Like I mentioned yesterday, my plans for an afternoon spent apple picking was a bit of a bust. Thankfully, Keith wanted to make the most of the hour and half drive out of the city deeper in to Virginia. The majority of Saturday afternoon was spent sampling more wines of Virginia.
Our little adventure took us to four wineries and vineyards - Philip Carter Winery, Winding Road Cellars, Hume Vineyards, and Rappahannock Cellars.
After completing the tasting the best thing at Philip Carter Winery, the best glass we tasted was the sangria. The space was beautiful and if the wine was better I would have been interested in drinking a bottle and playing some lawn games.
Winding Road Cellars is a small operation with a charming wine maker. I find I like the white wines coming out of Virginia much more than the reds as was the case at Winding Road Cellars. We left with a bottle of Chardonnay. Their Chardonnay was nicely balanced and I could see it being a lovely table white should it ever become more readily available. I wanted to like the reds, but found them all to taste a bit like musty mushrooms. Way too earthy for my likes.
Further down the road, we ended up at Hume Vineyards where I again struggled to find a wine I really enjoyed. That is until the final one we tasted - their 2011 Vendange Tardive. Unlike most desert wines, this one had a light mouth feel, which makes me think we'll serve it as an aperitif with some good sharp cheeses.
The final stop of the afternoon was Rappanahannock Cellars and by far the best of the four. We left with not only two bottles of wine - the 2012 Viognier and the 2011 Meritage. The Viognier is crisp with a wonderful apricot finish. The Meritage is well-rounded with a soft earthy finish. In addition to wines, they offer Greek olive oils. Had we not ordered their sampler of warm bread and olive oil we would have missed out on the heavenly truffle-infused oil.
P.S. This is our third adventure exploring Virginia wine country. You can find one here and two here. I'm thinking my favorite vineyards are located closer to Charlottesville.
