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.