barrel oak - best virginia winery for lingering

October is Virginia Wine Month. As if one ever needs an excuse to drive south into my favorite part of the DC-region.........

I went with some friends recently to visit an old favorite, and to check out a new concept in Virginia wine drinking...a seated tasting (read all about that over at my Fedscoop column!).  The day ended with dessert at Barrel Oak winery which has now officially become my favorite place to linger long time. 

There views are so nice, but the grounds....once there you just don't want to leave! There are plenty of tables and chairs for guests. Outdoor food is welcome, but there was a barbeque stand selling plates of food when we were there and a super fun band playing. People were dancing between wine tastings. It was picture-perfect fall!  There are firepits galore around which everyone sits and sips and makes friends. I can't wait to go back here for the John Marhsall Tasting Experience.  

If every you visit the D.C./northern Virginia area and you like wine, do not plan a trip this way without spending a day hopping from vineyard to vineyard. I promise you'll adore everything about it... even if it isn't Virginia Wine Month! 

March Gladness

The wine and horse country in Northern Virginia is really no farther a drive from my house than my daily commute to and from Capitol Hill, but is it ever a world away......

I went this weekend with my friend Jocelyn.  The weather was just perfect, and we discovered a new winery, Delaplane Cellars, which now stands as my most favorite vineyard in the region. This day of March Gladness could not have been a more perfect alternative to March Madness!

Here's what we loved about Delaplane Cellars: the homemade breads and local farm cheeses served up from a kitchen behind the tasting room; a help-yourself olive oil bar; a large, beautiful tasting room with floor to ceiling windows offering a perfect view of the mountains; and of course, the wine - it was fantastic. I could have stayed there ALL day on the patio, listening to live music, but...we had a reservation for dinner at The Ashby Inn.

This Inn could not be more charming. It's a good country mile from the Delaplane Cellars (and a few other winery favorites like Three Fox). The next time we plan a day trip I see no reason not to just plan an over-night stay. That would allow for a few more tastings at some other wineries (I want to try Naked Mountain - in clothes) along with trying the selected wine pairings from the Ashby menu. The food there was as tastey as it looked....and it's clear why this restaurants made the list of Washingtonian magazine's Top 100 places to dine.


Every time I take a day trip out to this part of the region, I beg the question, Why don't I come here more often? I already have an April weekend planned, and I'm hoping a certain someone makes a visit from Alabama soon for another valid excuse to wine and whine. 

No Kidneys Were Harmed in the Making of This Blogger Meet-Up

This weekend, I marched back in time to Colonial Williamsburg....

opting for some days of old with my new friend, Dee.

In the vines at the Williamsburg Winery

Dee and I met through blogging. Comments turned to emails and emails turned to phone calls. One lunch date later and we're on the BFF fast track. Since Dee was headed my way, we met up for a girls' weekend.  As far as girls' trips go, Williamsburg is a not a traditional destination, but then again, meeting friends over the internet isn't exactly how the Girls Scouts would have you play it either, true?

Though our lodging was a bit nicer than this, there aren't posh boutique hotels in Williamsburg....

And the shopping? It's a tad, well, last season....

Where the town lacks in glamour, howevs, it compensates in grapes...

So, over sips of wine......

and nibbles of cheese....

we discussed in deep, among a thousand other topics, the dynamic of how bloggers become besties.

I admitted that my mom found it both odd and risky that I was shacking up in a hotel with someone I'd met only once over lunch. Dee then confessed that her husband warned her I might stick her in a bathtub full of ice and steal her kidney, which was hysterical because my friend Jenni's dad had hinted at the same fate for me. Luckily, the only thing I ripped off from Dee was a pony-tail holder....hee!

Rolling through this town that is frozen in time....

it is easy to appreciate the practical way people onced lived. Doing so, though, alongside a pal I would have never known without the spoils of modern technology is proof that not everything, including how we make new friends, is better the old-fashioned way.

Cowboy Day Dreams at Marriott Ranch

Years ago, during a very (psst...VERY) dry date drought, I read about Marriott Ranch in Southern Living. 

photo credit - Marriott Ranch

If only, I would day dream, I could get a date, then make him love me enough to go all catalog cowboy together over picnics and horse back rides at this bed and breakfast outside Washington, why we might just live happily ever after, I thought.  Like Ronnie + Nancy...only without Marine One.

photo credit - Marriott Ranch

So I got a date. Then we went to the Ranch.

Picnicing in a Pasture, April 2008

The next year we went back, and got married there.

Naturally, I have a soft spot for  Marriott Ranch and the Blue Ridge Mountains in Virginia where, at its foot, the ranch stretches for acres and acres.  About an hour outside Washington, the area has provided me a quick Southern escape since I've lived here, and it reminds me a lot of East Tennessee, especially in the Fall.

photo credit - Marriott Ranch

I'm blogging today at DC Ladies about the Ranch, and you can read more about it here...

Virigina is for Winos

Before the Dolly Parton concert on Sunday, my friends and I hit up a winery out in Haymarket.

The Winery at La Grange used to be a Union hospital during the Civil War....

 but now it's gone vineyard...

The grounds are dog and kid-friendly, and really beautiful.

The tasting room is bright and pretty....

...and the winery has no rules on bringing in outside food, which is always appreciated...

especpially if you have friends like mine who bring homemade squash casserole to share, or crackers shaped like butterflies, in the spirit of Dolly!

We snacked....

and we sipped....

under a big shade tree...

'til we packed up everything to do it all again with our girl Dolly!

Rolling On the River

Y’ know, every now and then...
I think you might like to hear something from us...
Nice and easy

DC in the distance, cruising the Potomac River

But there’s just one thing...
You see we never do nothing
Nice and easy

 Matt & Franny - Dramamine for everyone!

We always do it nice and rough

The All-American Birthday Girl minutes before she lost her balance to choppy water

So we're going to take the beginning of this song
And do it easy

Then we’re gonna do the finish rough
This is the way we do Proud Mary Patriot II

Our boat captain swung into the DC Fish Market to get us steamed shrimp

Shrimp & Glitz!

And we're rolling, rolling, rolling on the river

 Becky, Fran & me

Listen to this story...

I left a good job in the city
Mr. Dubs was still in Maryland, but on his way
He was moving slow, the traffic was a creeping
Worrying 'bout the boat leavin' 'fore he made it in

He made it!

Big wheel keep on turning

Proud Mary Patriot II keep on burning

Aaron & Becky

And we're rolling, rolling

Rolling on the river

Ahoy with my mate!

A Day at the Vineyards

I know it's not Napa, but I LOVE living just an hour-ish drive from Virgnia's Wine Country. The landscape in the region's hidden little country towns is spectacular. The wine is pretty good, too!

On Saturday, Mr. W was busy doing home repairs with my father-in-law, Pops. Because laboring relatives can really put a damper on one's couching-and-watching-TBS-movies time,  I took a day trip out to Delplane!

I drove with the windows down, listened to Pat Green's Three Days album and spent the afternoon wine tasting with friends. I started at Miracle Valley Vineyard, but stayed for a long, long visit at  Three Fox Vineyard (and will surely return there again - it's wonderful!).

Carrie and Mary were there...

and so was Baby C!

Carragan - who did not wine at all  (obvs) - hardly whined all day because she is pretty and perfect.

While the grown up girls, including her grandmother JuJu in from Knoxville for a visit...

were sampling sips from the latest labels at Three Fox, Carragan hung with her dad, Chris.

Chris, who is one A+ husband and daddy, had to manage five ladies all by himself....a tough job - even with bread, cheese and chocolate.

With some help from Mary's son, Beaufort, he managed just fine!

Mr. B of spent most of his day running on the perfect, grassy hills at the winery...

Roaming the range makes a pup thirsty! But don't call PETA....

that's just water in a fancy glass!

I stole some time with Baby C, myself; I consider her my little practice preemie.

Together we proved that I can, in fact, have a tot in one hand, and swirl the tannins with the other...

 

I know. All signs point to a future Mother-of-the-Year award....