Bluestone Vineyards and Stone Mountain Vineyards

Travels a few weeks ago took us up to beautiful Bridgewater, VA and Bluestone Vineyards.  Bluestone did not have amazing views or even a wine dog, but the people were so friendly and the wine very tasty.  It was a pretty location and the outdoor patio would be a good place on a fall day to relax and enjoy the leaves changing. 

After lunch at a great little barbeque place in Bridgewater, we headed up toward Charlottesville and a visit to Stone Mountain Vineyards.  The views were breathtaking, however so was the drive up - and not in a good way.  The tasting room is located at the top of a mountain, elevation about 1700 feet, and not really on top of the mountain, more built into the mountain.  That is the good part, now for the warning to those faint of heart - to get up to that beautiful location, you travel about 2 miles up a one lane, gravel/dirt, curvy, did I mention one lane, road, straight up, the mountain, did I mention one lane and we did meet cars on the way up.  There are no guardrails, and at a few points there is nothing on one side but a cliff and the side of a mountain on the other.  They do have a good thing going though, cause all I wanted to do when I got to the top of that mountain, was have a drink!  Oh, and I had decided that I would just walk back down, thank you very much.  C, on the other hand, had the foresight to skip the tasting, better to be safe than sorry on the way down.  The trip down, by the way, was not as bad as the trip up.  I guess you are just better prepared for what is coming and you could see better around those hairpin turns.  After the views, the cool factor was getting back down off the mountain safely!