Carter Mountain and Bold Rock Cider

One of my favorite fall activities is to head out to the mountains and pick apples. We have this great orchard that’s only an hour from our house that we go to every year – Carter Mountain Orchard. This year has been really awesome, we’ve made 3 trips up there!

The views from the top of the mountain are simply fabulous and you really can’t beat fresh picked apples right off the tree. We bought a ton of apples this year so that I can make all of the apple recipes that I pinned to my Pinterest board. Apple bread, apple muffins, apple crisp, apple snickerdoodles and applesauce. Whew!

Besides the apples, the absolute BEST reason to go visit Carter Mountain is for their apple cider donuts. I seriously cannot even express to you in words how amazing these donuts are. They are made on site and you get them hot and fresh. It’s ridiculously easy to eat an entire dozen. I tell myself this is OK because the holidays are coming soon and I might as well just start the unhealthy eating habits now. Pair these donuts with a cup of their hot cider and you may never want to leave.

My other favorite part of Carter Mountain (which is relatively new) is the Bold Rock Cider tasting room. It’s this cool cellar where you can get a tasting of all the different hard ciders that Bold Rock has to offer.  They are a local cidery which is cool and they always have new seasonal flavors. It’s fun to grab a pint and hang out at the picnic tables with lunch and just enjoy the views.

If you get the chance to go visit them – take it. I know you’ll love it!

Hallo-wine - Serve Up the Spookiest Wine on the Block

I’m going to be honest here – Halloween is not my most favorite holiday of the year. I’m not really into scary stuff and this holiday just seems to give people a license to act really stupid. Like perhaps how I should really be in therapy over the creepy clown that was chasing people around a parking lot a couple years ago. Or, the out of control 8-year old that followed my friend and I (and her small infant) down the sidewalk dragging a REAL machete on the concrete. NOT OKAY PEOPLE.

Anyway, once I discovered that I can just stay inside (or make a quick run for it over to a nearby friend’s house and then stay inside) and drink wine and eat tons of candy, I was more OK with Halloween. So, here are a couple of suggestions on how to really “spook” up your wine at this year’s Halloween bash.

Boxed Wine Pumpkin Keg

The second that I saw this tutorial, I knew that I had to make this happen. How adorable is this!? I mean come on, wine out of a pumpkin? Amazing. If anyone has done this already - let me know!!

Mummified Wine Bottles

This is a super easy and cheap crafty way to spook up your party tables. These little mummy’s are so cute! All it takes is some medical tape and big googly eyes that are hot glued onto the bottle and – voila! Awesome little wine bottle mummy.

Spooky Wines

There are some great Halloween themed wines out there so here are a few of my suggestions.

Grey Ghost Winery Chardonnay – when I started thinking Halloween, I immediately thought of a winery right here in my backyard. The name screams Halloween (haha…get it?) and the wine is delicious.

Vampire Pinot Noir – you seriously can’t go wrong for Halloween with a wine called Vampire. And, it actually tastes good!

The Velvet Devil Merlot – again, how perfect is this name!? I couldn’t resist this one. It’s not your typical Merlot but you’ll find a bit of sweetness and bit of spiciness – and just a little bit of devil.

S'Mores and Wine - A Fall Match Made in Heaven

Fall weather is finally here and with it came the perfect excuse to break in our new fire pit. We’ve had this fire pit since last year but our deck had not yet been completed, so we couldn’t use it. Needless to say, I’ve been waiting on this moment!

We had the most amazingly cool night for our first fire. I was all bundled up in a jacket and scarf – it was perfect. We had some friends over for dinner then gathered around the fire pit for drinks and of course – S’Mores!

I knew we were going to do S’Mores over the fire so obviously, I had to do some research to find out which sort of wine would go well with this sweet treat. Unless you are drinking port, I find it difficult to pair up a nice red, sipping wine with something super sweet.

I found it though – the perfect S’Mores wine!

Ménage a Trois Silk Red Blend

This wine paired up perfectly with everything we had that night from a heavy brat stew, to apple crisp and S’Mores. It is an incredibly smooth, bright wine that while full of flavor, doesn’t weigh you down. Silk is a blend of Pinot Noir, Malbec and Petit Sirah grapes. There are wonderful tones of cherry and raspberry that shine through.

I cannot wait for our next fire and I know that I’ll definitely have to have this wine on hand again!

Urban Tree Cidery

OK, so obviously everyone who stops here to read my posts knows that wine is my first true love beverage of choice. However, there is a new trend sweeping the nation that has me completely hooked – hard cider.

Since I literally cannot stomach beer (I know – take a deep breath beer lovers), I have often found myself in the awkward position of being THAT girl at a sporting event, party or out at a bar “enjoying” a perfectly terrible $10 glass of some cheap wine while everyone else has their perfectly normal beers. If the wine was good, I wouldn’t mind it so much but it never is. Do you know how hard it is to play flip cup or beer pong with wine? IT’S HARD. Trust me – I’ve done it.

So when I discovered this new world of hard cider, I felt like all my problems were solved! I can now safely attend a local baseball game or head out to a bar and avoid the ridicule with my beer look-a-like beverage. With the craft beer craze taking over Richmond, there have been a few glorious little cideries that have popped up along the way. More to come on that later.

Recently, we took our annual trip down to Atlanta to visit some friends and I was so excited that our itinerary included a trip to a new cidery that opened up near them called Urban Tree Cidery. This place definitely did not disappoint!

They had 2 different flights to choose from so of course my husband and I each got a different one so that we could sample everything. This is just smart economics, right?

The offerings in the flights were delightfully diverse and really had something for everyone. Their original was dry, crisp and classic. For the beer lover, they had the Triple H which was very hop forward (not my favorite but my beer loving husband enjoyed it!) Their seasonal flight included a peach cider which was light and sweet.

Hands down though, my two favorites were the Rum Barrel Aged and the Sweet Heat. The Rum Barrel Aged was smooth and tasted like caramel. It was just everything that I want in a cider. The Sweet Heat was a delicious surprise. This one was a ginger infused cider with hints of habanero. SO. GOOD.

I knew I wanted to take home a bottle of each of these and was so disappointed when I saw that they did not have the Sweet Heat bottled and ready to go. I didn’t know it at the time, but the lady behind the bar helping me out was the owner. I asked her if she had any of the Sweet Heat stashed away that she could sell me. I told her I was from Virginia and needed to take some home with me. She was amazing and ended up bottling some of it right from their tap for me on the spot! This is how you do customer service y’all.

I left an incredibly happy customer who is even happier to spread the word of this lovely little urban cider oasis in downtown Atlanta. Go check them out!

It's Virginia Wine Month!

October is Virginia Wine Month which means it’s a great excuse to celebrate the awesome wine country that is in my own backyard! Even though I feel like I’ve only scratched the surface on visiting the 200+ wineries that Virginia has to offer, I still want to share some of my favorites with you.

Pippin Hill – Red Pump

If you’ve ever read any other post, it’s no secret that I love everything Pippin Hill. Their Red Pump is one of my favorite wines. It’s a light, easy drinking, every day wine that seems to pair well with everything. It even tastes good chilled on a hot summer day. This wine is very fruit-forward with strawberry really shining through. Even though it’s light, it’s still flavorful enough to stand up to heavier cool weather foods.

First Colony – Claret

This is another easy drinking favorite of mine that never disappoints. If you are looking for a red to serve at a party that will appeal to a lot of people, this is it. It’s a bit on the sweeter side with flavors of cherry and strawberry. What I love about this wine is its versatility. You can drink it chilled in the summer or you can heat it up with some mulling spices in the fall and winter. It’s delicious any way you drink it!

Keswick Vineyards – Cab Franc Reserve

I recently discovered this vineyard and was really impressed with their entire selection of wines but this one was my favorite. Their 2014 varietal was a 2016 Governor’s Cup Gold medalist. This is also a more expensive wine than I usually go for but it’s totally worth it. Flavors of black raspberry and a bit of spice really come through after you aerate this wine for a couple of minutes. It’s heavy in tannins but goes down smooth. If you are looking to treat yourself, pick this one.

Reynard Florence – Viognier

I’ll admit that it’s hard for me to find a white wine that I’m really excited about but this Viognier is delicious. This wine is light and fruity with flavors of peaches and pears coming through. There’s not an oakiness to this wine that you get with many other whites which gives it a more crisp taste. This is a great party wine that goes well with appetizers or light seafood or chicken dishes.

Veritas Vineyards – Rosé

Even though the weather has started to cool down, I still can’t jump off the Rosé bandwagon quite yet. This is a delicious off-dry Rosé made with Cab Franc and Merlot grapes. It’s a little bit floral and a little bit fruity making it great to pair with just about anything.

Wine and Donuts

As y’all have seen on my blog previously, I love getting my friends together for crazy, fun wine and food pairings like Halloween candy and Girl Scout cookies. Recently, a local winery held a Wine and Donut pairing event. I immediately said I was going to attend on Facebook before realizing that I would be out of town. I was so distraught and thought about cancelling my plans so that I could attend. Then I realized that I could hold my own wine and donut night and OF COURSE my friends would come!

Let me tell you, friends – it was glorious.

We had a dozen delicious, gourmet donuts from Sugar Shack including Samoa, strawberry lemon, blueberry, salted caramel and double chocolate chip. If you are in Richmond, I’m sure you’ve had these donuts. If you are in Richmond and you haven’t – stop what you are doing (no wait, finish reading first) then go visit Sugar Shack immediately.

There were some suggestions that we found on Google on what sort of wine to pair with the donuts but we mostly made it up as we went along.

The first thing I want to brag on a bit is my table set up. It was ADORABLE. And really very simple too! A simple tablecloth and table runner sprinkled with some wine corks and a cute mason jar filled with flowers and PRESTO. The perfect table!

I knew that mostly sweeter wines were going to pair well with the donuts so we tried to stick to that theme for the most part. We had these cute little cans of Flip Flop fizzy white wine and they were so surprisingly good! The Moscato, Rosé and chocolate infused wine (along with the fizzy white) were the favorites of the evening.

Some of the chocolate flavored, heavier donuts were a bit trickier to pair with a wine. We had a Sangiovese that held up pretty well but the lighter, white wines were a better match.

The winning pairing was the strawberry and lemon donut paired with the fizzy white or the Moscato – so good!

I highly recommend using this as a great excuse to get your friends together, drink some wine and eat donuts – totally guilt free!

Go Set a Watchman - Harper Lee

Go Set a Watchman by Harper Lee
Publisher - Harper
Publish Date - July 2015
Genre - Fiction
Buy on Amazon
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My Rating:

As an avid reader and lover of literature from a young age, I couldn’t help but get swept up in the excitement when it was announced that Harper Lee was publishing a new book. Not only a new book, but one that picks up with the iconic characters of To Kill a Mockingbird as adults. While this review may be coming a bit late, I did not waste any time snatching this book up to read once it was released.

Go Set a Watchman takes us back to Maycomb, Alabama with Jean Louise “Scout” Finch. She travels back to her hometown for 2 weeks each year to visit her father, Atticus. Upon her return to Maycomb, she is met by her childhood sweetheart, Hank who now works for her father. The novel takes place during a time in history when the creation of the NAACP and the Brown vs. Board of Education Supreme Court decision are sources of controversy, especially in the small Alabama town.

After Jean Louise finds a controversial pamphlet among her father’s belongings, she follows him to a council meeting where he introduces a speaker that gives a racially charged speech to the audience. Upon seeing this, she is convinced that her father has lied to her about his beliefs all along and has abandoned everything she was raised to believe. The story spirals from there as Jean Louise tries to come to grips with the confusing political positions her father attempts to explain but she never backs down. The entire scandal rocks Jean Louise’s world and forces her to view things in a way that she never had to before.

As with her first book, there was a lot of criticism and scandal surrounding Go Set a Watchman because of the serious racist undertones suggested throughout the novel. I think what was lost during the publication of this novel was the fact that Lee actually wrote this novel BEFORE To Kill a Mockingbird. It is now most widely regarded as not a sequel to her famed novel but rather a first draft. If you view it from that perspective, it is really quite fascinating to see her “final product” as To Kill a Mockingbird.

This was not a newly written book from the perspective of a 21^st century Harper Lee. So, while the tone and language in the book may be difficult for 21^st century readers, you have to understand that this is a novel written about a time and during a time in American history where racial tensions ran extremely high. Lee sought to be realistic about the situation America faced in the 1950’s, she did not seek to sugar coat or stroke the Politically Correct ego that plagues our society today. Rather, she tried to emulate the difficulty of navigating that world and explain what the unfortunate circumstances could be should you (as a white person) stand up for the equal rights of your colored neighbors.

Pair This With: Twisted Old Vine Zinfandel

This is a great go-to, medium-bodied wine that is berry forward with a hint of spice. You'll want something to keep you composed during this novel and this Zin will do it.