This past weekend we did our annual Virginia Wine tour to see what some of our favorite vineyards are serving up and check out some new vineyards, as well. We left early Sunday morning and got to Naked Mountain by 11, just as they opened. Did a tasting, had some veggie lasagna with a glass of wine by the fire, and left with three bottles.
Drove down 81 and stopped at Barren Ridge, a new place for us. A nice little vineyard that fully embraced the viognier grape which is fantastic because if there’s one grape Virginia does really well it’s viognier. Viognier will prove to be VA’s zinfandel over the next decade or so, so we fully support any wineries that serve it up as a varietal and within multiple blends. We picked up three bottles from there and then lowered the classy level by going to Buffalo Wild Wings to watch the Pats/Ravens game.
After the game we checked in at our B&B, the Iris Inn. We’re big fans of the Iris Inn, staying in their Hawks Nest suite that has a private deck complete with hot tub. We sat in the hot tub with a bottle of wine and watched the Giants/Niners game before heading out to Waffle House for dinner. Then it was back to the Iris Inn for more wine and more hot tubbing and we looked like prunes when we got out of the tub at 2AM but it was a fantastic night.
Got breakfast at the B&B the next morning and then headed to Veritas for a tasting (free for us since we’re members), three more bottles of wine, and a glass by the fire. Played with their new 10-week old basset hound and laughed as he tripped over his ears whenever he tried to run.
Then we drove to Blenheim, a winery owned by Dave Matthews. We weren’t crazy about their wines last time we visited but the architecture is magnificent. The wines were much improved, they’re starting to find their legs, but still a bit overpriced - we didn’t buy anything.
On the way to Blenheim we noticed that the once bankrupt and always pretentious Kluge was bought by Donald Trump. A perfect pairing, honestly - almost as good a pairing as Shaquille O’Neal’s once-rumored purchase of the incredibly cheesy Oasis winery. We laughed at the sign and carried on to Barboursville.
At Barboursville we tasted the whole menu and purchased three bottles. We love Barboursville, the vintner there is a bit of a genius and does some great things with the sangiovese grape, the only Virginia-based vintner that has worked the sangiovese well, in our opinion.
And then we headed home.
We also stopped at three Sheetz over the course of two days, naturally.
