Virginia Wine - Loudoun County

Hi All,

A couple of my co-workers and I decided to check out a couple more wineries in our backyard. We headed south to Loudoun County, Virginia. Did you know that Loudoun County currently has 23 tasting rooms for you to sample some of Virginia's great wines? Here is an update of some fun wine stuff I did today at 3 of the wineries. We visited Chrysalis Winery, Quattro Goomba's Winery, and Hidden Brook Winery.

We started out at Chrysalis. Chrysalis is a beautiful winery that produces some great wines. I was first introduced to Chrysalis about 3 years ago when pouring for Davis Valley. Dewey and Rusty from Davis Valley recommended I try their wines at a festival that I was pouring at for them. I really enjoyed the couple I got to try and have wanted to go check out the full run since then. It took three years, but I finally made it and it was worth the wait. The winery is located back in horse country of Middleburg, Va. The tasting room is located at the top of a hill and looks down over the main vineyard and the winery. The building is beautiful and there is a lot of history that the tasting room staff would love to fill you in on, including Sarah's Table Wine. You will have to go the winery to find out that story. Anyway, the patio area and outdoor grill is a beautiful place to enjoy some light snacks or a picnic lunch. Customer Service there was fantastic and the staff is super knowledgeable of the wine, the property, the area and were very entertaining. My co-workers and I had a blast and will be putting it on our list to visit again. It is worth taking the drive out to Middleburg for the visit. They have 15 wines available and we left with 2 cases between the 3 of us! Check them out at
http://www.chrysaliswine.com/begin.htm

We grabbed some lunch in Leesburg, worked on some work stuff and headed back to Quattro Goomba's Winery. They are located right on Rt. 15 between Leesburg and Rt. 50. The tasting room is a log cabin set back off the road. We visited with two of the tasting room employees for a while and learned that "Quattro Goomba" means four friends in Italian. The winery was started in one of owner's basements. The owners were ordering grapes from different places and creating their wines. They were out of space at about 200 cases and decided to expand. They have a few vines planted at the front of the property but are still ordering their grapes from Chile, California, and Italy. They make 7 of their wines, carry 2 other selections, and make this great slushy drink called Frappe Vino which was delicious. I am excited to see what they are going to do in the future as they are aging a couple of their wines in old whiskey barrels. The couple wines that I have tried that are aged in a similar fashion are fantastic so I am sure theirs will be good also. The ladies working the tasting room were fantastic. They were very open and honest about their wines and gave, what I thought to be, very honest opinions of wine in general. They were great fun! The three of us left with 6 bottles. http://www.goombawine.com/

We started heading North on 15 to beat the traffic and decided to stop by Hidden Brook Winery. Hidden Brook is located right next to Lost Creek Winery and both wineries are owned by the Hauck Family. Bob and Carol Hauck own Lost Creek and their son Eric and his wife Deborah own Hidden Brook. The winery is a beautifully handcrafted log cabin set in the woods with some beautiful pine trees. The landscape was filled with beautiful flowers that added a nice accent to the log cabin. It was very appealing. Hidden Brook is one of the newer wineries in Loudoun County but you wouldn't know it tasting their wines. Deborah was working the tasting room and boy she was on point. She knows her wines. She gave honest opinions of her wine and what she likes. Their reds are very nice and well balanced. A couple of their whites were a on the sweeter side. The had a unique white that had a banana flavor which was very unique. We had a great experience and left with 9 bottles of wine. The only downfall is the only restroom was Port-a-Jon that was located outside, so "go" before you visit.
http://www.hiddenbrookwinery.com/

Well I hope that provides some insight into some great wines in Loudoun County. Enjoy!

Anniversary Trip

Hello Fellow Wine Lovers,

First thanks for the great response on Facebook! Please keep asking your friends to join! I am sorry for the delay, I have been trying to figure out how to put this to use the best way possible.

This will be my first wine experience blog....yeah!

Scott and I had our 6 year wedding anniversary on Friday. We went to four wineries and at lunch in Baltimore.

We began our trip at Whitehall Wine Cellars, www.woodhallwinecellars.com, which is about 20 minutes northwest of Baltimore off of I83. The winery building is an old barn wood interior, very pretty. They had some nice wines. We like their Angler Wines, which are on the sweeter side. The wine was good but the fisherman on the label is what attracted us to try the wine. They had many of the staples for the area like Chambourcin and Cabernet Franc. Both of which do well in the Mid-Atlantic area. They had wines for both sweet and dry pallets. We personally liked their drier wines.





From Woodhall we headed to Basignani Winery, www.basignani.com. Back in 2000 this winery was voted one of the best winery in Maryland. They have some really old vines that produce some great wine! We got 2 bottles of the Lorenzino Reserve which is a blend of estate bottled (Top juice from grapes grown on the property) of Cab Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, and Merlot. Their Riesling which is on the much sweeter side was also very good. We took one those bottles home too! Most of their wines were very appealing. The only down fall is they have a lot of dogs running around. I am a huge dog fan, but if you aren't, be on your toes. All the dogs were very friendly. The owners were very accommodating and allowed Scott and I to wander through the vineyard for awhile. It was a beautiful day which made the vineyard look even more appealing.



We enjoyed a fairly short trip, about a 15-20 minute drive, right into down Baltimore for lunch. Normally I would not mention lunch at some random restaurant, but we went to Fogo De Chao. In a wine magazine a couple months ago Fogo was rated very highly because of their huge wine selection. OH MY! A 4 page wine list and walls of wine everywhere you look! I thought I was in Heaven. I will say, it is very impressive, but the wine is a bit over priced. We splurged and got a Malbec (which cost more than my meal) to go with all of the fantastic meats and huge salad bar. Everything was fantastic and the waiter did a great job suggesting a wine that went well with the food.
















We finished up in Baltimore and walked off some of our food and then headed west to Mt. Airy. We headed to Lignanore Wine Cellars, www.linganore-wine.com. We have been here before and were going with one purpose, we wanted May Wine. This wine is made just in the month of May that has some great herb flavors added that goes fantastic with fresh fruit like strawberries. I will spend some more time talking about Lignanore is much more detail at a later time. I will leave you with one thing, if you are planning on tasting leave plenty of time because they have a huge list they share with you. Take a tour of the winery also, it was a great experience!

Our final stop for the day was at Black Ankle Winery,www.blackankle.com. We definitely saved the best for last. I was told to check this out by an acquaintance of mine who is one of the most knowledgeable people I know in wine. He has not lead me a stray yet so we decided to check it out and boy was it fantastic. Black Ankle has a beautiful "green" building, sprawling vineyards, and 100% estate grown dry wines. The wines are on the drier side but full of flavor and very enjoyable. The customer service was fantastic! Scott and I stayed to enjoy some music. The employees at Blank Ankle prepared fresh baguette and locally grown cheese and waited on the customers like a restaurant. They provided full size glasses to fully enjoy the wines flavor. There was a large crowd enjoying picnic dinners.




We had a great day of wine, vineyards, and food. If you want more details, let me know, check out facebook, or check out the different websites.

Cheers!

Hello

Hello to Everyone...

My name is Katie Gladhill and I am beginning a blog on my wine adventures. My husband and I developed a huge passion for wine about 10 years ago and I have continued to do a lot personal research. The research involved a great deal of tasting (yum), visiting a variety of wineries up and down the east coast (and a few in NM), as well as, doing a great deal of research on technology in the wine industry for my Master's Program.

A bit about me:

• I love everything about wine...how its made, how it tastes, and most of all the great memories I make with my friends while I get to enjoy it.
  
• I am married with 2 kids and live in an extended suburb of Washington D.C.
• I pour for 3 different wineries on a regular basis, 1 in VA, 1 in MD, and 1 in PA and I have been pouring for 5 years.
• I have visited almost 100 wineries, 51 were last year alone
• I maintain at least 100 bottles of wine in my little house at any given time, most of which come from smaller local wineries on the east coast.
• I am self educated on wine and have gathered my knowledge from my interactions with different wineries I pour for, wine makers and owners that I reached out to for research on my technology paper and research I have done my self.
• For my real job, I am an executive in supply chain with a top retail company in the U.S.
• I have my BS and MBA in Business
• I worked in retail for 12 years as manager and trainer focused on great customer service and sales.
  

So now you know about me and you may be wondering what I am going to be blogging about...
It is going to be about my experience with wine...

• Winery Experience--aesthetics of the winery and customer service experience
• Wine- types, quality, and who it might appeal to
• Points of interest-- sharing other things in the area to do.

I will be talking about why I feel these three areas are important in the future..

Why am I doing this...
Many of my friends have suggested I share my thoughts about wine since I have helped them find wines they enjoy and gain a better understanding of wine. One person, John Graham, has basically pushed me to do this, so I wanted to thank him for helping me get off my butt and put this into motion.

I am super excited about sharing my knowledge, ideas, and opinions and hearing your thoughts...

Happy Drinking!