Winery Wednesday - Benziger

Every so often during the winters here in Virginia, we get these ridiculously warm spring-like days. Today, as I write this post, is one of those days. It’s going to be 74 degrees and sunny. I do my best to soak up every single bit of these days when we get them.

They also make me a bit anxious for spring to actually get here and make me reminisce about those warm days I’ve spent visiting wineries. For this Winery Wednesday feature, I’m remembering our trip to Napa a few years back and one of my favorite places we visited there – Benziger Winery.

When we planned our trip out to California wine country, we knew we wanted to spend some time in Sonoma County. It tends to be a bit more low-key and causal than Napa Valley which really is more our scene. My husband is a chemist so, when we saw that Benziger was a Biodynamic farming winery, we had to visit. The science gets him every time.

Beyond the Biodynamics, Benizger is beautiful. Though, I guess you really can’t go to any wineries in California that don’t provide amazing views. They have a bunch of different options when you get there from a tasting in the main room to a full tour of their facility or a private lunch with the head winemaker. We did a wine tasting and then we wandered through their gardens and grounds on our own. It gave you a great feel for their Biodynamic processes and provided some great scenery to enjoy.

Their wines were great too. We brought home a bottle of their Merlot with us since it was our favorite. Their Cabernet Sauvignon was really delicious too. Since we had 4 days of wineries, we had to cut down on how many we got from each winery at the time. As luck would have it though, we recently found a bottle of their Cab at a local store!

As you can see from the photo, the Merlot is still in our collection and has a few years of age on it now. We have this really bad habit of saving our good wines for some special occasion. We really need to just drink them! Now that I know I can find it around here though, maybe we will bite the bullet and pop this bottle open.

If you get the chance to go out to Sonoma, definitely put this place on your list. If not – keep your eyes open at your local shops and you might just score big with some of their delicious wine!

Winery Wednesday - Blue Toad Cidery

Before you say anything, I know this says Winery Wednesday and I KNOW that this place is not a winery. We are just all going to be OK with this post being a Winery Wednesday feature because, let’s face it, none of the days of the week start with a “C” and alliteration just sounds better.

Now that we’ve addressed the elephant in the room – let’s move on to the good stuff. Cider! A couple of weeks ago, we were on one of our many trips to Carter Mountain and we needed a place to stop for lunch. My first choice was Pippin Hill Winery but let me tell you guys a little secret…apparently EVERY WINERY IN VIRGINIA is closed on Mondays! Not cool.

We ended up at this little pizza joint right across the street from Pippin Hill called Dr. Ho’s Humble Pie. It was DELICIOUS y’all. Since it was my day off from work, I figured that I deserved to have a drink with lunch. I spied a local hard cider on their menu that I had never heard of before called Blue Toad. They had a seasonal on hand called Festy that is a fall blend with cinnamon and cloves. Yes, please!

This cider did not disappoint. Thanks to modern technology and Google, I was able to look them up while we ate lunch. Guess what? They had a tasting room about 20 minutes up the road from where we were at! Of course I said we had to go. So we went.

Upon further investigation, it turns out this place is based out of New York and has just recently opened this location in Virginia. It was a cute little place all rustic and comfy. The location we were at also partnered up with a local winery called Well Hung (yep…you read that right) so it’s the best of both worlds. Cider and wine all in one place!

We got a couple of flights so we could try all their different varities. I had their Peach, Caramel Apple, Black Cherry and their Irish Dry. The Festy and the Black Cherry were hands down my favorites. I was excited about the prospect of caramel apple but it was just WAY too sweet for my taste. It was literally like I was drinking carbonated caramel. The Irish Dry was also really good. It’s made with all Granny Smith apples so it’s super tart.

If you get the chance, go check them out. And if you can’t make it to their tasting room, you can find their cider at your local Wegman’s. Now, excuse me while I go stock up on the Festy Harvest blend before it’s gone!

Winery Wednesday - First Colony

When I stop to think about it, I feel like I’ve visited my fair share of wineries around Virginia. But the truth is, I’ve barely scratched the surface! There are over 250 wineries in Virginia and (if I can remember them all correctly) I’ve visited (or tasted wines from) about 57 different wineries. Crazy!

My Winery Wednesday feature today is one of my favorites that never disappoints – First Colony Winery.

First of all, this place is beautiful. It’s nestled away in the foothills of the Blue Ridge mountains and is an unexpected little oasis. They remodeled in 2013 and the new building, complete with thatched roof is perfectly European. The tasting room is small, unassuming and perfectly cozy.

So, enough about the design right? What about their wines!? Well, those are delicious! From their whites to rosé to reds, I haven’t come across one that wasn’t on point taste wise.

My absolute favorite wine from First Colony is their Claret. It’s a lighter bodied red wine a bit on the sweeter side. I love this wine because it is so versatile and an easy crowd pleaser. It tastes good chilled or room temperature making it the perfect year-round wine.

I also love their rosé. It’s the perfect summer picnic wine that pairs perfectly with a plate of cheese and charcuterie. It’s light but not too sweet and bursting with yummy citrus flavors.

Since summer is sadly drawing to a close and I’ll begin pulling out my drier, fuller bodied red wines, I will also mention their Meritage. It’s dry without being to biting on the tongue and has a slight spiciness to it that I just love. It’s just right to hold up to some of your heartier fall meals.

Speaking of fall – this is the perfect time to head out to the mountains of Virginia to check them out in person. Once the leaves start changing, it’s a magical place to be!

Winery Wednesday - Rutherford Hill

To celebrate our 5th anniversary, my husband and I were lucky enough to get the chance to travel out to Napa Valley. It was on my bucket list of places to go and believe me - it did NOT disappoint. Our trip was fairly short - only 4 days but we got to experience a ton while we were there. We never stayed in the same place two nights in a row.

Obviously, wine tasting was at the top of my list of to-do's while we were there. It is unbelievable how many wineries there are in Northern California. We spent the time beforehand and planned out our entire trip and chose which wineries we were going to visit on which day. This took some work and research but it made it SO much easier.

Today on my Winery Wednesday feature, I want to share my hands down, FAVORITE winery we visited on our trip -

Rutherford Hill Winery

Rutherford Hill Winery is located high in the hills of Napa Valley, CA. The views of the valley are absolutely breathtaking. The winery was founded in 1972 and has been making delicious wines ever since.

One of the cool features of Rutherford Hill are their wine caves. We took a tour and it was the most fun, unique wine tasting experience I've had. They actually had little stations set up throughout the caves so as we toured, we stopped periodically for wine. So fun! They can store up to 8,000 barrels of wine in their caves at one time!

Here's us at the entrance to the wine caves!

The wine caves were chilly which makes them perfect for storing wine

There were tons of alleys off the main walkway with wine barrels stacked as far as the eye could see!

We tasted a bunch of delicious wines but my favorites were their Malbec and Merlot. We brought back a bottle of the 2008 Malbec with us - soooo yummy! Merlot is the wine that Rutherford Hill is best known for and dedicates most of their production towards.

The last stop on our tasting took us to a table outside where they shared their dessert wines with us. They also gave us a bowl of these amazing chocolate covered blueberries. I brought a bag home and have been obsessed with them ever since. Luckily, I found a local store that carries them!

Whenever someone I know mentions they are headed to Napa Valley and ask for recommendations - this is where I tell them to go. If you aren't going to make it out to Napa any time soon, then find their wines online and try them out. You won't be disappointed!

Winery Wednesday - 101 Best Wineries in America

You think I would have learned my lesson about other people's list after my Trash the List post earlier this year. But, I keep going back to lists because while other people's lists may not suit my EXACT tastes, I do enjoy reading them and giving some of their suggestions a try.

My mom sent me this list from MSN.com of the 101 Best Wineries in America and of course I was intrigued. The competitive side of me came out (yes, I'm competitive even with myself!) and I wanted to know how many I had either visited or at least tasted their wines.

It's a cool slideshow that takes you all the way from #101 to #1. Of course, California dominated this list. I was a little disappointed that only 2 wineries from Virginia made this list. Maybe I'm a bit biased but, we have some really awesome wineries here!

I was also disappointed in myself that I had only visited 3 of these wineries. Here are the ones I've been to:

Winery Wednesday - Pippin Hill Winery

I am extremely lucky to live in a state that offers so many wineries right in my backyard. Not only do we have a ton of wineries in Virginia - but we have GOOD wineries. Seriously people, we are the next Napa Valley. Except more like Sonoma County. Just you wait and see.

If you have never gotten the opportunity to come out to Virginia's wine country, make the trip. It's worth it. Trust me. Do it. Unless you don't like wine and in that case, come anyway and be the DD.

At last count (read: last Google search), Virginia had over 250 wineries. My goal is to get to all of them one day. It's a lofty goal, I know.

For my first ever Winery Wednesday Feature, I wanted to talk about my absolute FAVORITE winery in the entire state of Virginia - 

Pippin Hill Winery

Pippin Hill, located in Charlottesville, VA is so incredibly beautiful and really showcases the magical qualities of the Blue Ridge mountains. Not only do they offer incredible wines, but they have top notch gourmet cuisine too at their Farm Table. I mean - look at that photo, it's amazing!

A New Beginning

WELCOME to Books and Barrels!!

I have been so incredibly anxious to share my new blog with all of you that I could barely contain myself. I’ve spent the last few weeks prepping all of my new ideas while the new design was put into place. Isn’t it awesome!? This incredibly talented girl over on Venus Trapped in Mars did the new layout – go check out her blog template services. You won’t be disappointed!

Feel free to browse around – and make sure that you follow my new blog either on Bloglovin or by email so you get all of my updates. You’ll find that all my previous reviews are here so if you are behind, catch up!

I’m excited to share a bunch of new things with you guys here including some fun new weekly events like “Winery Wednesday” and “Throwback Thursday”. I will also have a Blog Tour stop coming up in July so stay tuned for that as well!

There are a few features on the new layout that are still under construction so make sure you come back often to check them out.

My FIRST official Books and Barrels book review will be coming up soon and I know you don’t want to miss it.

Thanks everyone for coming along on this new adventure with me – it’s going to be a blast!