I enjoy going to wineries, the drive out to a land that seems far away but really isn't, lots of photo ops and time to just relax and breathe. However, on this particular Saturday, the Evil Red Genius and I decided to stay local and partake in some wine shop tastings.
Our first stop was the Clifton Wine Shop and Tasting Room. I hadn't been to Lucinda's shop in about a year and I knew that she had moved into a bigger space so I wanted to check it out. What a beautiful new space and room for a lot more wine!
The daily tasting consisted of three wines from the Donkey and Goat Winery in Berkeley, CA. Tracey & Jared Brandt craft their natural wines from Rhône varietals, Chardonnay and Pinot Noir grown in the Anderson Valley, Mendocino Ridge and the undiscovered El Dorado appellation in the Sierra Foothills. They strive to make wine as natural as possible and have from the start. It's not a new fad for them as it is for many lately.
2011 White Wine Blend - Sluice Box - 50% Marssane, 34% Grenache Blanc,14% Vermentino and 2% Picpoul. This is a white wine with a red’s backbone! It immediately reminded me of Blindfold from the Prisoner Wine Company. Dave Phinney just sold the Prisoner label and Blindfold is the white equal to Prisoner.
Carignane - I don't remember which year but it was a nice light red. Would go well with pizza.
I know the third wine was a red but I honestly don't remember what it was or a thing about it.
Hey, it was free, what do you expect? Plus we started talking Orin Swift and the rest went foggy.
Above is a very cool book that Lucinda showed us. May have to find it on sale somewhere!
Orin has two wines listed in there!
After we left Clifton, we headed to Occoquan. Not only are there three places in the town that have free wine tastings every Saturday, but I was finally going to see Keith at Mom's Wine Shop for the first time since he left my happy place over a year ago!! The icing on the cake was being able to see Guy Bell there as well! I hadn't see Guy since last summer when we went to Wolf Trap together. I'll never forget when Michael said to me, in reference to Guy, "The women want him and the men want to BE him." If you know Guy, you'll know that is the truth!
Unfortunately, I have no pictures of anything at Mom's Wine Shop. Unbelievable and unacceptable. We just had so much fun catching up that I wasn't even thinking of using my camera! Keith has a fantastic little wine shop attached to Mom's Apple Pie Bakery and it did my heart such good to see him. The wines on the tasting were nothing spectacular to me. Three were sparkling fruit wines in honor of Easter weekend and they did nothing for me. However, I did purchase quite a few wines to take home - great prices, wines I hadn't seen for sale in years that I remembered fondly and a Mom's wine bag!! Yay me!
Next we walked the town and stopped in the Bottle Stop. Yes, a few posts ago I mentioned how I'd never go back there again. Well, it's amazing how a spring day and the word "free" will entice me.
James River Cellars, located in Glen Allen, Virginia (near the 95S split at Atlee), were the spotlight wines for the tasting at the Bottle Stop. We tasted a Chardonnay, Vidal Blanc, Chambourcin and Petit Verdot. Nothing stood out in this line up. Nothing was repulsive but nothing was spectacular.
However, the conversation got lively when the James River rep told us that we should warm up the Chambourcin. Now, I am no wine expert, but I have never heard of warming up a Chambourcin. I have heard of chilling a Chambourcin just a tad but never putting it in the microwave as this dude suggested. I thought he was trying to pull one over on us. The manager of the Bottle Stop was standing there and gave the dude the same look that I did - disbelief.
Because it wasn't crowded and we wanted to know if this guy was legit or not, we then tried a tiny bit of the Chambourcin heated in the microwave for a few seconds. Shockingly enough, it made it better! It reminded me of a mulled wine but needed more spices. Now, had he said they use it as their mulled wine, that would have made more sense. Telling me to heat it up in the microwave was just nonsense to me! Later, I found on their website that he is the Assistant General Manager at the winery. Interesting.
While we were there, we figured we would sit down and have lunch and share a bottle of wine. We were told it would take 20 minutes so we took our time trying to decide which wine we wanted to purchase. When we were told there was a $10 corking fee, that changed everything! After we picked our chins up off the floor we had to re-strategize.
We decided upon the The Velvet Devil a 2012 Merlot from Washington State.
Plum, black cherry, grape jelly. Very jammy and smooth like velvet. Shocking, eh? Yeah, not so much. It was a very pleasant Merlot, although definitely not my favorite. However, it paired wonderfully well with the two pizzas that we shared, people watching outdoors and being hit on by a local elected official, who will remain nameless.
To the left is "The 'Baller" - naan topped with homemade truffle tomato sauce, mozzarella cheese, and sliced meatballs sprinkled with red pepper flakes. Below is "That's So Cheesy" - white pizza topped with their signature parmesan asiago dip, mozzarella and fontina cheeses, red pepper flakes, oregano and sweety drops.
Bottle Stop is still overpriced and overrated but it was entertaining on this spring day, that was for sure. The wine paired really well with the pizzas and we were able to relax outdoors with plenty to talk about!
It is also on this day, outside on their front patio, where I was given my new nickname -
the Velvet Devil!
The Evil Red Genuis needs an appropriate side kick, after all!
Our last stop was across the street at "Tastefully Yours" for our last free wine tasting of the day!
No pictures here because the tasting was boring, the staff was bland and I didn't even try all the wines on the tasting. In the room next door was a beer tasting and we ended the day with a bang!
Bell's Oberon! I don't care for many beers but I'll always be fond of Bell's from Kalamzoo!
A local simple pleasures wine-ing afternoon!
"Now and then it's good to pause in our pursuit of happiness and just be happy.”
-Guillaume Apollinaire
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