We started out with only plans to head toward Warrenton, hit
a winery to the west, have lunch in downtown Warrenton, then hit another close
to Warrenton and head home. Well, it did
not work out quite that way, but the day worked out really well. We headed west, to Gadino Cellars in
Washington, VA. A lovely place with good
customer service and good wine. The
Gadino’s have a “sister” winery in Sicily and they had a wine from there as
well. Delicious.
While we were there we asked for a lunch recommendation
close by. Our server recommended Tula’s
Off Main in Washington. Lovely local
restaurant in a lovely small town.
Cannot wait to go back and try the other restaurant we saw just down the
street!
While there we were talking to our waiter he recommended we
visit Little Washington Winery. It was
on the list of wineries we have not visited, so we headed out. Good call.
When we arrived they were crowded, but we were greeted and when we
explained we had no problem with waiting, we were shown a super comfy couch
with an incredible view of Old Rag Mountain.
To make things even better, the greeter, also the owner, brought us a
glass of wine to enjoy while we waited. Nice!
When it was our turn, we were up with a group of 5 and it
was just fun. Little Washington only
makes 1 type of wine, Chardonnay, but they make it 2 ways – steel and oak. The server, also the greeter and owner, gave
us a blind taste test to see if we could tell the difference. I always thought that the oak created that
buttery taste I expected, but that butter did not come and it is not from the
oak. It is from the malolactic
fermentation. Who knew! Little Washington also has a Wine Boot camp
twice a day on Saturday’s and Sunday’s.
I would like to go back for that.
Little Washington has a line of colorful Adirondack chairs
on the hill, beside the building. We sat
there in the shade with a soft breeze, again with that view of Old Rag
Mountain. It was just lovely. So sad I did not get a picture of those
chairs. That would be a good picture to
look at during a long day of work!
