2018 Weekend 9

So we stayed local this weekend because my son was going to be in town briefly and I wanted to see him and his lovely girlfriend.

We went to Mountain Brook Vineyards. It had warmed up nicely so we sat out on the porch that overlooks part of the vineyard and the mountains are in the distance. It is so lovely there. We enjoyed a bottle of their Rose. We met some very lovely people and enjoyed our time there and got to tell Rucha (one of their horses) Happy 21st Birthday!

We left there and headed to City Scape Winery for a Girl Scout Cookie paring. Man was that fun and good! Josh & Deb always do such a great job with the events they plan. All of the cookies went excellently well with the wines they pared them with. We walked to the back of the property to say hello to Pinot and the goats. We had a nice chat with Josh's parents, Jane & Karl, as well.

Jane pruning the vines Saturday

We left there and headed to find some dinner. After dinner we went to Dorman High School to watch the finals of the WGI Indoor Percussion Regional so I could see Andrew and Nicole for a little bit as Andrew works for Civitas Independent Percussion. 

Congratulations to these guys as they took home the first place trophy in the Independent Percussion Open Class Division. After the awards ceremony we all 4 headed to New Groove Artisan Brew so I could have just a little more mama time.  I enjoyed the blueberry cider that they have from Windy Hill Orchard and Cider Mill. Sadly I had to say goodbye/goodnight to my son and his girlfriend and head home.

Sunday after church and lunch we headed to Baker Buffalo Creek Vineyard. It was another beautiful day and we enjoyed the sunshine as we shared a bottle of their very lovely Riesling. Sadly we did not get to see Charles and Anne this trip as they were busy working a spring show in Charlotte. We did however meet some fun couples and enjoyed chatting with them.

2018 Weekend 5

So Dennis and had a long and much needed weekend in Savannah. We left Friday morning and headed south. We first stopped at the Angel Oak Tree in Charleston. I have never seen a tree so huge and beautiful.

We decided to go to Deep Waters Vineyard in Charleston and it's a lovely place. Most of the wines are muscadine or a muscadine blend. The blends are muscadine with CA imported grapes. They use two types of muscadine that we had not heard of before, the Tara and the Ison. They have all sorts of animals on the property. Lots of chickens, roosters, ducks, pigs, a goat and bunnies. The goat (who's name I have forgotten) will climb up a spiral staircase in his enclosure to get you to put some food in a little bowl that is attached to a pulley and you send it up to him & he'll eat out of the bowl. We brought a bottle of their Magnolia, just the name of the wine not the varietal of muscadine home with us. This wine is actually made from the Carols grape.

Much to our surprise the Firefly Distillery is on the same property as the winery. So more fun there! We brought some of the Coconut Cake Liquor home. Our other favorite was the Apple Pie moonshine.

We left and headed on down to Savannah. Our hotel was amazing! We had a river view and got to see all sorts of HUGE cargo ships. They have wine and cheese every evening so that was always our appetizers before dinner. Friday night we went to B. Matthews on Bay Street for dinner and then over to Savannah Smiles for dueling pianos. To say that Savannah Smiles was not quite what we were expecting would be a vast understatement. I've been to a few dueling piano shows before but this one was very different. Now, just because I say it was different does not mean it was bad or that we didn't have a good time because we did. It had just been quite the while since either one of us had a hand stamp. LOL! I had also not been to one that the players changed out periodically. There were 4 different pianists and one drummer who played on select songs. We experienced our first bicycle taxi to and from the bar and it had not been SO cold, it would've been a lot of fun. Both of the "drivers" were super friendly. We also brought a bottle of the Southern Duck White home.

Saturday morning after an amazing breakfast at the hotel, we headed out to explore a bit. Again.... if it had not been so cold it would have been terrific! We both ended up buying ear muffs of sorts. The wind was brutal. I had looked at the forecast before we went and thought it would be great weather for Saturday. Not realizing there would be wind. Let me tell you, the wind coming straight off the river is COLD! But as always, we made the best of it. We then headed to Butterducks Winery. They us a combination of NC and California grapes. We had stopped there on our way home from our honeymoon and wanted to revisit. Since the winery is about 30 minutes from Savannah, it was much warmer and less windy. We had a nice time there and met some fun ladies who were enjoying a mommy's day out. Enjoyed a glass each of their White Merlot and cheese and crackers.

Headed back to the hotel to get ready for dinner. We went over to Tybee Island to go to the Crab Shack. SOOOO good! I had the low country boil and Dennis had the crab cakes. Both of us were STUFFED! Headed back to the hotel to get ready for our ghost tour. We decided to do The Hearse Ghost Tour because it was simply to cold to do one of the walking ones. Each hearse holds 8 people so we met some fun people. Our tour guide was hysterical! But one note. If you ever do this tour, and choose to sit in the very front, don't sit on the left side of the hearse. Sit on the right. EVERYTHING is on the right.

After another great breakfast on Sunday, sadly we had to leave. There is so much to do in Savannah that I'm not sure even a week would be long enough to do everything. Upon checking out of the hotel., we drove around the city one more time and then headed to Hilton Head to go to Island Winery. (We went to both of these SC wineries because a) they weren't too far out of the way and b) we needed to get them the SC Wine competition information). We found one antique store as we didn't want to arrive exactly at noon when they opened. Between the two of us we got to taste all of their wines. They have some really nice varieties. We each enjoyed a glass and a cheese tray. We met a very lovely lady who was headed to Florida for the month.

Sadly, our fun long weekend had to end and we had to head home. Sorry for the picture overload on this one, I just had to post them all!

More fun to come next week!

#DiscoverSCWines

Last weekends of 2017

So with Christmas and New Years we decided to combine the blog for those 2 weeks. So... here we go.

After doing a tiny bit of last minute shopping on Saturday the 23rd, we decided to head to Waldensian Heritage Wines. Very quaint tasting room and they had some regulars enjoying wine and football. Since it had been quite a while since we had been there, we decided to do a tasting again. We ended up bringing 3 bottles home as they were having a really nice sale.

We then headed to Shadow Line Vineyard . Marvin & Geba are such lovely people. We also met a very sweet couple who are neighbors to the vineyard and had such a nice time chatting with them. This was the second time we went to Shadow Line and both times it was rainy. We are going to pick a very pleasant, sunny day the next time we do so we can enjoy the patio area they have. If I am not mistaken, we came home with 3 bottles from them. Yep restocked the wine racks!

Sunday being Christmas Eve, we went to church, had family lunch, I wrapped gifts and then we headed to Russian Chapel Hills. Andre was doing a special tasting with oysters that Dennis did. I  am not an oyster fan so I just had a glass of the Sauvignon Blanc. 

Last Saturday we went to a new winery in Laurens, Abiding Vines Vineyard. Owner David Barnes is so personable. Come to find out he works with someone that I grew up with. Small world! This is a young vineyard/winery and he is currently producing all muscadine but is wanting to make some other fruit wines in the future. He had a two varietals of muscadine that we had not had before the Creek and the Regale. We brought a bottle of the Regale home with us. 

We then went by City Scape to get another bottle of the Winemaker's Cab Sav since I had given the one we had as a retirement gift. As always the winery was hopping and we enjoyed a glass each and a cheese board and got to see Pinot for a few. He was dressed all snuggly in a sweater. We made a quick stop at Happy Cow Creamery as Dennis wanted some of his milk and we also picked up some cheese, natural peanut butter and a spaghetti sauce that I thought looked interesting. 

We then drove up to Victoria Valley. Such a beautiful place! The owner and winemaker Les Jane's daughter Brittany did our tasting and we had a lovely chat with some locals/regulars. We brought a bottle of the Table Rock Rose home with us. 

Sunday after church and lunch, we drove up to Parker Binns for a little bit before heading to Greenville for our traditional New Year's Eve dinner & comedy. BTW, if you've never tried Uber, you must! It's fantastic! Since it was so cold, we were pleasantly surprised to see how busy they were. Sadly they were out of our favorite which is the Rose, but we enjoyed the Lulu Red for a nice change. As we were leaving sweet Dee was there, enjoying a glass on her day off on the OTHER side of wine bar! 

So after all the festivities on Sunday night, we got read

y, check out of our hotel and headed south to GA. Thinking the weather would be better that way. Dennis wanted to go to The Dillard House in Dillard, GA. On the way, we ran into some snow, but it wasn't too bad but it did concern us for a little bit. About 15 minutes later we were out of it and got to enjoy a MASSIVE lunch.

We had planned to go to a winery that we had not been to before, but they were closed for the day, so we headed to Habersham Winery and Vineyard. Did a tasting facilitated by the very lovely and sweet Sydne. We decided to shared a bottle of the Gewurztraminer and met two super fun couples. Sadly we had to tell them good bye and head home. All in all I would say the holiday weekends were a great success and much fun!