Springtime in NOVA

What do you like in your Virginia winery?  Do you like a quaint barn for a tasting room with food pairings for each wine?  Do you like a modern tasting room with breathtaking views?  Maybe you want a large destination venue with good wines and customer service or an intimate tasting with the owner in an old house converted to a tasting room or you could have a tasting inside the room with the stainless barrels, some of the best views ever and an enlightening discussion with the owner.  We had all of these in our recent wine visits.  People are constantly asking me my favorite winery – with such diversity, how do you pick just one?  

Aspen Dale Winery at the Barn in Delaplane, VA.  The tasting room is a cool, old barn.  On the day we visited it was an old cold barn!  The temperature never got out of the 30’s that day and the barn has no insulation, but that was okay, they had some heaters going and a great fireplace with a comfy sofa snuggled up next to it.  They have a wonderful outdoor area that will be great in warmer weather.  They are having their first wedding there in April and I know it will be beautiful!  The owner did our tasting and with a food pairing for each wine, it was delightful.  After the owner went through each wine and its food pairing (yes, I ate Pheasant sausage) she brought out a flourless chocolate cake from a local baker and we ate that with a glass of wine by that lovely fireplace.  That was birthday cake #1.  It was delightful!

Our next stop was Delaplane Cellars in Delaplane, VA.  Talk about differences - the tasting room for Delaplane was new and built to take advantage of the breathtaking mountain views.  The lady doing our tasting was retired and was a complete foodie and wine enthusiast!  She was great fun and with no one else visiting, we had a great time.  It was too cold to spend time on their patio, but on a nice day, what a great place it would be to spend time.  

Friday brought us to another day of completely different tasting rooms.  First Breaux Vineyards in Purcellville, VA, which is in Loudoun County.  Did you know that there are 30 wineries in Loudoun County alone, with 14 additional coming before the end of 2013?  As we drove down the road to Breaux we saw at least 10 wineries.   It was quite hard to decide which ones to visit, but I think we made the right choices for us for that day.

So, Breaux Vineyards.  This is a destination winery.  Large venue rooms, ample parking and tables and chairs spread throughout the property.  Very nice for this time of year, but on nice days in the spring and summer it is going to be crowded.  And in the fall – forget about it!  On the day we were there it was cold and windy outside, but our server was knowledgeable and good about customer service, but as things get busy, I would see that customer service going down fast.  It would just be too busy to give a good tasting.  That is one of the reasons we go off season!

After a lovey lunch at Magnolia at the Mill in Purcellville and birthday cake #2, it was off to Hiddencroft Vineyards in Lovettsville, VA (Loudoun County)

Hiddencroft is the northern most wintery in the area.  The tasting room of Hiddencroft is in an old house looking over beautiful grounds and a creek and you walk through an old barn to get there.  While walking around the grounds we saw a wild turkey running around and on the way to the winery we saw a herd of buffalo – they were in a fence, but they were definitely a herd of buffalo!  Northern Virginia – you just never know what you are going to find!  The owner and server for our visit is a former Marine, formerly with the DOD, who retired and decided to try his hand at making wine  These are the things that make Virginia wine touring so fun!  

Vintage Ridge – when we arrived there was a small bus sitting in the parking lot, a group of people tasting, but no one around to wait on us.  I had a bad feeling about this one.  After we waited around a few minutes and I was thinking about heading out the door, the server came down from where he was waiting on the bus full of people to help us.  Sad that they only had one person waiting on that bus full and anyone else that came in, but it all worked out.  The way they do their tastings here is to bring you 2 wines at time so that you can compare.  This way we had 2 to taste while the server took care of the bus folks.  While we were enjoying our tasting, the owner came over and we had a great discussion.  He brought us some cheddar/pecan cookies and re-poured several of the wines so that we could taste with and without the cookies.  It was nice.  The tasting room was very nice, tables and serving bars around the wine tanks.  It smelled really good.  And the grounds – they were beautiful.  If it would have been slightly warmer and we would have had a bit more time, their outdoor area would be a wonderful place to sit and enjoy a glass.