Linden Vineyards: Why all the hype?

A few weeks back I FINALLY made it out to Linden Vineyards, with a friend of mine, Jill, who lives out that way. Let me first say that originally I didn't want to visit Linden because of the rule against going on the porch if you weren't a member on their website, they have since softened the tone online a bit. Several other Virginia wine bloggers had such great things to say about Linden it started to move up on my list of vineyards to visit. Then came the day when I got to go, yay! I was very excited, the views were great as we approached the tasting room.

When we entered the tasting room there was a couple tasting and a few folks on the deck, but it was relatively quiet. So quiet we almost didn't want to talk to each other. We stepped up to the bar and were greeted politely by our server. For $5 we tasted 5 wines. We started with the 2010 Seyval, dry & crisp aged in steel; the 2011 Rose was next, a bit tart with strong undertones of sour cherry; the 2010 Chardonnay we were told was actually a blend and aged in new oak, had a buttery nose; the 2010 Claret was also a blend of 46% Merlot, 31% Cab Sav, 15% Petit Verdot and only 8% Cab Franc, but the Franc came out the strongest. We finished with a 2010 Vidal Riesling with 3%r rs and aged in steel. My favorites were the Seyval and surprising the Riesling! I was really looking forward to the Chardonnay, but it wasn't what I had hoped it would be.

After tasting we were deciding between going to another vineyard or to stay for a glass, but the tasting room was so quiet and our server kept hovering it made it an awkward hushed conversation. We decided to skip the glass and try another vineyard since the atmosphere was so stifling. Since Jill had been there a few other times, I asked what she thought of Linden and she said every time she'd been there it was a little tense and hard to relax at.

So after giving it a solid try I'm still left wondering what people love about Linden. Perhaps it is geared to an older demographic? Sure, the views are great, the staff was polite, but the atmosphere not inviting and in my opinion the wines were not any better than many of the neighboring vineyards.  It wasn't terrible by any means, but with so many other more warm and inviting options in the area I'd be reluctant to visit Linden again.