A Tale of Three Wineries

One week ago today, I spent a wonderful afternoon touring wineries in the Charlottesville, Virginia area with my 3 good friends who were my housemates in law school.

The original plan was to go to the spa at the resort hotel where we were staying, but when I was trying to book treatments for all of us at the same time, the idea of doing tastings at some of the wineries popped into my head. The only issue with that was the driving. It wouldn't be as much fun for the person who had to drive, plus there was the issue of us having to find our way to the wineries. I decided to check into how much it would cost to hire a limousine for a few hours. As it turned out, the four of us could be driven around in the limousine for four hours for the same cost as the spa treatments. As my friend Michelle so eloquently put it: "If I understand the question, I can be driven around Virginia on a winery tour with 3 of my best friends or get naked with a strange man. Difficult choice. Okay, maybe the winery tour."


First off, I would highly recommend the limousine company we used: QR Limos. Bonnie, who responds to quote requests, spent 20 minutes on the phone with me plotting out the most efficient trip; I did not receive service like this at all from the other company with whom I spoke. Our driver, Frank, was wonderful. He was very professional but also a lot of fun. We had a great time rolling through the beautiful Virginia countryside and would have enjoyed that aspect of it even without the wine. ;)

Our first stop was the best overall wine-tasting experience. It was Jefferson Vineyards. This winery is actually on the site where in 1774, Thomas Jefferson was the first to attempt to make wine in the new colonies. He failed, but the area around his beloved Monticello is now home to many thriving wineries. When we arrived, we went into the tasting room and were told they were about to begin another tasting. We paid our $5 each (which included the wines and a commemorative glass) and were happy to find that the four of us were going to be our own tasting group with our own guide pouring and telling us about the wines. Our guide was fantastic -- he was so informative and not the least bit pretentious. We got to taste 9 or 10 different wines, and he took his time explaining the various varieties and processes and answered every question thoughtfully. We were lucky to find that when the tasting was done, our guide was also the one who would lead the tour of th winemaking facility. We all learned a lot about how wine is made and had a lot of fun doing it.

When the tour was over, we got back into the limo and Frank took us to our next destination, Kluge Estate. This winery was absolutely gorgeous. When we got there and saw the beautiful grounds, we decided to make our cheese-and-cracker picnic there. Then Frank told us they had food available inside, and we found some wonderful things from which to choose. We settled upon a plate of stuffed olives and a curried chicken salad with pitas. We feasted at a picnic table under some trees and had a lovely, relaxing lunch. Then we moved back inside to do the wine tasting. The tasting, we were told, was $10 for 6 wines. This was in stark contrast to the earlier tasting we had done at Jefferson -- the tastes were smaller, and this guide did not have a fraction of the knowledge that our first guide was able to share. We were not impressed, but it was worthwhile to visit just for the lovely setting and the delicious food. And the staff was very gracious. One young man even went back and had the chef write down the recipe for the chicken salad we liked so much.

Our last stop was First Colony Winery. It was at the other end of the spectrum from Kluge Estate -- no frills, just belly up to the bar and taste some wine. The tastings here were free, and while the guide was not a fountain of information like her predecessor at Jefferson, she was much better than the guide we'd had at Kluge. We tasted some nice wines here, but at this point we were getting a bit "wined out." We ended the afternoon with Frank taking us on our last leg of the scenic drive, back to the Boar's Head Inn.

We could hardly think of a nicer way to spend an afternoon in our beloved Charlottesville. If you ever get the chance, take it!!