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.
