C-Ville, Cider, hiking, and fun....

Well at least I lured you in...actually the title is our weekend plans. I guess wine should be in there too as I plan on hitting a dozen or so wineries over the three day weekend. I'm so excited to blog about it. Follow me on twitter @bighunter_22 to keep up as I move place to place.

To warm us up tonight, the wife made a great variation of Spanish soup with spicy chorizo from Whole Foods, and we decided to pull out some wine. While cooking and cleaning before our meal we split a delicious bottle of the bubbly. This particular bottle "BeDazzled" was one we picked up earlier this summer while in northern Michigan. Overall, we didn't enjoy the wines or wineries as much as we do here in VA, but the bubblies from northern Michigan were the exception. We found several we did like and all that we tasted were good and worth the time to taste them.

"Bedazzled" from Black Star Farms winery was the bubbly of choice tonight. A light bodied bubbly made from the pinot noir, pinot gris, chardonnay, and pinot blanc grapes, it showed a crisp nose. Its taste was of light bodied small bubble wine. It showed light pear citrus fruit. Very crisp, but no harsh burn that can accompany crisp bubblies.

To go with our Spanish soup we pulled out "Trio" from our cellar. This was wine we picked up on our July trip to Charlottesville, VA, and a fitting way to start our Charlottesville three day weekend. Trio is a featured red wine from Flying Fox Vineyards, and boast being a blend of merlot, cab franc, and petite verdot. As I recall this was given a favorable review from one of my favorite wine bloggers swirlsipsnark recently, and it was one of only two wine we brought back with us from Flying Fox, their Viognier being the other, however the long hot summer ensured the Viognier didn't last past July. Excited for good red wine, I opened it about an hour early so it had a chance to open up.

With our first glass we immediately thought Italian wine. It had muted cooked herb-y earth-y nose. It had strong early tannins mixed with young ripe raspberry taste more herbs on the tongue and a light body. Opposite of what you might think, the strong early tannins did not translate into a harsh finish. In fact it was very smooth and rounded out what is a good table wine. Although it still showed very young, being a 2008, it is not one I would recommend cellaring. Drink now and enjoy.

These two wines were a good reflection of some of the wines we picked up on other wine trips this year, and prepared us well for us to enjoy VA Wine Month, on the Charlottesville Wine Trail. This weekends theme will first time visits to wineries with stops at Pippin Hill Farm, Stinson Vineyards, Castle Hill Cider, and Lovingston Winery planned.