Capitol Vineyards: October 9, 2011

We decided to see if we could fit one more vineyard in after Apsen Dale. Capitol Vineyards was close and relatively new so we made it our target. Side note: the former English teacher in me just noticed this is "capitol" with an "o" rather an "a" and that seems off since it is near the "capital" city, but I guess they want to refer to the actual "capitol" building.

Anyways, moving along. This place would be very easy to miss, they usually keep an "open" flag on a near by tree as the small, white tasting room is just around the bend. Its a very modest structure and they had been hit by the crazy stinkbugs too, but at least the ones at Capitol were more sedated and not flying in your face. We met the proprietress who seem very tired, it was about 5 and closing time is 6, but they had a Living Social deal that expired that day so she had been slammed. It wasn't until we were getting ready to taste here, that I realized how much more my friends had drank than me-I had 2 glasses, lots of bread and cheese, while they polished off at least 3 bottles in the course of 4 hours. Maybe 2 stops would have been enough that day. Alas we were already there so we tasted their 5 wines, 1 white and 4 reds: Traminette, Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Merlot & Meritage. Our favorites were the Cab Sav and Cab Franc. I think we may have each taken a bottle of the former home. When looking at the wines, you will notice their labels, drawn by the owner's former roommate they each feature the capitol building and a character indicative of DC, the Traminette looks like an intern, there is a military officer, professional (fed?) woman, professional (lobbiest?) man, and a student.  Most of the grapes for their wines have been grown in Charlottesville, but they are starting to grow some on the property surrounding the tasting room.

If planning a trip here, there isn't a lot of space to sit and enjoy a glass. There are some couches and chairs on the narrow porch and that is about it and the only restroom is a port-o-potty out back. I wanted to stay away from the bugs so we wandered across the property to a grassy spot where we settled down for a bit. It was cool and the air smelled so sweet. Its obvious that this is a young vineyard, still trying to get a firm hold on the business demands, but their wines were plesant so if you are in the Markham/Delaplane area I'd recommend stopping in for a quick visit.  Now, today, I'm off to head back in the Markham direction to hopefully get into those orchards I missed on the 9th!

The decorative lables

Views of the vines & tasting room from our grassy spot

Taking in a Shenandoah sunset