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 Weekends 2 & 3

We got sort of a late start Saturday (1/13) due to some errands we had to take care of before we could go. We met some dear friends, Pam & Will, at Misty Creek Vineyard in Mocksville, NC. We were greeted by Bear and Merl (Barry said someone else named him for them, it's Merl as in Merlot) when we arrived, as well as the owner, Barry, his lovely wife and his mother. Since it had been a while since we had been there and Pam & Will had not been there, Dennis & I did the tasting with them. They have several lovely wines. Our favorite is still the 2008 Chambourcin. The 4 of us split a bottle of the Syrah and also the Traminette. We brought a bottle of the Misty Rose, Syrah and the Chambourcin home. We enjoyed a hour or so hanging out in front of the fire with Pam & Will and also have nice conversations with Barry. We left there and headed to dinner at Port City Club in Cornelius. Man was the food good! We look forward to going back in the spring so we can enjoy the outside seating by the lake.

Merl

Will & Bear

Sunday (1/14) we went to Lake James Cellars. For Dennis & I this place is the best of both worlds! It's a winery but is also and antique store. So you can do a tasting, figure out what your favorite wine was and then browse in the antique store with your glass of wine. We brought a bottle of the Fonta Flora Cranberry Blush home. 

After leaving Lake James, we headed to Wood Mill Winery. This winery is primarily muscadine, but they also have some fruit wines. They have semi-dry, semi-sweet and sweet variations of the majority of their wines. This winery is a beautiful location for events. They have a lovely outside space (which we did not get to enjoy as it was WAY to COLD!) and their inside space is also great and has terrific views. We brought a couple of bottle home from here as well. We got a chance to speak with the owner/wine maker Larry. The young lady who handled our tasting was also very sweet and quite knowledgeable. 

This past Saturday (1/20) we met some fellow bloggers and friends at Cats Paw Winery in Rock Hill. Dennis and I have been here a few times before and it's always such fun. You have a complimentary never ending bowl of popcorn to enjoy with your tasting and afterwards as well as bottled water. For Bob & Jennifer (Wine Carolinas) it was their first trip. We had a nice visit with them as we sipped wine and chatted. Dennis and I shared a bottle of the Strawberry Sensation and brought a bottle of the Purr-Fectly Peach and his latest port home. We said good-bye to our friends and debated about what to do next. We ended up going further into Rock Hill and having dinner at The White Horse Restaurant. This has been one of my favorite restaurants since my time living in Rock Hill. As we were sitting down, I heard someone call my name.... it was so friends who still live there! It was so great to see Rebecca & Darryl. After dinner we headed on home as it was getting late. 

Sunday after church and lunch we decided to ride up to Parker-Binns Vineyard. As always Dee waited on us and was her terrific self! Karen and Roberto are on a much deserved vacation! The vineyard was in the excellent care of Kelly, their daughter, Dee and the wine maker Justin. They are currently out of the Rose that Dennis & I usually share so we had a bottle of the Petit Manseng and met some really great couples. The weather was perfect as well. While sitting outside enjoying pizza, wine and live music, we also got to meet their winemaker - Justin Taylor. Justin told us that they are soon to be bottling some wine. Some that will be new to us and some that are old favorites (yes some Rose is coming!). We learned that Justin studied at Surry and previously worked at Burnshirt Vineyards (also a favorite!). 

We finished our wine and decided to make one more stop at Russian Chapel Hills Winery to see Andre. It was close to closing time but we were able to enjoy a glass each of his Malbec on the covered porch. The view was spectacular! 

 

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CD Baker 2015 Cab Sauv Aged in Bourbon Barrels

As Jenni will attest, I'm a self confessed Cab Sauv snob. It is generally my opinion, a Cabernet Sauvignon is either good, or it is not. There seems to me absolutely no in-between. Cab Sauv is known to pair well with steak, or beef in general as a full-bodied red, high in tannins and alcohol content. Therefore easy to conclude, if I'm writing a blog about one, it must be a good one.

Baker Buffalo Creek Vineyards, is located in the small rural farming community of Fallston, just outside of Shelby, North Carolina. A few months back we had visited and Charles was so excited about the Cab Sauv aging in bourbon barrels. Charles and Ann brought a few bottles to the North Carolina Wine Month Kickoff event and we were thrilled to sample a little tasting. I was immediately hooked, and couldn't wait to get back by the winery to pick up a bottle to take home.

Aged in bourbon barrels for 4 months, this wine is intensely complex. I would suggest allowing the bottle to breathe, it's full bodied, with color of deep cherry red. The bourbon is robustly noticeable to the nose, with complex aromas of deep caramel and soft notes of vanilla. First taste is rich, dry, & slightly bitter. The caramel tends to linger with bold notes of black cherry along with blackberry fading to a slightly leathery, intense smoky and spicy, peppery finish. Perhaps a bit overwhelming to enjoy without food, this is the quintessential wine to pair a grilled New York Strip, T_Bone, Filet Mignon, or Ribeye. 

I often hear from friends, "I'm just not a wine guy." I always believe that statement at its core is simply a "don't want to" response, but nevertheless, your excuse is shot. The CD Baker 2015 Cabernet Sauvignon Aged in Bourbon Barrels fits the bill. This North Carolina Cab Sauv which retails at $24 a bottle is not only good, it's uniquely special. Produced in small batches, each bottle is consistent yet in limited quantity. This Cabernet Sauvignon deserves to be in your wine rack or cellar and should be expected to age extremely well.

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Weekend Escapade - Week 40

This past weekend started on Friday when Dennis and I went to Abbeville to go to a play at the Abbeville Opera House and we stayed at the Belmont Inn. Both of these buildings are very quaint and hold a LOT of history. We love staying at the Belmont and can’t wait to return in April to see another play. 

The play we saw was Everybody Loves Opal. If you ever get the chance, go see this play! It is funny, cute and in the end has a sweet message for all ages. The cast was amazing! Maryanne Campbell played the title character and did an amazing job! Bradford Winter was played by D. C. Moody. We had seen both of them in Arsenic and Old Lace over a year ago. I have to wonder if D C likes playing the bad boy. J Sydney Wells played Gloria Gurlock,, Dave DiGeronimo played Solomon Bozo, the Doctor was played by Bruce Johnston and Office Joe Jankie by Taylor McNair. The entire cast was amazing! We also got to chat with most of the cast at Tinkers Alley Bar which is the bar/restaurant at the Belmont. I so appreciate them letting me invade their group for a little bit!

The remainder of the winter season consists of the following plays and I hope I get to see some of the actors from Everybody Loves Opal in JB (the one Dennis have decided to attend in April).

Coney Island Christmas Dec 1,2,8,9,15 & 16

Vanya, Sonia, Masha & Spike Feb 2,3,9 &10 (We’ve seen this show at another venue & it’s great!)

The Wind in the Willows Mar 9, 10, 11, 16 & 17

J.B Apr 6, 7, 8, 13 & 14

We got up Saturday morning, had breakfast at the hotel and then rambled around downtown Abbeville for a bit. We found a fun little moonshine distillery called Red Barn Likker, and can’t wait to go back & get some of the apple spice mixer and his 70 proof moonshine.

We left there and headed for GA. Our first stop was CeNitaVineyard. Very quaint winery with a great story. The winery used to be a dairy farm. They have a lovely red barn in the back for events. There was a wedding Saturday. They were taking pictures while we were there. Beautiful scenery for a wedding. They had literally just finished harvesting the Chambourcin grapes that morning and we got to sample some of the fresh juice. That was a real treat. All the wines were very nice, but the Buckie Estate Wine and the Rouge Estate Wine were my favorites.

We left there and headed to Yonah Mountain Vineyards. The venue is lovely and again, there was a wedding going on in their event space. Other than wedding attendees, the winery was very busy on Saturday. They have 17 acres of vine that consist of Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay, Petit Manseng, Cab Sav, Merlot, Cab Franc, Malbec and Petit Verdot.

From there we headed to The Cottage Vineyard. Nathan, the son of the owner did our tasting. This 7’ tall man made my 6’3” husband look short! The bear cub on their logo was an actual bear that was on the property at one time. Again, they had several really nice wines, but Dennis & I decided on a bottle of the Baby Doll Legs Rose. We also enjoyed the Southern Sass which is a peach wine and is named for one of the employees that has worked at the winery from the beginning. We sat outside and met some extremely nice people.

Sunday we stayed close to home and went to see Andre at Russian Chapel Hills and enjoyed a bottle of his very nice Mosaic. It was a tad rainy but the porch is covered and wide enough that we got to sit outside and play with the dogs (as usual!). 

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NOTE: above blog was actually written by Jenni Turner, only posted by Dennis.

Think Local: Discover Local Wineries and Purchase Their Wines in the VinoWine App

As the creators of VinoWine, we’re honored and thrilled to have been asked to write as guest bloggers on Winery Escapades! Dennis recently reached out to us asking if we could outline some of VinoWine’s app features and share how we got started on this venture. We were very humbled to learn that Dennis and his wife Jenni use the VinoWine app to discover and track nearby wineries and we hope that, as you learn more about us, you will as well!

When it comes to VinoWine there's really something for everybody. You can discover nearby wineries, keep track of the ones you've visited, see which wineries are having events around you, and track the upcoming wine festivals that will be in your area.
     
In addition to being a winery finder, we're proud to announce that we just launched our newest feature; the VinoWine Marketplace. VinoWine now gives small to medium sized wineries the ability to advertise and sell their wine directly to our users. We created the marketplace so wine lovers can discover and purchase those hard to find wines which are made from wineries who don’t distribute them. Many of you will be happy to hear that as of last week, we just started shipping wines to fifteen different states which include North Carolina, one of Dennis and Jenni's frequented areas! With every passing month, we add more wineries and their wines for sale, allowing us to build a diverse marketplace capable of meeting any wine lover’s needs.

So here’s a little about us. Our names are Mike Barefoot (no relation to the wine) and Mike Lawler. We’re commonly known as “the Mikes.” Both of us are military veterans (Marine Corps and Army infantrymen) who decided to switch career paths from defense contracting to being our own bosses. In late 2009, we met each other while working for a tech company in Northern Virginia doing geo-spatial work (mapping out people and places). Within a few years of us meeting there was a need for both of us to regularly fly over to London, England to conduct business alongside our two bosses. At the end of each day we felt it necessary to explore and soak up the local history and culture that surrounded us. We found all those things at the local pubs. When word of the upcoming 2012 London Olympics reached us, an idea dawned on VinoWine's CEO, Mike Lawler. Being the head of technology for our company, specifically focusing on geo-spatial mapping, it was a no-brainer for him; we were going to create an app that located every London pub that surrounded the Olympic stadiums. Within a short amount of time, we created an app that allowed people from any country to “check in” to any pub within the app, showing other users which countries were represented at these pubs. We lovingly gave the app the name, BRU. Following the Olympics, we were then asked by friends to create a similar app that provided locational information on all wineries in the commonwealth of Virginia. We both liked the idea so we sat down and planned out how we wanted the app to look and function. Over time, that idea spawned the beginnings of the VinoWine app and today we now cover the entire U.S. We loved the idea of getting out of the confines of our brick-and-mortar office and working with folks who, like us, are passionate about wine and getting their wines into the homes of consumers. Needless to say, it’s thirty work.

What originally started as a hobby for us in our spare time quickly became a fulltime job. Since our founding, we’ve been tirelessly working on partnering with wineries across the U.S. getting them to add their upcoming events and wine lists into our app for our users to view and rate. We developed interactive tasting menus that allow our users to rate the wines as they taste them at the wineries. That way you’ll always remember where you were and what you liked. As our partnerships with wineries grew we then decided to have our app and website also feature a direct-to-consumer marketplace so we could sell wines that are hard to locate and purchase. With VinoWine, every winery and vineyard that can ship to consumers can now advertise and sell their wines directly to our users like never before.

You might be amazed at this fact because we sure were: 60% of U.S. wineries don’t distribute their wine! The reason; they just can’t afford it. So this means you won’t find their wines sold in grocery stores or readily available online. Knowing that, we decided to partner with local wineries and create a marketplace that allows them to sell their wine to people like all of us. In the end, we not only wanted to create an awesome app and website that helps everyone enjoy the sophistication of wine tasting, we also wanted to give our users a customer service experience that feels more like a friendship than a business.

We gotta say, the best part of our job (other than tasting a LOT of great wines) is meeting or emailing back and forth with the people who use VinoWine. We receive emails every day from our users that inform us of wineries that have either opened or closed, helping us keep our interactive winery map up-to-date. We love to email everyone back to thank them and from there a dialogue or two will begin. We feel very strongly that every one of our users or social media followers is also a part of our company and we strive to make everyone as happy as we can by providing the best service possible.

The VinoWine app is available for download on iOS and Android devices (Wine sales coming soon to Android devices). We invite you to learn more about what we do by checking out our website, or even better, downloading the VinoWine app and trying it for yourself! We’re selling some really great wines from wineries across Virginia and in the month of October we’ll be opening up our marketplace to the rest of the country’s wineries. Feel free to shoot us an email with any questions or just to say hello!

Mike and Mike

Co-founders of VinoWine

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