Pit Stop or Wine Stop: Prince Michel Winery

Today I'm trying something new. I'm not writing in my living room or a coffee shop as it usually happens; today I'm writing from a vineyard, Pearmund Cellars actually. It's a spectacular day in November and my plans changed after I finished my late morning run so left the city behind for my favorite place when I need some fresh air. They have a great porch with a view of the vines, more about that later, its time for me to catch up on some past adventures!

Entering the month of November with not one, but two four day weekends it was prime time plan a wine weekend. There are so many down in Charlottesville that I wanted to visit that the votes were unanimous to spend the night down there. I found a decent cabin down at Shenandoah Crossing, booked it and off we went on Veteran's Day weekend. My goal was 4-5 vineyards, a cider house and a brewery in two days. Ambitious? Perhaps.

Our first stop was Prince Michel Vineyard right off 29 south. I included this in the itinerary since we always pass it when heading south and by the time it creeps up on you and you consider stopping you are already 10 miles down the road. This tasting room reminded us a lot of Horton's. They had A LOT of wine accessories and a lot of non-wine accessories. It was very glittery. We walked away with a "redneck" wine glass (a mason jar with a stem) and a donkey dressed as a sheriff on his back that serves as a wine holder (a gift for a friend).  For $5 we were able to sample 15 of their 25 wines. With that many you'd be hard pressed not to find a couple that went down easy. I walked away with a bottle of their Dry Riesling which wasn't as sweet as a typical riesling. We also liked their 2008 Barrel Select Chardonnay, 2005 Mountain View Cab Franc which was much more of a Cab Franc than what we had at Capital Vineyards. They had several sweet wines and liked the Sweet White Reserve and Sweet Red Reserve the best of the bunch agreeing that they'd both be great over fruit. The group consensus was that this vineyard is a great detour as opposed to your final destination.  The staff was relaxed and friendly, the wines were alright, but the environment encourages a stop in and go as opposed to a long leisurely visit.  If you're curious, definitely stop in, its $5 and you won't lose anything but a few miles en route to your final destination.

Warming up our palates, photo credit Debbie Nip