It was an all day affair, given the perfect weather and company.
Take a drive out 250 and stop where we want to.
There was Keswick Vineyards under an umbrella on an impossibly beautiful afternoon.
After tasting through eight wines and discussing our pourer's beagles, Molly and Tuck, we settled in for glasses of the 2012 Viognier, acidic with great length on the palate and layers of pear and apricot.
Dogs were everywhere at the winery, including a sad-faced hound from the Fluvanna SPCA, to whom I gave much love and hopes for a loving family.
I had to laugh at the woman telling her dog, "Remember what you promised!"
To be honest, he didn't look like he'd promised anything.
There was the Barbecue Exchange for brisket, pulled pork, hushpuppies and fries, where I met the man in charge of the 'cue, Van.
"You like tofu?" he asked after our discussion of his pig and cow. Do I look like I like tofu?
His meat was enjoyed at a table on the porch of the Exchange Hotel.
It wasn't my first time at the Exchange, although last time was inside to meet the resident ghost and today was solely for shade during lunch.
Yes, the same hotel where women used to sell fried chicken to the soldiers on the trains passing through Gordonsville.
And, yes, a train passed by and, no, I had no fried chicken to sell.
At Barboursville Vineyard, it was an oversized orange beach towel under a shady tree for a bottle of Vermentino Reserve 2012, dry and with a nice minerality.
Around us, people boringly discussed politics, a couple looked at their phones rather than each other and children rolled down the hill, one landing against my wine glass, which fortunately, I was holding tight.
The endless parade of new arrivals provided more than enough fodder for conversation as we sipped.
Really, platform shoes for winery hopping?
There was a stroll on the downtown mall to decide on a dinner location with Petit Pois the winner because they had outdoor tables and moules.
Add to the mussels a bottle of Virginia Fizz, a plate of fromage and tartare de boeuf, and you've got a recipe for several hours' pleasure.
Dogs slept while tables filled up and we marveled at the briskness of a Sunday night's business on the mall.
Couldn't help hoping that Richmond restaurants were just as busy tonight.
I ran into the delightful musician Guion of the Nettles, on his turf for a change, and heard about his recent adventures with outdoor pizza.
Then there was a stroll through a nearby neighborhood, admiring elaborate porches, hidden gardens and running into a familiar face from Richmond, out walking his dog.
Twelve hours and some mighty fine conversation later, I'd start all over and do it again.
Ready when my ride is.
Showing posts with label keswick vineyards. Show all posts
Showing posts with label keswick vineyards. Show all posts
Monday, August 5, 2013
Tuesday, July 5, 2011
Let Freedom Ring
Current read: "Bad Girls" by Jan Stradling/2008
Best song randomly heard: "Bad Reputation" by Freedy Johnston/1994
Nothing says July Fourth like alcohol and explosives, to quote one of my guests today.
That said, AAA was correct; clearly fewer people traveled for the fourth this year because usually the beach is crawling with day trippers on Independence Day and today it was business as usual, at least on our stretch of beach.
The first full day of vacation always involves overindulging in food and napping and today was no different.
After a breakfast with an obscene amount of local sausage (Griffin's of Williamston, NC), I headed up the beach for my daily walk, knowing full well I'd see a stars and stripes bikini on a body on which it did not belong.
I did. Commentary withheld because this is the land of the free.
I was surprised at how much narrower the beach has gotten north of the pier, but there were just as many dedicated joggers up there as always.
No doubt they see me as a lollygagger with my meandering walking; half the time I'm walking at the water's edge to get wet plus I have a tendency to stop and chat with anyone who tries to talk me up.
Joggers don't pause.
I clocked in with not one, but two (half-hour) naps today, but was bested by a guest who napped for two and a half hours before grabbing a beer and joining us on the beach.
Discussion revolved around relationships and, although none of us are in one at the moment, all of us have aspirations as well as advice to offer the others on where they need to be.
Summer sun and happy hour make people bold about what they say on vacation.
A different kind of satisfaction arrived when I finished yesterday's book about the making of "Apocalypse Now" written by Coppola's then-wife.
Her descriptions of the problems caused by the stifling heat of the Philippines, the challenges of using military helicopters to make a movie (sometimes they had to leave to attend to the civil war in the south) and her disintegrating marriage were told in matter-of-fact snippets as she attempted to make a documentary about the making of the movie.
Book number one, done.
By the time we finished eating dinner on the breezy porch, it was time to take up our positions on the beach for watching the fireworks, glad that the rain had held off.
Besides the two major displays at the piers on either side of us, dozens of budding arsonists were setting off smaller shows up and down the beach.
The problem is always which way to watch; it's a little like a tennis game, first right and then left and try not to miss anything.
The good news is that we heard neither screams nor sirens.
Afterwards, we sat on the porch sipping Keswick Vineyards Monticello, a late season viognier dessert wine, with chunks of Lindt extra dark chocolate (85% cocoa) and watching the smoke from the fireworks hang in the densely humid air.
Explosives over and alcohol imbibed, we'd done what we needed to in order to properly celebrate this important day.
The naps and relationship talk were pure gravy.
Best song randomly heard: "Bad Reputation" by Freedy Johnston/1994
Nothing says July Fourth like alcohol and explosives, to quote one of my guests today.
That said, AAA was correct; clearly fewer people traveled for the fourth this year because usually the beach is crawling with day trippers on Independence Day and today it was business as usual, at least on our stretch of beach.
The first full day of vacation always involves overindulging in food and napping and today was no different.
After a breakfast with an obscene amount of local sausage (Griffin's of Williamston, NC), I headed up the beach for my daily walk, knowing full well I'd see a stars and stripes bikini on a body on which it did not belong.
I did. Commentary withheld because this is the land of the free.
I was surprised at how much narrower the beach has gotten north of the pier, but there were just as many dedicated joggers up there as always.
No doubt they see me as a lollygagger with my meandering walking; half the time I'm walking at the water's edge to get wet plus I have a tendency to stop and chat with anyone who tries to talk me up.
Joggers don't pause.
I clocked in with not one, but two (half-hour) naps today, but was bested by a guest who napped for two and a half hours before grabbing a beer and joining us on the beach.
Discussion revolved around relationships and, although none of us are in one at the moment, all of us have aspirations as well as advice to offer the others on where they need to be.
Summer sun and happy hour make people bold about what they say on vacation.
A different kind of satisfaction arrived when I finished yesterday's book about the making of "Apocalypse Now" written by Coppola's then-wife.
Her descriptions of the problems caused by the stifling heat of the Philippines, the challenges of using military helicopters to make a movie (sometimes they had to leave to attend to the civil war in the south) and her disintegrating marriage were told in matter-of-fact snippets as she attempted to make a documentary about the making of the movie.
Book number one, done.
By the time we finished eating dinner on the breezy porch, it was time to take up our positions on the beach for watching the fireworks, glad that the rain had held off.
Besides the two major displays at the piers on either side of us, dozens of budding arsonists were setting off smaller shows up and down the beach.
The problem is always which way to watch; it's a little like a tennis game, first right and then left and try not to miss anything.
The good news is that we heard neither screams nor sirens.
Afterwards, we sat on the porch sipping Keswick Vineyards Monticello, a late season viognier dessert wine, with chunks of Lindt extra dark chocolate (85% cocoa) and watching the smoke from the fireworks hang in the densely humid air.
Explosives over and alcohol imbibed, we'd done what we needed to in order to properly celebrate this important day.
The naps and relationship talk were pure gravy.
Friday, June 24, 2011
Tasting Like a Girl
Sometimes it's not where you go, but just that you're getting away.
A friend was in need of a road trip and sent me a list of options (National Zoo, Natural History Museum, river, Southern MD for crabs, and on and on), telling me to choose our destination.
I chose wineries and dinner in Charlottesville and we set off shortly after mid-day with ham biscuits and cookies in the cooler.
The bitch of it was that we hit a nearly one hour back-up twenty minutes outside of C-ville. So we sat, munched and chatted while waiting for the traffic to merge and move.
The delay changed our plans and we began our odyssey at King Family Vineyards, a stunning location from the moment we pulled in.
Bellying up to the tasting bar, we agreed to taste whatever they were pouring; sadly, that did not include the Cab Franc or Petite Verdot, two of my favorite grapes.
I liked the Crose' Rose' done in the Provence style, and the 2009 Meritage done in a Bordeaux style, but surprisingly, my/our favorite was the Loreley, a 2009 dessert wine.
Not to gush, but this "straw wine" (rather than an ice wine), a blend of Viognier and Petit Manseng, had to be one of the most delicately beautiful wines I've ever tasted.
Before I could self-edit, I described it as, "Tasting like a girl," and both our pourer and my companion agreed enthusiastically that that was a perfect description.
Tasting of tangerine, peach and gingerbread, it had the most beautiful aroma and a creamy mouth feel, but none of the excessive sugar you'd expect.
We were so impressed with it that we got two glasses of it and went outside to find a shaded table and enjoy it at our leisure.
King Family has a beautiful piece of property at the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains and we watched horses on the polo field as we sipped (they have weekly polo matches there on Sunday) and chatted.
A glass apiece was not sufficient, however, and we got two bottles so we could each have access to this creamy delight at home.
From there we backtracked across C-ville to Keswick Vineyards to see what they had to offer.
Their Italian grape Verdejo impressed us greatly with its drinkability and grassy notes. It was the best kind of summer wine.
The 2009 Petite Verdot had a big nose smelling of violets and with good tannins. I could see why it had won a Silver at the Virginia Governor's Cup.
But once again, we were blown away by their dessert offering, the 2009 Nektar, a dessert wine of 100% Viognier.
Neither of us are particularly inclined to dessert wines, but this high alcohol (14%) and high sugar (10%) beauty tasted like liquid apricots. Two more bottles were purchased, along with some Verdejo,
In spite of ourselves, we had become dessert wine fiends for a day and we had no idea what that was about.
While our charming pourer was having us taste Chocolate/Norton sauce over cookies (divine, really, but then I've always been a fan of the Norton grape), it occurred to me that he could be of assistance in our dinner plans.
We'd planned to return to C-ville for dinner, but I began to think that we were actually closer to Gordonsville. Correct, he confirmed. That settled it.
So it was that we went to the charming French bistro Pomme for dinner, a place I hadn't been in over five years, despite having had a superb meal there last time.
We were given the front window seat and our young server Ben was eager to be of assistance.
I asked for a glass of Ma Couleur Cotes de Provence Rose after teasing him about the few Virginia wines on the list. My friend settled on a Cotes de Rhone.
Young Ben told us the specials and there was no resisting the fish terrine, made with monkfish, sole, shrimp, scallops and red and yellow peppers with a basil aioli. I am a complete sucker for a seafood terrine.
And it was delightful, creamy ad tasting of the sea with big chunks of peppers and a house-made mayonnaise drizzled over the whole slice.
With some crusty bread, it made for a delicacy of a first course.
Ben kept trying to move us along and we kept taking our time, assuring him that we had no place to be, which seemed to perplex him.
We ordered the Hugl Gruner Veltliner to give him something to do and he ended up abdicating this responsibility to someone else. Apparently locating Austrian wine was beyond him.
House salads followed next, elevated by the soft butter lettuces and the chopped beets. They were so perfectly dressed that it led to a discussion of the scourge of overdressed restaurant salads.
The two of us negotiated about entrees, finally settling on the classic fillet de sole St. Germain (lightly breaded sole with Meuniere butter) and one of the evening's specials, fillet Mignon with lobster.
We shared these two dishes, admiring the perfection of the sole and wishing the fillet had been a tad more rare. The lobster meat was sweet and plentiful.
Eventually we stopped eating to save room for dessert, although they were out of two of their best.
The manager stopped by to pour us more wine and I commented to him on the absence of a good Virginia dessert wine on their list.
As it turned out, they were only temporarily out of the Loreley and would soon have it back on the dessert wine listing. Their stock grew hugely in our eyes when we heard this.
Despite the holes in the dessert menu, we made do with a special, Edelweiss cake (white chocolate and raspberry cake), and the perennial standby, chocolate lava cake.
The Edelweiss was the star, impressing my friend (who had visited Austria and come back desolate about dessert here) and even me, the white chocolate hater.
My friend had a coffee since he had to drive back, but being the considerate and thoughtful friend that he is, he chose a route to please me.
Instead of the obvious I-64, we came back on a secondary road, Route 33, winding our way rhrough countryside and small towns.
With daylight lasting so long, we had wonderful views of heat lightening and hills as we tore around curves and over rickety bridges (he has a fast car and a lead foot).
And he's a good and long-time friend. Did I tell him that I had a a fun day? I did, because I had.
Could I also have imagined spending that day doing the exact same thing with another? I could.
Sometimes people need to get away and the "with whom" has multiple options.
Sometimes just getting away is enough.
A friend was in need of a road trip and sent me a list of options (National Zoo, Natural History Museum, river, Southern MD for crabs, and on and on), telling me to choose our destination.
I chose wineries and dinner in Charlottesville and we set off shortly after mid-day with ham biscuits and cookies in the cooler.
The bitch of it was that we hit a nearly one hour back-up twenty minutes outside of C-ville. So we sat, munched and chatted while waiting for the traffic to merge and move.
The delay changed our plans and we began our odyssey at King Family Vineyards, a stunning location from the moment we pulled in.
Bellying up to the tasting bar, we agreed to taste whatever they were pouring; sadly, that did not include the Cab Franc or Petite Verdot, two of my favorite grapes.
I liked the Crose' Rose' done in the Provence style, and the 2009 Meritage done in a Bordeaux style, but surprisingly, my/our favorite was the Loreley, a 2009 dessert wine.
Not to gush, but this "straw wine" (rather than an ice wine), a blend of Viognier and Petit Manseng, had to be one of the most delicately beautiful wines I've ever tasted.
Before I could self-edit, I described it as, "Tasting like a girl," and both our pourer and my companion agreed enthusiastically that that was a perfect description.
Tasting of tangerine, peach and gingerbread, it had the most beautiful aroma and a creamy mouth feel, but none of the excessive sugar you'd expect.
We were so impressed with it that we got two glasses of it and went outside to find a shaded table and enjoy it at our leisure.
King Family has a beautiful piece of property at the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains and we watched horses on the polo field as we sipped (they have weekly polo matches there on Sunday) and chatted.
A glass apiece was not sufficient, however, and we got two bottles so we could each have access to this creamy delight at home.
From there we backtracked across C-ville to Keswick Vineyards to see what they had to offer.
Their Italian grape Verdejo impressed us greatly with its drinkability and grassy notes. It was the best kind of summer wine.
The 2009 Petite Verdot had a big nose smelling of violets and with good tannins. I could see why it had won a Silver at the Virginia Governor's Cup.
But once again, we were blown away by their dessert offering, the 2009 Nektar, a dessert wine of 100% Viognier.
Neither of us are particularly inclined to dessert wines, but this high alcohol (14%) and high sugar (10%) beauty tasted like liquid apricots. Two more bottles were purchased, along with some Verdejo,
In spite of ourselves, we had become dessert wine fiends for a day and we had no idea what that was about.
While our charming pourer was having us taste Chocolate/Norton sauce over cookies (divine, really, but then I've always been a fan of the Norton grape), it occurred to me that he could be of assistance in our dinner plans.
We'd planned to return to C-ville for dinner, but I began to think that we were actually closer to Gordonsville. Correct, he confirmed. That settled it.
So it was that we went to the charming French bistro Pomme for dinner, a place I hadn't been in over five years, despite having had a superb meal there last time.
We were given the front window seat and our young server Ben was eager to be of assistance.
I asked for a glass of Ma Couleur Cotes de Provence Rose after teasing him about the few Virginia wines on the list. My friend settled on a Cotes de Rhone.
Young Ben told us the specials and there was no resisting the fish terrine, made with monkfish, sole, shrimp, scallops and red and yellow peppers with a basil aioli. I am a complete sucker for a seafood terrine.
And it was delightful, creamy ad tasting of the sea with big chunks of peppers and a house-made mayonnaise drizzled over the whole slice.
With some crusty bread, it made for a delicacy of a first course.
Ben kept trying to move us along and we kept taking our time, assuring him that we had no place to be, which seemed to perplex him.
We ordered the Hugl Gruner Veltliner to give him something to do and he ended up abdicating this responsibility to someone else. Apparently locating Austrian wine was beyond him.
House salads followed next, elevated by the soft butter lettuces and the chopped beets. They were so perfectly dressed that it led to a discussion of the scourge of overdressed restaurant salads.
The two of us negotiated about entrees, finally settling on the classic fillet de sole St. Germain (lightly breaded sole with Meuniere butter) and one of the evening's specials, fillet Mignon with lobster.
We shared these two dishes, admiring the perfection of the sole and wishing the fillet had been a tad more rare. The lobster meat was sweet and plentiful.
Eventually we stopped eating to save room for dessert, although they were out of two of their best.
The manager stopped by to pour us more wine and I commented to him on the absence of a good Virginia dessert wine on their list.
As it turned out, they were only temporarily out of the Loreley and would soon have it back on the dessert wine listing. Their stock grew hugely in our eyes when we heard this.
Despite the holes in the dessert menu, we made do with a special, Edelweiss cake (white chocolate and raspberry cake), and the perennial standby, chocolate lava cake.
The Edelweiss was the star, impressing my friend (who had visited Austria and come back desolate about dessert here) and even me, the white chocolate hater.
My friend had a coffee since he had to drive back, but being the considerate and thoughtful friend that he is, he chose a route to please me.
Instead of the obvious I-64, we came back on a secondary road, Route 33, winding our way rhrough countryside and small towns.
With daylight lasting so long, we had wonderful views of heat lightening and hills as we tore around curves and over rickety bridges (he has a fast car and a lead foot).
And he's a good and long-time friend. Did I tell him that I had a a fun day? I did, because I had.
Could I also have imagined spending that day doing the exact same thing with another? I could.
Sometimes people need to get away and the "with whom" has multiple options.
Sometimes just getting away is enough.
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