On Saturday June 1st, wine lovers from all over Virginia descended upon Bull Run Regional Park to participate in the Vintage Virginia Wine Festival (http://www.vintagevirginia.com). It was an unbearably hot and humid day, but that didn’t diminish the enthusiasm of the thousands of people quenching their thirst with tastings from all over the region.
With over fifty wineries in attendance, choice was a key component of the day. This was also the first year that equal attention was paid to the food portion of the day. Top chefs from the Virginia area performed food demos and tastings as well. There were also at least twelve of the top DC food trucks in attendance.
My group arrived early and hit the winery tents immediately. Although this was my husband’s and my first time attending, we were in the good hands of a few other old pros. First thing we learned, make sure you bring a tent! Especially, on a day as hot as Saturday, we were lucky that someone had thought ahead enough to bring one of those large outdoor tents and blankets for a comfortable retreat when breaks were needed.
I stuck to mainly white wines during the tastings and found most of the wineries expecting as much. One complaint we did all share was that there was a lot of empty space in the middle of the winery tents. They had the winery tables lined up along the perimeter of the tent leaving the workers covered, but little to no shade for the people tasting. If they had pushed the tables back just a bit further the overhang would have covered the attendees as well and left less unused space.
Our strategy consisted of participating in tastings at some of the places we already knew and liked, but then we allowed ourselves to primarily be led by names that intrigued us. These strategies brought us to places like Shenandoah Vineyards http://www.shentel.net/shenvine/, Potomac Point Winery http://www.potomacpointwinery.com/, Democracy Vineyards http://www.democracyvineyards.com/, Unicorn Winery http://www.unicornwinery.com/ and many more. We enjoyed these vineyards although some were a bit sweet for our liking. Our definite favorite of the above mentioned was Potomac Point. My husband and I had already been fans of this vineyard from enjoying their 2009 award winning Viognier. We were told at the festival that they will be debuting a 2013 Viognier that should be of equal quality although it wasn’t available yet for tasting. I will definitely be keeping my eyes peeled.
The food trucks also got a lot of our attention. I was a bit more limited in choices with my gluten-free lifestyle, however I was pleasantly surprised to see that many of the food trucks in attendance offered gluten-free options http://www.vintagevirginia.com/food-trucks/. The highlight of my day was my ice cream sandwich from Captain Cookie and the Milkman http://www.captaincookiedc.com/. They offered gluten-free chocolate chip cookies from Happy Tart Bakery http://happytartbakery.com/. These cookies had HUGE chunks of chocolate in them and although they were slightly crumbly, they literally melted in your mouth with the ice cream. Paired with a black raspberry ice cream, these homemade ice cream sandwiches were to die for!
Overall, the festival was a great experience. It was worth braving the heat and I will definitely return again in the future. Next time I’ll bring a water bottle spritzer though.
