Halloween Pairings

Happy Halloween!

This time of year I have lots and lots of chocolate treats around and I am always trying to think of wines to pair them with.

One of my favorite pairings is a Milky Way Dark and our Corcoran Malbec. Another, surprisingly, favorite one is a red gummy worm (has lots of cherry flavor) with our Chambourcin. But how do we pair those potato chips with all that salt...must be bubbles, Sparkling Wine is great with salty foods. Maybe you have some buttery popcorn balls lying around...one of the best pairings with popcorn is a slightly oaked Chardonnay and our 2008 was phenomenal with popcorn.

Enjoy your holiday candy and let me know what wines you pair this season.

Cheers!

Virginia Wine Month is Here!

Harvest is just about done and we had a very interesting year.

Besides the battle of the stink bug, we tried some new yeasts, we have new grape varieties and our science experiment that we did was punch-downs vs. pump-overs on our reds. I am very excited to say the least of how well our reds are progressing thus far.

Cheers to all our fellow wineries, winemakers and wine enthusiasts this month as we try a new Virginia wine each day :)

2010 Vineyards Looking Good

Our Cabernet Franc vineyard is looking good in all this heat. Previously we had heat and rain which created a lot of vigor so we have hedged, leaf-pulled and dropped some fruit so all the vines energy is going into producing the best fruit.

We have eliminated herbicides which is what we used to spray at the bottom of the vines to keep the weeds down. We now just let it grow and pull them out by hand when needed.

All in all, with the late frost behind us and a heat wave on us, the vines are 3 weeks ahead of schedule and looking good. A shower or two of rain wouldn't hurt.

Cheers!!