Every December I make a pilgrimage for one of my favorite annual events – Linden’s library tastings.

Linden Vineyards opened in 1987, and owner Jim Law has been careful to hold back a portion of his vintages so he can see how they evolve over time. That’s allowed him to build an extensive wine library, some dating to nearly the founding of Linden. Jim opens up that library every December.

During the Friday I visited, Linden was doing side-by-side tastings of their Boisseau Chardonnay (2014 and 2019), Petit Verdot (2014 and 2016), and Avenius red (2015 and 2019).

Those were great, but the highlight of the day were the ‘bonus pours’ of their 1996 Chardonnay and 2004 Avenius red. Since library wines were for sale, I purchased a 2017 Avenius Chardonnay to share with my group.

Boisseau Chardonnay: Named after Linden’s warmest vineyard, just outside Front Royal. Both vintages were surprisingly fresh and high acid. I typically find Boisseau wines are more hedonistic compared to their higher-acidity cousins at Hardscrabble and Avenius, but the acidity was spot on here. Both wines were really outstanding.

• 2014 Boisseau. Ripe; lots of green apple, maybe pear? I was told the nose was reminiscent of chamomile tea nose, although I’ll have to take that on trust as I’m not a tea drinker.

• 2019 Boisseau. More tropical than outright ripe, maybe mango or even a hint of banana.  

Petit Verdot. Petit Verdot is the only red wine Linden consistently labels as a full varietal (on rare occasions they’ll also make a Cabernet Franc). But technically, both of these PVs were blends, even if the vast majority of the juice was Petit Verdot.

These wines were also unique in that both had dashes of Carmenere, a variety that Jim experimented with but tore out because it was under-performing.

• 2014 Petit Verdot (88% Petit Verdot, 8% Cabernet Sauvignon, and 4% Carmenere). Fruit forward. The 12% blending soften it up a bit, so this isn’t a ‘slap you in the face with a blueberry’ PV. I had some sediment at the end.

• 2016 Petit Verdot (94% Petit Verdot, 3% Merlot and 3% Carmenere). Another soft expression of PV, but for a different reason. While the 2014 was made in neutral oak barrels, this was made in steel to deemphasize the tannin. Jammy, with raspberry notes.

Avenius red. This is Linden’s highest and coolest site. Lately, Avenius wines have been my favorites in side-by-side comparisons, partially because they are more ‘serious’ than wines made from Boisseau (although that 2014 Boisseau was excellent) but can be enjoyed younger than  Hardscrabble.

• 2015 Avenius. Lots of earth with very faint fruit. I have a bottle I should try soon-ish if I’m to find those fruit notes.

• 2019 Avenius. The primary was there, although it was starting to explore those tertiary notes. I had a bottle in March and my notes then mentioned black fruit and high acidity. I didn’t get as much fruit this time though.

“Bonus pours”

• 1996 Chardonnay. This was all Hardscrabble fruit, although this was before the time when Linden had separate vineyards. The nose was nutty, and reminded me of a petit manseng. Nutty, caramel palate; layered. I’m in awe that a white wine could last nearly 30 years; I love ‘old’ chardonnays, and would absolutely try this again.

• 2004 Avenius red. Tart cherry. I wouldn’t call it ‘fresh’ but it wasn’t nearly as faded as you’d expect from a wine that’s over 20 years old. One member of my group mentioned it had an almost balsamic quality to it.

• 2017 Avenius Chardonnay. I hadn’t had this wine in a long time! Very full, even a little bit tropical.