The vines that bind
At some point, between making the bed on Monday morning and putting the trash out on Sunday night, we think to ourselves, is this what life is all about?
Bringing wines to the turkey table
If you are the lucky recipient of an invitation to someone’s home for Thanksgiving this year, please call your host immediately to tell him that you’ve got the wine covered.
Beaujolais Nouveau will arrive
At the stroke of midnight on Thursday, November 19, from the little villages in Southeastern France, over 1 million cases of Beaujolais Nouveau will begin their trek to Paris for immediate shipment to all corners of our world. Banners will herald the inevitable news: “Le Beaujolais Nouveau est arrive!,” marking the beginning of one of [...]
Romeo and Juliet's house red
There are many wines out there that have suffered the slings and arrows of overplanting and overproduction and come out nobler in the end.
Get on the beer train
With four local breweries already established, Charlottesville has been carving out a brew trail amid its grapevines: It started with Starr Hill, where Mark Thompson has been brewing national award-winning beverages since the early ’90s. Now with a tasting room in Crozet and a recent distribution deal with Anheuser-Busch, this local favorite is bound to [...]
Five Virginia wines we’re drinking now
The old adage says that patience is a virtue, but then so is drinking a wine when it’s in its prime. Here are five Virginia wines ready for the glass. Shop the City Market, plan a meal, phone some dear friends, pull up an Adirondack chair, and savor the simple pleasures of another beautiful fall [...]
Something Old World, something new
Adversity builds character. At least that’s what my parents told me every time we uprooted from our home to move states, schools, and houses. They softened the blow by telling us over pizza, but it was still a big adjustment—even with the extra heese. And, while “home” will always be a nebulous distinction for me, [...]
How to smell 200 things at once? Drink wine
Smell is without a doubt the most powerful of the senses.
We come to praise Burgundy's other white grape
Growing up, my brother’s and my favorite movie was The Karate Kid. It was one of two movies that we had on VHS and we could recite it (and Romancing the Stone) line for line. I still get choked up at the end of the karate tournament when, with a quiet nod from Mr. Miyagi, [...]
Don't call it a comeback
Sometimes my 18-month-old gets so excited that she doesn’t know what to do. She squinches up her nose, tightly squeezes the source of excitement against her tummy, and then squeals with unbridled glee. My reaction to certain wines is not dissimilar, much to the horror of many a wine distributor. I can’t help it—some wines [...]
Make mine a cold one
A wine teacher of mine once said that every wine would be a red wine if it could be. I don’t necessarily agree with him, but then again, I tend to like appetizers better than main courses, sunrises better than sunsets, and kissing better than, well, you get the drift. However, for those of you [...]
Forgive me, Bacchus…
My entrée into the wine world began like a fairy tale. I was 14 and on a trip with my French class to Paris and the Loire Valley. We toured a wine cellar in Vouvray, had dinner at a château, and went to a sound and light show at Azay-Le-Rideau, a 16th century castle with [...]
Where in the world is my Viognier?
Here in Virginia, we have a lot of things to be proud of—birthplace to many presidents, top-ranked universities, a myriad of flora and fauna
Virginia wineries get their start crushing on someone else’s pad
“There is no earthly way that we would be making wine right now without Virginia Wineworks,” said Steve Madey, owner of Hague Winery. This sentiment was echoed amongst the six other wineries also debuting their labels at the 1st Annual Virginia Wineworks Festival held June 27-28. A veritable coming-out party for these debs using the [...]
Viva la Vinho Verde!
After a long, hot day of attentively tasting, spitting and assessing dozens of wines layered with complexity in a soon-to-open restaurant layered with sawdust, all I want when I get home is a wine that I can mindlessly gulp. Sure, the more refined word would be “quaff,” but that implies an element of restraint and/or [...]
