Texas Lou

Archive for the ‘Wine’ Category

A few weeks ago, when I was in Dallas for my cousin Megan’s bridal shower and bachelorette party, we wanted to buy some wine to enjoy on Friday evening.  After browsing the wine aisles at her local grocery store we finally decided on two bottles.  One was named Little Black Dress, which we chose for its name, and the other, pictured above, was Mission de San Antonio Valero from Fall Creek Vineyards in Texas, which we chose for its label.

Normally, I don’t judge wines by their covers, and I usually purchase based on taste or recommendation, but I guess being in Texas made me feel a little crazy, and I decided to trust my instinct!

The wine was good, but the label was even better!

Why do I love the label you ask?

Well I shall tell you:

• First, I love San Antonio because it is beautiful, full of culture, and its where I spent my 4 years during college.  I miss it greatly!
• Second, it has an image of the Alamo on it and in GOLD no less!  The Alamo is only one of the most defining images of Texas!
• Third, the Alamo, pictured on the label, has much personal significance to me, besides the fact that it is a part of Texas history.  When I was a freshman in college, I got “stuck” in a semester-long class about the Alamo.  It was ALL Alamo, ALL the time!  At first, I was not enthusiastic about this class, as it had been my last choice.  But it grew on me.  I learned alot, met some great people in the class (some of my first friends in college), and had the opportunity to learn from one of my favorite professors, Dr. Linda Salvucci.  In addition, this class introduced me to genealogy.  As out final project, we had to write a 10 page paper on any topic relating to the Alamo.  I had a great, great, great (ok lots of “great”s) uncle named Edward F. Mitchusson from Kentucky who was the surgeon at the Alamo and fought and died for Texas’ independence!  I got to do research at the Daughters of the Republic of Texas Library where I read old letters from my ancestors and I compiled the largest document of facts on my relative.  Not only did I get an A in the class, I also learned alot about my heritage, genealogy, research in general, and Texas!  I also contributed to documenting my family history!

So now you know why I just HAD to buy the wine when I saw the label!

Last night was a blast!

Cheryl, Jennifer, Kristen, and I headed out to the Charlottesville Pavillion to celebrate the first day of summer and see Colbie Caillat and Sheryl Crow play!

We started out the evening at my apartment with a quick glass of wine and then headed to the downtown mall.  You may remember me writing about Ventana a few months ago and their very unique margaritas.  Well Ventana was offering a discount to all Sheryl Crow ticket holders so we decided to stop in for a pre-concert cocktail.  I finally got to try the cucumber margarita.  It was delicious!  It wasn’t as good as the jalapeno margarita, but it was definitely the perfect refreshing beverage for a hot summer day.  Jennifer tried the strawberry margarita and Cheryl had the habanero margarita which I tried the last time I was at Ventana.

After drinks, we headed to the Pavillion for the music.  We enjoyed some awesome Star Hill Lucy as we chatted and listened to Colbie Caillat play.

When Sheryl Crow took the stage, we got to hear all of our old favorites and some new ones too!  We danced and sang and had a great time and even bumped into some more friends!

Overall, it was an awesome first day of summer.  We definitely started Summer 2010 off right!

Yesterday I attended the Crozet Music Festival with some friends from work.  We went to support a group of guys from VGT who have a band called Coal River.  These guys were AWESOME!  They sang some really good cover songs as well as some of their own unique tunes.  If you’ve got some free time and feel like hearing some great local music, check out their MySpace page.

In addition to listening to some great bands, there were several local wineries and breweries there.  Hill Top Berry Farm & Winery (mentioned in an earlier post) was there and had a newly bottled wine called Lavender Metheglin.

From Hill Top Berry Farm & Winery’s website:

Metheglin is derived from the Welsh word “meddyglyn” which means healing drink.  In ancient times, healing spices were added to mead resulting in a  drink with healing powers.  Lavender, believed to promote good health, is also soothing and relaxing and is associated with romance and seduction.  Possessing a beautiful golden color and a bouquet of fresh lavender flowers, this slightly sweet mead can be enjoyed heated or paired with desserts such as blackberry cobbler.

This wine was amazing and hopefully it really does have healing powers since I’ve been fighting a cold.  I loved it so much that I bought 3 bottles of it.

In addition, I sampled wines from Well Hung Vineyard (love the name and their label) and Flying Fox Vineyard which had some really good wines (and really cute labels).  I’m going to have to make it out to Flying Fox’s tasting room to try their 2006 Petit Verdot which won a Gold Medal in the 2009 Virginia Governor’s Cup wine competition.  It tied for first place with Barboursville Vineyards ‘ Octagon 2005 and Jefferson Vineyards‘ 2006 Meritage (according to the owner) and I loved both of these wines.

Local breweries in attendance included Starr Hill, Blue Mountain Brewery (was really sad I missed out on their Humpback Oktoberfest but will have to make a trip out to Nelson County to try it and their up-and-coming Chocolate Pumpkin Porter), and Devils Backbone Brewing Company (I had the Gold Leaf Lager which was delicious).

In the end, it was an awesome night with lots of friends, good music, good food, and great wine and beer (despite my cold).  I will definitely be attending again next year and you should too!

Saturday afternoon, I spent the day with a couple of friends at Hill Top Berry Farm and Winery in Nelson County, Virginia.  We did a tasting of the winery’s fruit wines and honey meads.  If you’re ever in the area, I highly recommend stopping by as the vineyard was definitely one of the more unique Virginia wineries that I have been to. 

They were sold out of many of the wines that I wanted to buy, but I did find 3 that I settled on:  the Raspberry Melomel, Strawberry Melomel, and the Pyment (made of grapes and honey mead).

After our wine tasting, we had a picnic lunch on the porch and then picked blackberries.  Hill Top offers a better deal on blackberries in both quality and quantity than the farmer’s market or the grocery store.  Plus you get to choose each and every blackberry that you want to buy.

I was hoping to make blackberry wine, but since I just started a batch of concord grap wine, I’ll probably just stick to blackberry preserves.