Since Bessy had trouble pulling Bert UP the mountain, we decided we did not want Bert pushing Bessy DOWN the mountain, so we drove separately to I-68. Even there we had some interesting climbs and down inclines. Then as we came down I-70 within four miles we left Pennsylvania, and came through Maryland, West Virginia, and Virgina, and then back to WVA!!! We are staying at Harper's Ferry KOA right beside the National Park... However, we decided to do the hysterical instead of the historical... though a little history seeped in....
Tracy and Clay had given us their "tasting notes" from their trip here, so after we settled in, we decided to try out a few of "their" wineries and breweries. Here are OUR tasting notes:
Breaux - (Tracy and Clay gave it 6.5 on views and 7.5 for wine. They liked it.)... Us? not so much. But I think it was because it was SO CROWDED that we had to taste in an overflow area and our pourer was pretty harried. And Glenn,... they really need you up here, man! The glasses were not even good Libby's!! They were very small footed teardrop glasses that did not allow you to smell much of anything! That said, the wines were mediocre and may have been better with fewer folks and better glasses... obviously they are doing well and folks like their wine! It was a very pretty place and they obviously do a booming wedding business... if only they didn't have numerous bachelorette parties on Saturday afternoon!!
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| The arbor at Hillsborough was cool and pretty. |
Hillsborough - (T&C gave the view an 8 and the wine 7.5) This was a big winery too but a little less crowded and we bought a rousanne that we thought would be fun to compare with the NC versions and one called Bloodstone that used Fer Servadou grapes, a varietal we were not familiar with, and it was supposed to be like a Malbec. It was interesting enough to buy a bottle and bring home for folks to try.
Adroit Theory Brewery - We were blown away here! They have all "big" (read potent 7% alcohol and much higher) beers. Dave and I each got a 3 part taster and we liked them all! Unfortunately several were not available for home purchase. They had one called Bloody Roots that was supposed to mimic a bloody mary. I didn't think so... but it was very good. My favorite was the Love of the Damned that was brewed with syrah grape must. Dave liked the Imperial Saison named Fear is Your Only God and the G/I/A/A named Ghost that was an Imperial IPA. Their experimental Belgian IPA made with local peaches was interesting but too sweet. Dave bought 3: G/I/A/A, Fear is Your Only God and a B/A/Y/S that was bourbon barrel aged. They have a beer club like a wine club (I keep telling David that should be his next business!!) and that last beer was only available to "Black Heart Society" members. However Dave befriended a member and they got it for him!!
After all of that we needed FOOD and again Tracy and Clay helped us out. They had suggested Magnolias and it too was amazing! We had an appetizer called cuban pork nachos. The nachos were actually plantain chips (green plantains sliced and quick fried) with great pulled pork seasoned with cilantro, black beans, and sour cream. We could have made that a meal, but we also tried the mushroom truffle burger and fried green tomatoes which were also terrific!! Our waiter looked like a young Gomez Addams from the Addams' Family!!
As we were coming out of the restaurant, we noticed a bike trail and as we learned it was the Washington and Old Dominion Bike Trail and went for 45 miles all the way to Arlington, VA with a connector into DC. We took it for about an hour on our Segways and really had alot of fun. It connected to many neighborhoods and was being used by bikers and walkers. It was built on the old W and OD train tracks. What a great idea to use defunct tracks like that!!
Back at the campground, we talked to John and Chris who were camping in a tiny clam shell camper and shared a bottle of wine and fire with them. They work in DC and are experimenting with camping and we had traveled to some of the same places, and their experiences in Guam were very interesting.
We started our day out with a segway ride on the C & O (Chesapeake and Ohio) Canal towpath. The National Park Service maintains 185 miles as a linear park. It is a perfect walking/bike/segway path (and the Ranger "blessed" our segways as "legal"...lol). We rode to the first set of locks and explored a caretaker's house. You can actually stay in them. I've been reading in the paper a lot lately about how Charlotte should be more bike friendly and if can we learn many things from other bike friendly towns (ie. Minneapolis). Our experience on this trip has been that there are MANY places waaaay ahead of us in this arena. When I first visited Boston almost 40 years ago, I remember my cousin telling me that the traffic was so bad because it was "where the NY cabbies came to train." Well, I'm sure if you drove it now it would still be a challenge, but Dave and I were able to segway all over downtown. We experienced the same thing in Baltimore, Harrisburg, PA, Acadia, ME, and now twice near Harper's Ferry. One letter to the editor bemoaned the fact that we are putting more energy into greenways and he didn't want to be segregated there vs. bike lanes with car traffic. Our experience on the segways is that we need BOTH. The protected paths are really nice. And when there are dedicated bike lanes, we felt "safe" in traffic. What we really liked about the towpath and C&O path were the mix of generations they attracted: retirees, avid twentysomething "jocks" and families.
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| Segwaying on the tow path to the C & O Canal |
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| David at the locks |
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| Deb and Dave at the lock keeper's house |
Fabbioli - This was the last of T&C's recommendations (view 6.5 wine 7.0) that we visited and it reminded us of Rustle in Oregon in that they did small (read tiny!) bites and paired the wine with food. The tasting was very relaxed and our "wine educator" only had us in her group. We bought an Una Pera which was a pear wine but unlike most fruit wines, this was very dry. We also bought a Tennant that was pared with salami and garlic cheese. We think they will be interesting to share. We considered their Chardonnay which was very oaky, but a little too sweet for Deb's taste.
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| Fabbioli Winery |
Now it was time to explore some wineries on our own and bring Clay and Tracy some new places to visit (and hopefully our wino friends too!)
Notavina - This was suggested to us by the pourer at Fabbioli. We were once again lamenting that our big fat noses wouldn't fit in their glasses and we struck up a very congenial conversation with their winery manager. He gave us a tour and we regaled him with stories of filling our bar and deck tables with wine glasses to find the perfect glass for each wine, and how we discovered salt water submerged wines at Demetria. We bought another Chambourcin (ok so we'll have a side by side by side by side!!) and a Blaufrankisch which is an Austrian wine, often called Lemberger on the West coast.
By now we again needed some food, so we stopped in at a BBQ joint, the owners of Adroit Theory suggested: Monk's. David bonded with the owner as we discussed SC vs. NC BBQ sauce (they had both, but the SC wasn't "mustardy" enough) and they had a Whiskey Blackberry Sauce that was terrific along with their smoked pastrami. The owner began with a green egg, so he and Dave had much in common (and hopefully Dave did NOT get any ideas of starting a BBQ joint!).
Two Twisted Posts - Here we met Ana the winemaker and her daughter in law served us. A new winery, it is named for a Tavern in the 1700's that existed both in England and Virginia. They found a pottery bottle on the property with the name and Ana, who is from England knew of the Tavern in London, so that is how this new winery came to be. Frankly, they need to work on their marketing. They kept apologizing for their wines as this is the first vintage they have released and 2011 was very rainy and did not produce the hearty varieties they expect to get with this year's release of the 2012 wines. I was reminded of one of our trips to Paso when every pourer said, "200? was a really challenging year with cold, etc., but OUR winemaker was able to blend a really special wine!!" Their wines had promise and we will need to visit them again to see how they have grown. We did not buy anything there.
Cardadom - This was our last stop of the day. Also a new micro winery, we were able to talk with the owners. Their "gimmick" (their word!) was to pair the wine
with salsa. They recently moved to the area from San Francisco where he was a "classically trained chef" (they said this several times!!). Keith would have really liked the salsas... the wines? Probably not. LOL Supposedly they only served whites because they sold out of their reds in just 4 weeks. Perhaps it was good, I guess we'll never know. This might be a place to revisit to see how they've grown. They are opening their tasting room after the 4th... now they were serving out of a tent.
So now we have come just about to the end of our adventure. We toyed with driving as far as we could tonight so that we could finish up tomorrow. And we sent our neighbors an email asking them to save a parking spot for Bessy. But after all of the wine, we figured we needed one last campfire or two. We aren't sure how far we will get tomorrow and plan to break the drive up into 2 days. And to be nice to Bessy, we are taking 29/I-85 which is a little longer but flatter.
