It’s not about the wine – well not totally for me anyway.
We enjoy visiting the wineries around the Commonwealth of Virginia and I always look for something called the “Cool Factor”. The Cool Factor is a cute wine dog that greets us on the property, a view that takes your breath away, really nice people or service that goes above and beyond. Sometimes the Cool Factor is something you just feel by being there. These things are why we enjoy visiting Virginia wineries.
I do not pretend to be a wine expert, when C and I started out on our wine tasting journey, I liked the really, really sweet stuff. When the late harvest bottle was brought out, my eyes would light up. Yummy. Now, I find that some of those are sweet for my taste, I have even had some that were almost syrupy. And recently, this is pretty exciting, I purchased a red, yes a red, that I rather liked. Typically if I would purchase a red, it would be just to take to a family event. This one I will take for Thanksgiving dinner, but I look forward to drinking it also. Tastes do change and the biggest thing I have learned in my Virginia wine tasting time is this – drink what you like (but it does not hurt to taste it all to find what you like!!)!!
Janet, this is for you.
Recent visits included AmRhein’s Wine Cellars in Bent Mountain, VA, Valhalla Vineyards in Roanoke, VA and Sugarleaf Vineyards in North Garden, VA.
AmRhein was first on a Saturday afternoon. When we drove up, the view was nice, but not spectacular, but there was a precious wine dog sitting patiently outside. We never did get his name, but he and C bonded immediately. What a cute pup! Then there was the 17 year old inside wine dog named Lady. We talked to Lady even though she was quite deaf and were informed by other visitors that Lady particularly liked the cheese that was served there, and even though she was quite blind, her nose worked well when a tray of that cheese came out! Very cute.
There was only one person working that day, pouring the wine and making cheese trays, but he managed to take care of everyone. And the wines, well I thought they were just delicious!
The Cool Factor for AmRhein were the cute wine dogs and that really good wine!
After lunch we headed over to Valhalla Vineyards. The view of the Roanoke Valley was breathtaking! After our wine tasting we went outside and just sat and enjoyed the view. It was a beautiful day, particularly for early November and what a great way to spend it.
I will say that the wines were just not us. I might have gone away from the most desserty of wines, but there seemed to be no sweetness in any of these wines and they just did not work for me. The view, however did work for me and that rates Valhalla a Cool Factor.
On Sunday we drove over to Sugarleaf Vineyards. To get to Sugarleaf you travel about a mile up a gravel road, that although it is not curving up a mountain, it is curvy, has very close sides and you wondered what would you do if you met a car coming in the opposite direction! When you do get to the wine tasting room, you are rewarded with beautiful scenery and even though it was November some leaves did remain on the trees and the image that the name Sugarleaf invokes was evident as you looked around.
The tasting room at Sugarleaf took full advantage of that beautiful view, providing the view to the tasters as well as the pourer. That is a job well done. Too often the testing rooms are designed so that the view is lost as soon as you walk in. But not Sugarleaf – Big Cool Factor there!
The wines were nice – oh and did I mention the wine dogs – Cab and Franc! C made buddies with those guys as soon as he got out of the car! Very Cool.
