Northern Neck Wine Trail
Memorial Day Weekend:
Darrin and I took the Northern Neck Wine Trail on our way to Newport News this weekend. We started early on Saturday to be at the first winery when it opened.
Oak Crest Winery was gorgeous - It was a house refurbished into a store and tasting room. The winery had some interesting wines, including a yummy strawberry dessert wine that goes GREAT with cheesecake! We purchased a couple bottles, and headed to Ingleside - the next stop.
At Ingleside, I did the Black Label tasting which was mostly reds that Darrin wouldn't like, but I really wanted to get a good bottle to sit on the shelf. Darrin tried and liked the Virginia Gold, and we purchased a bottle of that (and a couple others). After taking some pictures of the cute fish, we headed down the road to Belle Mount Vineyards. On the way, we stopped for lunch at McDonalds so I could continue driving. It was that point that we decided that we could make the whole trail in one day, so we cancelled our reservations in Tappahannock, and called Fred & Sandi to let them know we'd be in a day early...
The Mapquest directions to Belle Mount were spot-on, but the winery is actually inside a state park gate that it is close to -- it shares a driveway!! (Note for future purposes: you don't have to pay the State Park fee if you're only going to the winery!) The view is gorgeous from there, and we got to drive with the convertible top back the rest of the day! The wines were different, they offered the "Blue Crab Red" which was touted as a "beginners" red wine.
We headed to Athena and stopped at this brand new winery. They'd just opened, so they weren't quite ready for the craziness -- having only a couple wines, and their ice wine was not yet for sale. We decided to come back when there was more of the winery constructed.
When we left Athena, we tried to find the closest route to Newport News... HA! We actually found where the road "ended"! Along the way, we found a cute Christmas shop where I bought an ornament for our tree. The shop was in Kilmarnock on Rt 3. We ended up down ft 642 in a small town and a dead end. We got a good laugh, and made our way back to Rt 3 and the Norris Bridge.
Because Sandi had surgery a couple das before we arrived, we stopped and bought flowers on the way into Newport News. We had a fantastic visit with then, and Betty even stopped by (with roses that I got to arrange for Sandi). The visit was quite relaxing, and Darrin got to help his dad with some chores.
On Monday, we left Newport News about 9:30 AM and headed toward Richmond. I didn't even get onto I-64, as it was already backed up to 250, so we took Mercury all the way into Richmond, then took 17 North. We stopped at James River Cellars and enjoyed the Beautiful scenery and yummy cheeses! The Divino ice wine was amazing and the Chambourcin was great with strawberries! (Seeing a theme here?)
We tried to stop by the Russell Stover outlet, but it was closed for Memorial Day. Darrin and I made it back home after only an extra hour of driving, and shared our trip with Mom and Dad. We opened a bottle of the Oak Crest wine, and then Darrin went home to do laundry - how exciting :)
Darrin and I took the Northern Neck Wine Trail on our way to Newport News this weekend. We started early on Saturday to be at the first winery when it opened.
Oak Crest Winery was gorgeous - It was a house refurbished into a store and tasting room. The winery had some interesting wines, including a yummy strawberry dessert wine that goes GREAT with cheesecake! We purchased a couple bottles, and headed to Ingleside - the next stop.
At Ingleside, I did the Black Label tasting which was mostly reds that Darrin wouldn't like, but I really wanted to get a good bottle to sit on the shelf. Darrin tried and liked the Virginia Gold, and we purchased a bottle of that (and a couple others). After taking some pictures of the cute fish, we headed down the road to Belle Mount Vineyards. On the way, we stopped for lunch at McDonalds so I could continue driving. It was that point that we decided that we could make the whole trail in one day, so we cancelled our reservations in Tappahannock, and called Fred & Sandi to let them know we'd be in a day early...
The Mapquest directions to Belle Mount were spot-on, but the winery is actually inside a state park gate that it is close to -- it shares a driveway!! (Note for future purposes: you don't have to pay the State Park fee if you're only going to the winery!) The view is gorgeous from there, and we got to drive with the convertible top back the rest of the day! The wines were different, they offered the "Blue Crab Red" which was touted as a "beginners" red wine.
We headed to Athena and stopped at this brand new winery. They'd just opened, so they weren't quite ready for the craziness -- having only a couple wines, and their ice wine was not yet for sale. We decided to come back when there was more of the winery constructed.
When we left Athena, we tried to find the closest route to Newport News... HA! We actually found where the road "ended"! Along the way, we found a cute Christmas shop where I bought an ornament for our tree. The shop was in Kilmarnock on Rt 3. We ended up down ft 642 in a small town and a dead end. We got a good laugh, and made our way back to Rt 3 and the Norris Bridge.
Because Sandi had surgery a couple das before we arrived, we stopped and bought flowers on the way into Newport News. We had a fantastic visit with then, and Betty even stopped by (with roses that I got to arrange for Sandi). The visit was quite relaxing, and Darrin got to help his dad with some chores.
On Monday, we left Newport News about 9:30 AM and headed toward Richmond. I didn't even get onto I-64, as it was already backed up to 250, so we took Mercury all the way into Richmond, then took 17 North. We stopped at James River Cellars and enjoyed the Beautiful scenery and yummy cheeses! The Divino ice wine was amazing and the Chambourcin was great with strawberries! (Seeing a theme here?)
We tried to stop by the Russell Stover outlet, but it was closed for Memorial Day. Darrin and I made it back home after only an extra hour of driving, and shared our trip with Mom and Dad. We opened a bottle of the Oak Crest wine, and then Darrin went home to do laundry - how exciting :)
posted by Holly Lynne at 7:20 PM
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