River City Food and Wine: The 38th Annual Virginia Wine Festival

Friday, September 20, 2013

The 38th Annual Virginia Wine Festival - Life is Grape

On a glorious Saturday morning, hubby and I headed a bit north to Great Meadow at The Plains for the 38th Annual Virginia Wine Festival. We were sent a couple of media passes from Madison+Main to check out the celebration of the grape in the Commonwealth.

First of all, the weather turned out to be perfect. Temperature in the low 70's; blue sky dotted with fluffy white clouds; a gentle breeze.

About 50 wineries had gathered around the Great Meadow fields along with wine-related vendors and a wide variety of food vendors. Throughout the day participants streamed in traveling by bus or snaking their cars through the fields to park. Due to the popularity of the event and the vast numbers of wines available to taste, wine tents became more crowded after 1 PM and a strategy was implemented to taste the wines that interested us. Being big red fans, we opted to skip most of the whites.

A couple of standout wines for us included Rogers Ford Petit Verdot. This was a new winery for us and we were impressed by the nose and flavor of this red grape which grows well here in Virginia. We were also attracted by the unusual bottle that was sourced from Milan.

Another standout was Rosemont. We enjoyed each of their wines we tried - Lake Country Red, Cabernet Franc, and Merlot. This up and coming winery located in Mecklenburg County continues to impress.

Right beside Rosemont, Castle Hill Cider offered a dry sparkling, Celestial, and hint of sweet cider, Gravity. The sparkling tickled our noses and our fancies.

The best wine of the day was the Virginia Trianon from the Williamsburg Winery. This Cabernet Franc sported a wonderful flavor and also contained a lot of body with a bit of tannin. While most of the wines we tasted were at least decent and some were very enjoyable, most of the time, the wine was light to medium-bodied. Not the Trianon. It was great to see this long-established winery producing a lovely product.

And let's not forget lunch. Various food trucks were offering anything from Mediterranean fare to shark tacos to vegetarian selections. We were intrigued by Christina's Sexi-Mexi Food Truck burritos. I opted for the East Indian Chicken and hubby tried the Crazy Cuban. I liked the fact that the wrap was seared. A very nice a flavoring detail. Both burritos were packed with ingredients. Hubby's featured pork, black beans, pickled onions, cheese, jalapenos, and avocado. Mine contained chicken sauteed in tikka masala with rice and pineapple. We got away from the crowd and settled upon some rocks jutting out from the ground beneath a shade tree. Great food, good wine, perfect day. As it stated on on wine tasting glasses - Virginia Never Tasted So Good.

A wine festival is always a great way to try wines produced in Virginia. In some cases the winemaker attends and pours the wine for your enjoyment. Most wineries produce a variety of wine from dry to sweet and if one is an imbiber, at least one wine (if not more) should be a palate pleaser.

Enjoy a few more photos as you plan your next trip to a Virginia Wine Festival.