I have written a few posts before about wine because quite frankly, I drink it. That does not make me a wine aficionado by any means; however, I know what I like. I am looking for things like personality in whoever does the tastings, some refer to this job as the sommelier, and it can even be the owner in a small winery; furthermore, I look at the tasting room view. Why does that matter if the wine is good? Well, quite frankly, I like down-to-earth folks and highfalutin’ is not my style (using my friend’s word of the week). Now, getting to the wines. I have written about this before here, but I wanted to focus more on the first winery this time and less on the others. If you have ever had a thirst for mead, the Hill Top Berry Farm & Winery is the place to visit in Virginia.
Every single time we go, I want this guy:
If you happen to be reading this post, and you made him, holler at me. Apparently you are an elusive craftsman who sometimes visits wine fairs. This makes it hard for me to find you…unless I continue my search by ohhh wait, drinking wine. I will find you one day. Anyway, you would expect me to talk about the mead, but I am not. Check out their page and read the bottom where the featured wines tab is. We specifically went up there to grab a bottle of the Lavender Metheglin, which is known for its healing properties. Wink. We also bought their new Pear wine, which was not listed. Each time we visit, either the owner or her daughter is there and we really enjoy our chats. She knows we travel quite a distance just to pick up wine or mead and always offers us the full tasting menu. Some wineries charge ridiculous amounts for a sample of their menu and I might mention one later. Anyway, she told us how she pours this wonderful nectar over pork tenderloin and lets it soak in the crock pot. When it is done cooking, she takes it out, slices it, and crumbles blue cheese over it and pours more of the thickened juice over it. My mouth was watering just thinking about it, so I bought some.
I could really go on about their hospitality, but instead, I will direct you to their neck of the woods should you be up on the mountain. Next we went to one of my other favorites, Veritas, but since I spent time writing about that winery in one of my previous posts, I am moving on. My parents were telling me that we really should see the Trump Winery, formally owned and operated by Patricia Kluge. I said sure and we traveled on down the road. The way my mother described it in winter it sounded like a nice, cozy place. In summer, it was also still cozy. Meaning, a bit too warm in the tasting room for me, but we found a little room off to the side. As we were handed their rather interesting tasting menu, I noted that the prices were a bit high. My mother exclaimed that they must have gone up a bit since the recent staff change. Hmmm. Okay, so I sampled only two wines for a small pairing. I sampled the Cru and the Cru Royale, which is not listed on their website, but my mother told me it was very unusual and I’d love it. The Cru is wonderful by itself, but paired with the Royale it was delicious.
The glass here has one of my mother’s favorites, the Albemarle Simply Red. She gave up on a tasting at this point and just bought the bottle. Ha. We could have gone home, but since we were so close to Blenheim, we thought we’d check them out as well. Now, you might not be a fan of Dave Matthews, but in case you didn’t know, people around Charlottesville are. He bought the property in 1999. Apparently, the current winemaker studied under one of Kluge’s wine makers. Interesting. The wineries are right next to one another. Something is going on with their official website or I would have linked you over there, but I do have this photo snapped off the back of their very cool deck:
I am going to admit that the girl who did our tasting was not very informative nor was she pleasant. This might have soured my experience somewhat, or it could have been the amount of wine I had already consumed. Who knows. I will say that their wine tasting sheets were in little plastic sleeves instead of letting me have one to write on. So when I was saying to my husband something about the notes of the viognier as compared to one we like from Veritas, she snottily said “Oh did you need to take notes?” I barely resisted the use of my evil eyeball look and instead became sweeter explaining how my husband is new to drinking wine. At this point, you can see why I look for the whole experience when sampling wines. I believe that you have to engage the customer and be knowledgeable about what you can pair with your wines. The writer inside really enjoys the whole picture and yes, those stories about meals you have made do make the difference for me.
“Excellence is not a skill. It is an attitude.” ~Ralph Marston
