Fabiolli Cellars: August 2010

Labor Day 2010. I could not believe it when I heard my friend Adam had not been to a winery! It was a gorgeous Labor Day weekend, half of  which was spent in NYC with Marlene and that seems to be quickly becoming tradition going on 2 or 3 years now. Anyhow, I packed a picnic and Adam and off we went to meet Jill at Fabiolli Cellars.  I was drawn to this vineyard because of its promotion of being eco-friendly and their fairly decent webpage. On a side note: I definitely size up a vineyard by its website, ones that are user friendly with all their tasting fees, directions and calendar of events laid out are usually the ones I'm drawn to. If its just got one old picture and no links to information about "your visit" or their wines I usually click right past it.

Ok so getting out to Fabiolli wasn't too bad since its out in Leesburg. The tasting room was in the lower portion of a two-story home on the property that looked quite inviting from the outside. Once inside however it was quite a different view, the tables were set up on horses-you know like if you are going to saw a piece of wood you put it on two other triangular frames to hold it while you saw it? So very rustic, then there were curtains haphazardly thrown up around the place to block off storage and a kitchenette. It was like they didn't have time to organize their tasting room before they went into business. Then we tasted the wines and Adam loved it! Which is great, I'm really glad he had a good time, because I was being very judge-y.  They served only served red wines with the exception of a pear dessert wine. The only reason we got to taste the pear wine was because a couple at our tasting "bench" bought a glass so we got the tasting too. I've noticed you always seem to get more than you expect or pay for when it comes to a vineyard. Maybe that's their subtle way of luring you in for the bigger purchases.