#113-120

To sum up this wonderful "Hallo-wine" weekend.
#113 Pippin Hill: A major highlight, great wines, great food, great view, exceptional venue
#114 Albermarle CiderWorks: an acquired taste
#115 Sugarleaf: many wonderful wines
#116 Ox-Eye: a fantastic surprise in historic downtown Staunton
#117 Bluestone: Worth the drive
#118 Barren Ridge: Lived up to expectations
#119 Fincastle: Enough said (read previous posts)
#120 Rockbridge: Especially loved the Pinot Noir Blanc (a rose) and the Tuscarora red.

Fincastle Halloween Event

We arrived at Fincastle about 5:00 yesterday afternoon.  After getting settled, we dressed in our costumes.  The guys wore fins on their heads and backs.  The girls wore hats, cleverly made from paper bags, designed to look like castles (fin + castle, get it?).  We began with a full tasting, still sampling as the other guests began to arrive.  We mingled with the couple dressed as an upper GI and a lower GI, Edgar Allan Poe and Lenore, and a convict and his policewoman guard, among others.  After a short reading by Mr. Poe, the 7 course food and wine pairings began.  Between the appealing decorations, spooky music, great food and wine, and hospitality of David, Katelynn, and the rest of the staff, the night was a roaring success.  Kudos to Fincastle.

Speaking only for myself (Eric), my favorite pairing was the Chardonnay and shrimp with spinach dip.  My favorite wine was the Cab Sauv.

We awoke to a large farmhouse style breakfast.  By the time we left, our bellies were full and we were filled will wonderful memories.

Fincastle

Just arrived at Fincastle winery & B&B. No Comfort Inn for us tonight. We're looking forward to their Halloween party, something we didn't expect when we made our reservations months ago. This will be winery #119. Diane and I have been here before on unofficial business so we know we like thei wines. It's good to be us.

Bluestone

The server, Diane, was wonderful, despite the fact that she's a Red Sox fan. A nice variety of wines. Although Eric and Mike are not real sweet wine drinkers, we liked their Beau and Crooked and Weedy. It was a fun visit.

Ox Eye Lemberger

Mike and Eric really enjoyed this varietal, unusual in VA. Dark color and peppery. Nice.

Pippin Hill

Last night we started our Hallo-wine tour at Pippin Hill. What a wonderful experience! Great service, large portions, delicious food, top flight wines. Oh, and beautiful view. Our highest recommendation.

Blowing glass

After a delightful tasting at Ox Eye in downtown Staunton, the four of us are blowing glass across the street. And all this in the snow.

Town Point Park Fest 10-16

Went to Town Point Park Wine Fest today (Sun.) Will NEVER go on a Sat. again. Sundays are not a drunk fest - nicer and smaller crowd, most of whom actually care about wine. Enjoyed talking to Bonnie from Veritas. Loved AmRhein's hats, as always. Was served by a man wearing a VT hat. Can't beat that. Was served by a girl wearing a UVA shirt. No, I didn't hurt her. Great music. Beautiful weather. I HATE HATE HATE that they sell cigars at some of these fests. The smell of the cigars keesp you from being able to smell the wine! Luckily there weren't many smokers. I finally got a Peace Frog in a glass shirt from Rockbridge. Wanted one for over a year and they were always out.

Two Recommendations (from Eric)

Diane and I traveled to Blacksburg to see our son who plays in the VA Tech marching band.  (Aside: VT beat App. State 66-13!)  On the way, we decided to make an unofficial winery stop.  We learned of a new winery that's not even on the map yet.  It's called Pippin Hill Farm and Vineyard, near Charlottesville.  We did our tastings sitting outside looking at a beautiful view of the mountains.  The tastings are done waiter-style, at a table.  The wine was wonderful.  The food was delicious.  The service was great. 

After the game, we went to Am Rhein Cellars, about 45 minutes from Blacksburg.  This was a second unofficial visit.  (We went there last summer with our boys.)  Am Rhein was doing an event called a midnight stomp.  They did tastings, had food, took pictures of grape stomping (ala Lucy), and had live music.  Am Rhein may be a little out of the way, but it's worth the trip.  We love their wines.  We had a bottle of their Traminette, perfect for a summer evening.  I also really enjoyed their Melange, a light red wine.  Paula Am Rhein was a wonderful hostess.  Considering that a thunderstorm came through for about an hour and a half, delaying the band and keeping all of us under tents, it was a fantastic event.

What's in a Name?

The first weekend of our VA winery quest was in November, 2008. Mike dubbed it the Long and Winery Road. As an avid Beatles fan, this appealed to me. Ever since, we have given each tour a name. My personal favorite was the Doomsday Tour, which coincided with what was supposed to be the end of the world. When we woke up on day two of that tour, we discovered that the world had indeed survived, and we went on visited wineries 96, 97, 98, 99, and the much anticipated #100. Most of our tour names are based on the experiences we have and reflect something about the weekend. The Winestock tour was the weekend of the 40th anniversary of Woodstock. (We even spent the night in Woodstock. The fact that it was Woodstock, VA was beside the point.) The Capitol Short Tour took place close to DC. The Retirement Tour followed the end of Diane’s 31 year career in teaching.

The name for our most recent tour came to us as we were eating (and drinking) lunch at Vitner’s Cellar in Newport News, a winery we had visited before. We had planned to visit several new wineries on the Chesapeake Bay Wine Trail on the Northern Neck, an area we had explored in December of 2008. It occurred to us that we were going over old ground, so the latest tour came to be known as the Sloppy Seconds Tour. The name became increasingly appropriate as we found ourselves doing things and going places we had and done and been to before. I’m writing this early in the morning, the day after our trip. Even with a slight hangover, I have to admit, the Sloppy Seconds Tour was as much fun as all the rest.

Wine on a Weekday

Went to James River on Fri. They have a lot of wines and many I like. Their tasting room is surprisingly small considering their location - get a lot of traffic. Very nice servers. LOVE the Chambourcin. It is good cold, room temp, and hot! Bought 3 bottles.
Next New Kent. We'd heard at James River that they were for sale - but not true. Love their White Merlot. Bought 2 bottles - Gave one to Nathan's girlfriend's parents.
Then on to Saude Creek. They had a small tasting room in Wmsbg over a year ago and we went there. The wife served us and we really liked her. Met husband 2x at festivals. The most recent time, I mentioned having been to their old tasting room and looking forward to seeing their new one. He barely responded to me. Not a great way to treat repeat business. Anyway, the building is beautiful and they have a view of the Pamunkey River. Nice tasting room and places to sit out back.

An Unofficial Wine Trip

On Friday, with Deb and Mike somewhere in PA, Diane and I decided to make a short day trip to a couple of our closest wineries. We started out for Saude Creek to visit their new tasting room. Unfortunately, we missed the exit, so we decided to go all way to James River, about 30 minutes up the road. Our first visit to James River was at the end of our very first wine weekend, and we weren't impressed. But that was so long ago, before we really knew anything about wine. We had a wonderful visit, sampling of about a dozen wines (with nice size pourings.  Our favorite is the Chambourcin, a slightly sweet red wine, great for this time of year.  We also made a return visit to New Kent Winery, about our 10th time.  Again, for this time of year, we love a slightly sweet wine -- their white Merot.  We ended our trip at Saude Creek, which we had some trouble finding.  The new tasting room is beautiful with plenty of places inside and out to sit back with a glass or bottle.  However, by that time, we were about spent, so we enjoyed the tasting and headed home.  This was a great 3-stop trip for us, with minimal driving and lots of worthy wine choices.

Sharing VA Wines

We loved sharing (and drinking) a few of our VA wines with our out of state family guests this weekend. Narmada Cab Franc and Mattaponi strawberry, though polar opposites, were the top two choices.

No wineries this weekend but lots of VA to be shared at our sons' belated graduation party today.

Berry Hill

When we realized that Berry Hill only served Cab Franc, we didn't have very high expectations for this  by appointment only winery.  Boy, were we wrong.  David Hilty, the owner and our server, was wonderful.  His tasting room was inside one bay of a large garage.  We loved what he did with this small, but comfortable room.  We stood around a barrel with a round, glass table top.  He told us stories and shared his experiences.  Yes, he only had Cab Franc (sort of), but we enjoyed our vertical tasting of large sample sizes.  We started with the 2007, his first year of production.  Then, we had the 2009, which was rich and bold.  Next, he took us into the barrel room and we tasted the 2010, which was still in the barrel.  He also shared his 2010 Petit Verdot.  Finally, we mixed the 2010 Cab Franc and Petit Verdot.

We all agreed this was one of our top ten visits.  David was so warm and welcoming.  He was generous with his wines, his time, and his stories.  And we all loved his wines -- even the girls, who aren't usually big Cab Franc fans.

A Word About This Blog

Honestly, keeping a blog has not been a priority for us.  Although we love our winery visits, and we keep fairly extensive notes, this has not translated into keeping an up-to-date blog.  We realized that part of this is that we had no focus for this forum.  It has been a bit of a journal, but that in of itself doesn't make it worth reading by others.

We are proud of how our knowledge and tastes have changed over the last three years, but we do not consider ourselves wine experts.  We know what we like, and we'll share that with others, but as the saying goes, it's the journey, not the destination.  The focus of this blog will be the people and the settings of the wineries we visit.  Don't expect us to slam a wine that someone has put their heart and time into, but don't be surprised if we slam someone for not being welcoming or for being snobby. 

We've had so many wonderful experiences, and we've met such delightful and generous people.  This is what the Virginia wine experience should be, and we'll celebrate it when we see it and wag a finger when we don't.  We want everyone who visits a VA winery -- whether it's one that produces tens of thousands of cases of wine a year or just a few hundred -- to leave saying, "Boy, did we have a fun time . . . and that wine was pretty good too."

Beyond One Hundred

We resumed our quest by returning to Gray Ghost for a second consecutive visit. We were well received by our gracious host/owner, Cheryl Kellert (love your knockers). From there we proceeded to #101 (Gadino), #102 (Berry Hill -- more about that later), #103 (Granite Heights), and #104 Molon Lave. All visits were nice, and each winery was unique in its own way. We're set to go out to hit 105-107 later today. More to come...

Back in the Saddle

After a hiatus of almost a year, the PoLo Wine Club is back and better than ever (with our apologies to Mike and Mike). We had hoped to hit our 100th winery last fall, but for reasons I won't go into here, we had to take some time off. Mike and Deb came down for a visit in March, and we went to a small festival at Cooper. On the way home we stopped at a new winery, Windsong, which got us up to 93.

This past weekend (May 20th), we did our first full blown wine weekend since last June. We visited: Prince Michel (what a place!), Ducard (thanks for squeezing us in, Scott), and then drove to Cave Ridge (a repeat) to see Chatham Street perform and compete to open at the Shenandoah Music Festival in September. (Of course, they won!) So, day 1 got us up to 95.

We'd planned to his 96-99 on Sunday and then start planning #100. We started off at Capitol (hard to find but unique in that they do wine and food pairings), and then went to Vintage Ridge (where they also do pairings). While we were sitting around, we were discussing the possiblity of #100 being a disappointment after all our anticipation and planning. Mike suggested, rather than do a lot of planning, that we just DO IT, and get to 100 before the sun went down. So we scrapped our plans to go to Hume (the elusive winery but we'll get there one day) and headed for Unicorn (98). Number 99 was a real treat. Narmada, the only winery in the US with Indian owners, was a blast. They had a wonderful duo who played guitar and sang music from the 60s and 70s. (Diane even got me to dance.) We had a superb tasting with (I'll get her name from our notes) and ate Indian food.

Finally, with about a half hour to spare, we drove right up the road to Gray Ghost. Both couples had been there separately and loved it, but because we hadn't been together, they weren't official yet. When we arrived, we told Al Kellert, the owner, that we were here to celebrate our 100th winery. He and his wife Cheryl were so warm and gracious. We had a full tasting, and they let us stay beyond their regular hours. Now, we're talking about doing visit #100, part 2 by revisiting Gray Ghost and making a day of it.

If you're ever in the Warrenton area, make sure you visit Narmada and Gray Ghost. No disrespect to the other wineries in the area, but these two are among my favorites.