Travelling Lore

Despite last weekend's rainy weather we went to visit North Mountain Vineyards , a colleague's Virginia winery.  Set in the Shenandoah Valley area of the Appalachians, this region's ancient limestone-rich soil provides ideal sites for growing grapes.  (Tablas Creek has a great explanation on the benefits of limestone-rich soil.)  North Mountain grows an impressive 10 varieties of grapes on their estate.  These include, but aren't limited to, Cabernet Franc, Chambourcin, Gruner Veltliner, and Zweigelt.  Not only was it my first time trying Chambourcin, but we were all introduced to the latter two Austrian grape varieties.  Verdict: more please! After our tasting the winemaker gave us a tour of the barrel room and gave us a sneak peak tasting of three wines that will be bottled a few more months down the road.  They were absolutely delicious and I predict that these bottles will sell quickly!  They tasted wonderful directly from the barrel ...

...to let you all know that I picked up a part time position at a local winery as a Tasting Associate!  Since I love visiting local wineries so much I jumped at the opportunity to become a Tasting Associate as a fun way to learn more about wine.  I started last month at  Greenhill Winery , which is located in the Middleburg American Viticulture Area of Virginia.  Everyone I've met so far has been very welcoming and helpful and I couldn't ask for a better way to start a new job.  Even though I'm still learning about all of the wines, I jumped in full swing today as everyone who visited the winery seemed to arrive all at once.  (That's how it always happens, right?)  No better way to learn than to take a deep breath and go for it! To give a quick background, Greenhill Winery opened in August of 2013.  The property consist of 128 acres, 16 of which are currently under vine.  At the moment Greenhill Winery has six wines in their tasting: one...