In just a month, Rick and I will hit the road for parts (of Virginia) unknown, on the Virginia Wine in My Pocket “150 Wineries in 150 Days Tour.” Yahoozee! Green tree canopies overhanging rocky roads, winding trails leading us to Norton and Petit Verdot and Chardonnay and Merlot. We’ll toast Virginia’s vine progress with a spicy Cab Franc, a fruity Viognier. Gewurz will bemuse, Traminette amuse. And through it all, the tasty pours (and not-so), the sparkling sunny days and the gloomy, rainy ones, we’ll get kinda romantic, remembering that it was just these roads we travelled ten years ago, in the months after we first met.
We drank a lot of wine in those days, and bought a fair number of bottles (75 lining Rick’s kitchen floor at one point). We paused in our travels to take in the rolling hills from Piedmont Vineyard’s Adirondack chairs, sipping Hunt Country Chardonnay. We bantered with the winemaker at Sharp Rock, and talked geology with the smart owner of North Mountain. We ventured down to Charlottesville and splurged on Horton, Burnley, and, of course, Barboursville. (I have no recollection of where we spent the night; such is the nature of wine tasting excursions: sometimes the best are the least remembered). That winter, we stockpiled more than our share of “great for mulling!” wines, and we mulled. Each label reminded us of a day, or a drive, or a winery’s view.
This summer, we’ll revisit some old friends – some of the 60 or so wineries we’ve come to know. But what we’re really looking forward to are the new friends, the ones in Charlotte and Halifax and Pittsylvania. The tiny Botetort County Wine Trail. The blossoming industry on Virginia’s Northern Neck. And, finally, at the very opposite end of our state, the MountainRose Vineyards in Wise, Virginia, just 20 minutes from Kentucky but seven long hours from us.
Why do it?
Tags: app, travel, Virginia, Virginia Wine in My Pocket, wine, wineries
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Responding to Nancy’s blog of May 8th.
We found your site through the ‘Rehoboth in my Pocket’ app, and were happy to see you will travel this summer throughout Virginia tasting and reporting. We discovered the joys of Virginia winery-hopping in ’93. The area around Charlottesville and to the northeast always seemed to provide the best wines. We found Horton before they had opened, then returned later that summer. Their showroom was not built, so we went around back to the cellars to taste and buy. Their ’92 Viognier was so good, so fruity and full that we have returned often to try for another gem. This winery experiments…with grapes and blends that others don’t consider. Burnley and Barboursville are also good.
We look forward to reading about your travels.
Bob K.