Travelling Lore

Given my interest in wine and that I work part-time at a local Virginia winery, we couldn't pass up the opportunity to visit Sonoma and Napa during our honeymoon. We drove about an hour north of San Francisco and started off first in Sonoma at Matanzas Creek Winery . We were drawn in by the beautiful pictures and description of their lavender fields on the property, which certainly didn't disappoint us upon arrival.  Despite living near a local lavender farm in Virginia, I still have yet to pay it a visit, though this certainly piqued my interest even more.  As you approach the tasting room you get to walk through the pale purple fields of lavender abuzz with plenty of happy bees. In addition to the gorgeous approach to the winery, Matanzas Creek's tasting room building can hold its own in terms of impressiveness.  We're both a big fan of buildings that incorporate hardwood and so we loved that the tasting room integrated a lot of it in to thei...

After visiting Barboursville Vineyards we drove a very short five minutes to neighboring  Horton Vineyards .  Though not as old as Barboursville, Horton Vineyards has been producing for over two decades.  In 1988 entrepreneur Dennis Horton and business partner Joan Bieda acquired 55 acres of land to start the vineyard.  The first crop was harvested in 1991 and vinted at Montdomaine Winery in Charlottesville, where Dennis eventually took over management and produced a Chardonnay and Cabernet under that label.  The tasting room we now know as Horton Cellars came into being in 1993, which saw its first crush that year.  The following year additional acreage began producing Bordeaux, Rhone Valley, Portuguese, and Spanish varietals. Horton Vineyards also has an extensive list of wines from which to taste.  Once there you can choose eight from the list to taste, if my memory serves me correctly.  Pictured here is their 2013 Pinotage, which is a...

I mentioned earlier that we visited quite a handful of wineries near Charlottesville, eight in total when all was said and done!  We visited Barboursville Vineyards bright and early on our way to downtown Charlottesville. When we arrived we were greeted by an expansive view of their precious vines set atop ever so slightly rolling hills.  Gianni Zonin, heir to a family wine enterprise that spans over many of Italy's wine-producing regions, acquired the historic property in 1976 with the idea of creating a vineyard.  As such, Barboursville is one of Virginia's oldest vineyards, with Mountain Cove Vineyards  (45 minutes south of downtown Charlottesville) being the oldest.  Barboursville Vineyards also happens to be one of the most award-winning wineries in the state. Upon entering the tasting room we were intrigued by the layout of wine tasting stations where, at each station, we tried three to four wines at a time before rotating to the next counte...

Just recently my fiance and I took advantage of a holiday weekend and decided to make our way down to Charlottesville, Virginia, best known as the home of Thomas Jefferson and James Monroe. If you've never been to Charlottesville wine country and you're looking for some recommendations, then I highly recommend King Family Vineyards .   Out of the eight or so wineries we visited during our stay, King Family Vineyards was my favorite.  It happened to be snowing lightly the morning we went, but looking past the grey day it was still easy to see how lovely and expansive the winery's grounds are. The vineyard sits at the base of the Blue Ridge Mountains.  Originally a farm, the King family purchased the property in 1996 and in 1998 began leasing land for a vineyard.  Initially the plan was to sell the grapes, but the family decided to make some wine from some of the grapes in order to learn more about the process.  So in 2000 the King family introduced 480 cases...

After exploring Split we took a catamaran to Korčula (Kohr-choo-lah), one of Croatia's island towns.  Like many other Croatian coastal towns, Korčula was founded by the Greeks; it then became part of the Roman Empire and then was a key outpost of the Venetian Republic.  One of the biggest historical attractions is that Korčulans take pride in the claim that Marco Polo was born there. Before we explored Korčula, though, we instead checked out Lumbarda after checking into our private apartment at Panorama Apartments .  Our room had an absolutely wonderful view (scroll down for those shots) which rivaled our view of the Grand Canal from our room in Venice, Italy.  Not only that, but our host at Panorama Apartments was incredibly friendly, more than willing to give advice, and dropped us off in Lumbarda on his way to work.  Talk about great hospitality! Our main goal in Lumbarda was to try some of the local wines of the region.  We quickly dis...

Getting back on track with recounting my Adriatic Adventure vacation, we drove from Ljubljana, Slovenia ( Slovenia Part 3 ) to Croatia's Istrian peninsula.  Istria actually has a rather complex and rich history in that it was ruled by the Romans from the second century B.C.; then by the Slav tribes from the seventh century; then by Venice from the thirteenth century; then by the Austrians when the Venetian empire fell in 1797; then by Italy in 1918; then by Yugoslavia in 1945; and then by what we now know as Croatia from 1991.  Needless to say this is very simplified, but it helps explain why there is so much diversity in the region. We spent a few days in Istria, but our first stops in the region were aimed at trying some local wines.  We had heard that we'd be in town just in time for Open Wine Cellar Day , so we'd planned on going to some of the larger wineries in the area since we were able to find information about them on the internet.  There are a lot o...

Yesterday a few of us started out this holiday weekend in style by enjoying the wonderful scenery that Virginia offers.  We went for a short bike ride along the W&OD trail in Purcellville, VA.  I like to call it my annual bike ride since I really only get on a bike about once a year after much persuasion from everyone around me.  I'm still not so great at stopping (though am better than the last time!), but at least I can bike in a relatively straight line now! ;) Afterwards we stopped by Monk's , a local BBQ restaurant.  Conveniently located one block from the end of the W&OD trail in Purcellville, it offers great food, a number of BBQ sauces to try, and local beer on tap.  I ordered the pulled pork, which has been my go-to lately, and their delicious baked beans.  As for the beer (because what's BBQ without beer?!), I opted for Adroit Theory's Hibiscus Saison; it had a beautiful red tint and was perfect for a post bike ride drink. Next w...