Catch Bubba: Something's 'fishy' about this wine

The Mountfair Vineyards Winery in Crozet  is known for the unusual names of its Bordeaux-style red wines which include "Intertwined," "Inaugural," and the linguistically daunting "Wooloomooloo." To get a taste of one of their newest wines, however, you’ll have to supply the fish.

Or rather, you’ll have to catch theirs.

The new wine, "Bubba," a mixture of Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, and Petit Verdot grapes, is named after the hefty Largemouth Bass who has lived in the Vineyard’s pond for five years. This month, if you manage to catch him, three bottles of "Bubba" could be yours.

Mount Vineyard and the pond has been the property of co-founder Chris Yordy for the past 20 years. Yordy opened the winery five years ago after transforming the land from a horse farm. Bubba, however, seems to think he owns the place.

“He’s always been that elusive fish,” says Lizzy Kellinger, Mountfair general manager. “I try to catch him all the time.”

“No one is quite sure how big Bubba is,” she says.

Bubba’s namesake is the latest in a series of humorously named blends on the Vineyard’s wine list, which also includes such names as “Commitment,” “Jilted,” and “Blended Family.”

“The special release wines tend to have a unique name,” Kellinger explains. “We come up with them around the blending table. We were set to release 'Engagement' for the 2011 year, but we did not have enough Merlot to make it. We thought ‘what doesn’t quite meet ‘engagement,’ and somebody suggested, ‘jilted.’"

Of the wine-named-after-a fish, Kellinger says, “We like to name our wines funny names. He’s a big fish, so we figure, why not?”

The Mountfair Vineyards pond will be open to club members wishing to get their shot at wrangling in Bubba, while nonmembers may sign up in the tasting room beforehand. Participants may bring their own rods or borrow ones from the Vineyard.

If you do catch Bubba, however, be sure to throw him back afterward.  He’s really grown on the staff.