I just got back to Virginia after six weeks away. It feels so good to be back home and get back into somewhat of a normal routine. With some free days before school starts back up again, I decided to check some new wineries off my list before the school year gets crazy! Living in Richmond now, I have been wanting to explore wineries that are a little closer. 

On the list for the day was:
Byrd Cellars,
Elk Island Winery, 
Picking sunflowers at Lickinghole Creek Brewery. 

All of them are very close to each other making it easy to do all three. Byrd and Elk Island are actually right next to each other, and Lickinghole is about 10 minutes from those two wineries. 

First stop! We did a great tasting here and tried about 7 wines plus their homemade sangria and frosé for $7. I would say that their wines were sweeter than I am used to, which definitely pleased my friend who likes her wines sweeter. From the wines I tasted, my favorite was the Velvet wine which uses the Norton grape. I really enjoyed their frosé as it was a hot day and that was very refreshing! It is made from their rosé, which was slightly on the sweeter side. You can enjoy some wine inside where they have a bunch of tables, or sit on their relaxing deck which has a woodsy vibe. 

Next up - Elk Island! They have wine tastings for $6 and you can choose which 6 wines you want to taste! I really enjoyed their Sauvignon Blanc and Viognier. I'm already excited to go back and try more wines next visit. They also have an AMAZING sangria! It was a green tea ginger sangria, that I could totally sip all day. I actually decided to get a glass of this because it was so delicious! They actually have the recipe on their website if you want to check it out. I love when wineries have at least part of the vineyard accessible, so I really enjoyed visiting Elk Island. Also harvest is coming up so it was fun seeing all of the grapes on the vines. 

About ten minutes from the two wineries, you will find Lickinghole Creek. Personally, I am not able to drink beer so I can't attest to the beer here but I have heard that it's good. The scenery is beautiful and you feel like you are in the middle of nowhere. The reason I wanted to visit is because there are sunflower fields on the property, and you can actually pick them! It has always been on my bucket list to pick sunflowers so when I heard about this place I had to check it out. Sunflower season goes from the end of June through August. Bring your own shears and you can pick a bundle for $5 and then enjoy some beer! 

A couple of years ago, my mom and I were looking up recipes for sangria. We got really into trying out different recipes to see what we liked best. After trying a couple of red wine sangria recipes, we decided to go for a rosé sangria. The recipe we found looked AMAZING, and it was nothing short of that. Since then, we have tweaked it a little bit and add our own variations based on our mood and audience. 

I like to call this my "All Things Pink Sangria." We use all the pink fruit, which just so happen to be my favorite fruits, and the flavor is very fruity and delicious after they soak for a while. It's the perfect drink for long summer days! 

We typically use any bottle of French Rosé that we have laying around for this sangria. You really want a dry rosé for this. Some of my favorite local Virginia rosé's that would be perfect are from Thatch Winery, King Family or Early Mountain. The original recipe called for three times as much bourbon, but I found that to really alter the flavor. Play around as you make it to see if you want to make it more boozy. 

After pouring the rosé, chambord (raspberry liquor) and the bourbon in, add some honey to sweeten it up. Also add the juice of your choice. I suggest grapefruit or pomegranate. Orange juice is also just as tasty!

​The berries are one of my favorite parts. You can use a melon scooper to get round balls of the watermelon in the drink. Otherwise, just cut it up in cubes. The raspberries are best to add fresh to the glasses when you are ready to serve. 

​And voila! Your drink is made, as easy as that. Cover it up and let the flavors mix together for at least two hours (if possible). Sometimes it can be hard waiting that long! 

1 bottle Rosé 
1 cup of grapefruit juice or pomegranate juice
1/4 cup bourbon
1/2 cup honey
1/4 cup chambord
2 cups watermelon balls
2 cups fresh sliced strawberries
1 1/2 cups fresh raspberries 

1. Pour the rosé, juice, bourbon, and chambord into a pitcher. 
2. Add the honey and mix in. 
3. Use a melon ball scooper to make watermelon balls and slice strawberries. Add to the pitcher. 
4. Cover the sangria and place in the fridge for at least two hours to allow the flavors to mix. 
5. After about two hours, take the sangria out and add the fresh raspberries. Time to enjoy!  

Notes:
*The original recipe we followed had more bourbon but it was a little too boozy for me. If you want more of a boozy taste, add more bourbon.
*I highly recommend dry Rosé's for this recipe

The first time that I visited Thatch Winery, formerly known as First Colony Winery, was a couple of years ago. At this time I was working on completing my goal of visiting all wineries on the Monticello Trail and this was number 14! Since then I have been a couple of times and quite a lot has changed that I’m excited to share with you. ​

Located about 20 minutes outside of Charlottesville, Thatch Winery is an easy place to visit for a couple of hours or make it part of your winery tours. When you arrive at Thatch Winery, you are greeted by their green vines and a calming charm. You may notice their thatched roof which is how they chose this new name. Thatch Winery actually is the only winery in the US with a custom thatched roof. How cool is that?

They have done many renovations recently to update the winery. I was very impressed by these changes since the last time I had visited. One of my personal favorites is their loft. Not every winery has good indoor space for cold or rainy weather, so I was happy to see a winery make sure that they could cater to any weather. You can play their giant scrabble board, cozy up by the fire, bring a picnic lunch or play any of their many other board games that they have. I especially love the twinkly lights giving it the feeling that you are in your own living room. They also have a renovated bridal suite to spend time in before your big day as well as a private tasting room.

Let’s talk about the wine. Many of the wines from Thatch Winery have top won awards. I absolutely LOVE their Viognier! It was my favorite when I first visited a couple of years ago and after doing another tasting, I’ll say the same thing. Definitely one of my favorites in the Charlottesville area. My other favorites are their Rosé and their Riesling.

Go check out the new Thatch Winery for yourself! They are hosting a public launch party with extended hours on May 18th. There will be live music, food trucks and more. You can get 10% off any tasting room or online purchases in celebration of their launch with the code SIPPINCVILLE10 (Valid until June 25). Also, If you or someone you know is getting married, be sure to tell them about Thatch Winery’s Wedding Giveaway! This package is valued at over $16,000!

Afton Mountain is one of the most beautiful wineries in the area so I could not think of a better place to ride to. It was Sunday at noon when we arrived and we had the entire place to ourselves! Cue getting a glass of rosé and sitting on their porch for an hour before getting back on the horses. Mimi had suggested getting sandwiches beforehand to bring to the winery, which I highly recommend as well. ​It could not have been a more perfect day just soaking up the sunshine with the beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains beyond the vines, good company and of course, delicious wine.

An hour later, we returned to the horses and rode back to the barn at Rebel’s Run on the same trail. For a girl who has never been on a horse before, I thought I did a pretty great job. Also, Mimi’s business definitely caters to all experience levels and I enjoyed the extra support when I had no idea what to do. It was such a fun and different way to experience a vineyard! Shoutout to Lizzie for letting me bring her on this adventure and reassuring me I would be fine horseback riding! Now I am just excited to try riding again!

If you want to learn more or you are interested in doing a vineyard ride yourself with Mimi, go to https://rebelsrunaftonmountain.com/ 

Back in January, I hosted a wine tasting party with a group of my friends! I had been excited about this for a while and thought it would be a fun thing to do while the weather was still cold and all we wanted to do was be inside. It was one of the most fun nights I have had in a long time and all my friends who attended constantly ask me when I'm hosting the next one! 

We had a mix of people from what I would consider wine experts to complete novices. Everyone brought a bottle of wine of their choice to contribute to the tasting. We had an array of food that people could snack on while drinking, which was definitely a good call. After hosting this once, I have a lot of suggestions and thoughts on how I would do this next time. 

Choosing a theme is a key aspect of having a successful blind wine tasting. For our first party, we decided to do "Wines from around the World." Even though this theme was very clear, over half of the wines were from the US, so the wines were not as diverse as I had anticipated. If I was to do the same theme again, I would assign each couple a country known for their wine and let them decide the varietal. For my next tasting, I want to do Virginia Wines and keep it local! Plus that's my speciality so hopefully I would do better at guessing the varietal this time around. Other ideas I had were just sticking with red or white wines, picking a different wine region, or just choosing a varietal and tasting how different it tastes depending on the country of origin. 

Something I had really wanted to do for the party was have a place where people could write their wine notes and score the wines. Then you don't get confused between that 2nd wine you tried and the 5th when they all start blending together. I also wanted to make a little competition out of it and have people guess the varietals and country of origin. The prize was the winner got to pick which wine they wanted a glass of first, but you could definitely do something more exciting like a bottle of wine! In the end of course we ended up finishing all 10 bottles, but you could definitely tell which ones were the favorites. 

If you want to download and use my "Wine Scorecard," click here. 

Food. Definitely food. Let's be honest, when you are drinking lots of wine, you will get hungry! My wonderful friends brought over lots of snacks and food for the tasting. My mom had texted to remind me to have food but make sure you only eat neutral foods like bread between tasting so that you don't skew the flavors. When you are tasting 10 wines, you definitely really crave that food by the end. Try and encourage people to enjoy it once they choose which wine they want to drink more of and have bread for those times in between tastings. 

Another thing I absolutely loved were my cloth wine bags to put the bottles in! I bought them off amazon for about $13 for a pack of 10. Plus, they are washable and you could even reuse them at future parties or for gifting wine. I could not have imaged doing it without them!

There are still a couple weeks left of winter and so I wanted to share some of my favorite go-to wineries to enjoy while the weather is still chilly. Not every winery has a large indoor area so it's helpful to know some good places for that rainy day when you still want to go winery hopping. 

​Immediately upon laying eyes on Pippin Hill Farm and Vineyards, I fell in love. I had heard amazing things about Pippin from friends and could not wait to visit. My best friend of 17 years was coming to visit and so I knew it would be a special place to take her. 

As you drive up the hill, you can see the beautiful vineyards. Then, as you enter the winery, you walk through a path of hydrangeas. The view of the valley is breathtaking. I felt like I could spend hours here just hanging out. They have a nice area where you can sit outside and eat, however, there can be a long wait to sit out here. There are also hightop tables that are first come first serve and many tables inside. You can also ask any of the staff for a blanket and buy a bottle to sit out on the grass and take in the scenery. At Pippin Hill, you are not able to bring a picnic as they have many food options. They have a reputation for their delicious food, so if you're hungry this is a solid place to go for your food-wine fix. 

There are two different wine tastings to choose from, a selections of mainly whites (5 for $10) or mainly reds (4 for $12). This is definitely pricier than other wineries, but so worth it for the views. My personal favorites include the Rosé and the Viognier.

Pro tip: If going on a Saturday, go first thing in the morning when they open. We arrived at 11:10am and there were already a good amount of people there but it was very crowded by 11:45 am. You could also beat the crowds by going on a Friday evening or Sunday instead.