Check off Amissville wineries!

A beautiful day to start our Virginia winery adventures.  Clear day, blue skies.  

View of the pond from Unicorn Winery

Franc

We wandered down from Warrenton to Amissville and hit the first winery on the way, Unicorn Winery.   Named after the Irish Rovers' song, the Unicorn Song, a favorite by the original owner, Unicorn opened in 2000.  As we entered the winery, we were greeted by Franc (yes as in Cab Franc) and by smiling faces.  We soon begin the tasting ($5 for 10 tastings).  For their whites, we enjoyed the '08 Chardonnay the best and at $16, it's reasonably priced while the '08 Meritage was our favorite red.  Their bottles range in price from $14 to $30, with the average wine around $15 a bottle.  The ambiance inside is nothing special but outside you can enjoy one of their homemade cheese balls to accompany a glass or two of wine on the decks that overlook a pond.  There are also a few picnic benches so a great place for a small gathering of friends.  And they may have combined my two favorite items, a Slurpee and wine into the Frappevino.  Perfect for a hot and humid Virginia summer day!

Narmada Winery

Next, we hit Narmada winery, a winery we are quite familiar and partial to (we have been wine members for over a year now).  One of the few Indian-run wineries in Virginia, Narmada is owned by Pandit and Sudha Patil.  Pandit runs the business while Sudha is the winemaker.  Narmada has been open for just a few years now and the namesake is Pandit's mother.  Pandit is often onsite, pouring, socializing, and shaking hands to each patron.  They are thrilled to have customers and repeat customers at that.  The interior of the building is gorgeous, with a peacock theme.  We started our tasting, which is $7 for 13 wines (free to wine members and $10 if you want to keep the glass). There are too many good wines to list here.  There really isn't one we really don't like but a few of our favorites include MOM, Yash-Vir, and Midnight, the latter which they use to make a stellar wine-only sangria.  A must-try!  Narmada often has live music on the weekends and plenty of seating inside and out.  Did I mention the wonderful Indian food available? The only Indian food available in a 30 mile radius I'm fairly certain.  Bottles cost $18 to $38, averaging in the low $20s.

Gray Ghost Vineyard

Our last winery for the day was Gray Ghost Vineyards, named for Confederate Colonel Mosby.  They've been open for 17 years and have clearly become expert winemakers over the years. The facility, with beautifully adorned wood ceilings, is welcoming.  We begin our tasting quickly and for just $2 for 8 wines, it was the true bargain of the day.  Most of their wines right now are white.  We learned that they use only grapes from their property which is unusual in Virginia (many wineries, especially the young ones, purchase grapes from other Virginia vineyards).  With their namesake, they hold some unique events throughout the year including a Civil War author book signing where they attract 20+ authors.  They also open up their property to wine enthusiasts for harvesting.  For no cost, you come out at dawn and help to pick grapes and partake in the harvest, anywhere from late August to mid October.  We signed up and look forward to the notice!  Their wines range in price from $12.50 (for the '10 Vidal Blanc, a real steal!) to $40, averaging around $20 a bottle.

Goal: Visit every Virginia winery by 2012

Perhaps this may not seem lofty to you? According to www.virginiawine.org, there are currently 191 wineries over a whopping 42,000 square miles.  If we take 75 weeks, that's an average of 2.5 wineries a week.  Yes, I'm a very lucky person to have conceptualized this idea!  Oh, I failed to mention that I plan to not only visit but DRINK at every winery, perhaps obvious to some...maybe not others.

So why am I doing this?  Well there are a couple of reasons:

• I love wine.  That's pretty straight forward.
• I love all things Virginia.  After all, it's for lovers.
• I want to put Virginia wine on the map for those non-Virginians out there.
• It seems rather challenging considering I work a full-time job that really will only allow me to do this on weekends (not to mention many of these are only open on the weekend and during warm months).  I love a good challenge!
• I love supporting local businesses.
• I  can't think of a better way to spend my weekends.

So wish me luck (my husband, Ryan, too as he will be with me most of the time) and share this with others.  In return, you will get some good info about wine, wineries, etc. in a layman's, not sommelier, kind of way, I can promise you that!  We will take pictures, give you the LD on the wineries throughout the state of Virginia, and hopefully encourage you to check out what Virginia wine has to offer.