About the Vineyard: Old House Vineyards offers 75 acres of beautiful country scenery
at the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains.
As this is my first experience at Old House, I am going to refrain from providing
too much information. The experience at
Old House was wonderful. It is off the beaten
path of Route 29 and outside of the Culpeper hustle and bustle. The grounds contain a beautiful tasting room,
which used to be a home. The grounds
also include other features such as a fireplace and patio, next to their lake. While our day was outside was impacted to the
weather, we did take a stroll through the vineyards and along the lake. Old House has provided a bridge, which goes
out to a small island in the lake. This
island is used for events, such as weddings.
After reading about Old House later, I discovered that they have a
tradition of lovers hanging padlocks to the Love Lock chains at the dock off
the wedding island. After which time,
the lovers throw the keys into the lake in a gesture of undying love. This is actually a tradition born from Rome,
which you can read more into on the Old House website.
My Tasting Experience: Old House offered some of the best wines I have tasted in
Virginia. The hosting staff was very accommodating,
knowledgeable, and focused on providing the best wine tasting experience. One of the reasons I All of their wines on
selection was Estate wines, at the time of my tasting. There were 10 wines to taste, but I missed
out on Rosie’s Rose because it was out of stock. Again, I am going to refrain from discussing
the wines too much until I do my next tasting.
I will comment on our top two choices, which were the Chardonnay and the
Arctica. I favor wines that are aged in
oak, due to the buttery taste. I
certainly got that experience with this Chardonnay. The Artica is one of the best late harvest
wines I have tasted. If you are looking
for a rich dessert wine, this will definitely satisfy that need. Let me end with the note that these two wines
happened to jump out at us during this tasting, however all their wines are
fantastic and it was a very hard choice.
Next time we may favor a different wine depending the mood of the day or
our taste buds. If you really want to find
out about their wines, go taste for yourself and share your experiences back
with me, on this blog.
Key observations I
have taken away from my tasting: I have found that the hosting staff of vineyards prides
themselves in their knowledge of wine, the craft of making wine, their vineyard
and often times the industry. I have
often noticed that people refrain from asking questions during tastings and at
times hosts may be too busy to entertain many questions. However, I enjoy wine tasting because I am
offered an opportunity to learn about Virginia, to learn about a craft and
understand the environment around me. I
have found that the best tastings are the ones where I can share dialogue with
the hosts about the vineyard and wines. Sure,
going to a vineyard is about the wine, but it’s also about discovery and being
a part of something. Don’t be afraid to
ask questions. There is no right or wrong question and don’t
forget it also part of the hosts job to steer conversations into a productive
dialogue about their industry. That
opportunity will not arise until to take the first step.
Website: http://www.oldhousevineyards.com/
