The Day: Dark and Rainy
The Crew: Debbie, Kelly, Dan & Adam
Destination: Charlottesville-ish
I'm pulling up to the meeting spot, I see the boys running over with their coffees in hand, Kelly joins the crew; but where is Debbie? Did we miss her? She is always so prompt, always (inadvertently) making me feel terrible about arriving 15 minutes late to everything, which I always am because she is always 15 minutes early. Did she get lost? Is she ok? As she texts Dan status updates we find it was the bus, of course, I've used that one before.
We hit the road heading southwest from DC. In my search for wineries I found one that was only open 2 weekends in the spring and 2 in the fall with pairings and one just happened to be on a weekend we blocked for wine tasting. Here we come Autumn Hill Vineyard! It was really rainy and once we got within 10 miles of the winery, the roads dissipated into gravel which quickly became mud. All the while I'm thinking this place must be good if they are very limited in their public tastings and its quite the hike to the rural hillsides near Charlottesville. We arrived and the place practically looked deserted, but we drove almost 2 hours in the pouring rain, might as well check. Sure enough it was the right place and it was open for business. It was quite the rural experience, very, very rustic. It was like we had walked into an unfinished barn, particle board floors and an unfinished loft. This sight and the fact that when I asked the proprietress why they were only open 4 times a year she said "because we have lives and grandchildren," pretty much turned me off this place; at first.
The pairing we found was just cheese, but they did have quite a bit of cheese and crackers which was a good thing since they were also holding a cellar tour and tasting after the standard tasting. We all bellied up to the "bar" and began our tour which included about 5 wines and finished with 3 mystery wines. That was pretty fun, guessing what you were tasting based on what they grew and when. After purchasing a few bottles and munching in the loft it was time for the cellar tour. The proprietor gave the tour and he was warm, engaging and had a definite passion for wine making. A few barrel tastings with him and my attitude quickly changed. He had us sample 2 young wines from the barrel, not quite ready to be bottled. He also gave us a lesson in French & American Oak barrels. The average French oak toasted barrel runs about $950 and is only good for I want to say 3-5 years (?) depending on the type of wine. After that the barrel can still be used, but the wine won't be getting any of its flavor from the barrel so at Autumn Hill they use the more cost effective oak sticks so they can reuse the barrels. As I've learned I'm much more of a steel chardonnay fan than an oak chardonnay fan so if I ever have a winery my whites are going in steel.
I'm super sleepy and losing creativity so I'll finish this one up later...have a good weekend! And if you are reading this, please sign up to follow me or at least leave a comment or something! Thanks! 'Nite!
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| The cramped cellar at Autumn Hill |
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