipient of a scholarship, UC Davis, and he's a Vines and Wines guy.

But he didn't come home.

He lives in San Francisco.

He's with his girlfriend in Spain right now.

He does blends with us.

He obtains equipment for us.

He does tastings and a lot of stuff.

It ends up being Cheryl, Tucker and myself doing the blends and a lot of the arrangements for what you're gonna have in this now, he just doesn't live here now.

That's how it ended up.

I now have a swell place to live, a big vineyard and that's about it.

>>Oh goodness.

Cheryl, I know that you take on a lot of hats here.

>>Yes.

>>So what are your roles here at the vineyard?

>>So I do the bookkeeping, I do the event management, tasting room management.

I've gotten so I have a hand now I get to play in blending of the wines.

So a little bit of everything.

>>Yeah >>Yeah >>Oh yeah.

>>She's the face of the business and she's a far different generation than I am.

And dealing with digital things, social media, initiating things, it's entirely different from what I'm able to do or willing to do, I suppose.

>>That's fantastic.

Well, tell us a little bit about the varietals you grow here.

>>Okay.

The first one we're gonna have and what's proved very successful for us is Chardonel.

>>All right.

>>Which is a cross between Chardonnay and Seyval Blanc done at Cornell, hence Chardonel.

>>So let's pour a little bit of this Chardonel.

>>Alright, so this is our 2019 Chardonel.

This one is fermented on the leaves and it's aged in German oak.

So light hint of Oak on this one.

Not real heavy or overpowering.

It's going to have a creamier mouth feel instead of that heavy buttery, heavy oakiness of a Chardonnay.

So just those are the main differences here.

>>That's cool.

I'm not as familiar with that German oak, so this is cool.

Oh yeah, I get that creamier mouth feel and I can imagine it with some amazing seafood.

>>Yeah.

And a German oak is lighter, it's gonna be lighter than an American or a French oak.

>>Well, and now what are we gonna try?

>>We have our Cabernet Franc.

>>Excellent.

Let's try a little Cab Franc.

Now, I love a good Cab Franc and- >>Yes ma'am.

>>I know that you do Cab Franc, you do yours a little differently.

>>Okay.

>>Yeah.

So how do you do that?

>>Well, every year is different.

And that's what happens in vineyards most nearly everywhere.

And I have our first 14 rows out there is all Cab Franc but it's an Italian clone called VCR-10.

It's smaller berries, which is going to give you more skins per unit volume or darker color.

>>Okay.

>>And then we have two more additional rows at the end, it's a French one.

All right.

What we did was we harvested this, it was going to be before a storm.

I would like to have had it hang longer.

I'd like to have had a little bit better color in the thing, but that's not an option.

You have to decide.

And so we brought it in, and having done that and Tucker was here and Cheryl and I did the tasting of the initial Cab Franc and said, "It's pretty light" and even a little green that I, we really didn't like but how about we add a barrel of Petit Verdot, a barrel of Merlot.

We have it in wood a little bit more intensely and longer.

>>Sure.

>>We could really call it a Meritage or a Bordeaux style.

But being 80% Cab Franc.

>>Yes.

>>It's Cab Franc.

>>Right.

>>So we end up with, we hope, a little more complexity in it, and as it's aged, it's integrated nicely.

>>Well let's give it a try.

>>Sure.

>>Yeah.

Now in the law is that you have to have 75% of the main grape to call it that varietal.

I just, I love this blend because it is Cab Franc all over the place, but then it just highlights in different parts of your palette.

Oh, very nice.

>>We had to smooth it out and I think we got that done.

>>Yeah.

And I'll just say, so it's a 2020 so it's more light to medium bodied right now.

>>Sure.

>>I've been here for about 10 years and I'll, I'm more of a red wine fan anyhow, but I'll say from here, from this vineyard the Cab Franc is consistently like amazing.

And if you lay it down it will continue to age really well over time too, so.

>>Oh, awesome.

Well this is just wonderful and I just want to salute you.

>>Yes.

>>For making in incredible wine in this beautiful place.

>>Thank you.

>>And thanks so much for having us.

>>Thank you.

>>Very kind.