Why wine? Why not!

Being of Italian ancestry John and I grew up with wine playing a role in our family celebrations.  Our grandparents grew gapes and made 'bathtub' wines and at least one of my relatives had a nodding acquaintance with the club scene of prohibition era NYC.  Notice the wine bottles on the sawhorse and board table :)

  Following a friend's wedding in San Jose,California circa 1986, we of course made the pilgrimage to Napa valley to visit some of the early stars in the California wine constellation including Mondavi, Grgich Hill, V. Sattui, Inglenook and Stag's Leap (the last two incidentally being filming locations for 'Falcon Crest' a popular TV show at the time.)
 

Outside a Tasting Room

Grape Press

Driving down St. Helena Highway

Entering the northern edge of the Napa Valley

  When we relocated to Virginia in the early 1990s we naturally began exploring the wineries and vineyards in our own backyards, many of which now routinely win awards.  Some of our favorite Virginia wineries include Williamsburg, Cooper Vineyards, Greyhaven, Glass House, Horton, Villa Appalachia, Chateau Morrisette and Barboursville.

Glass House Tasting Room

Just a few of our recent favorites

In 2002 Powhatan celebrated its first Festival of the Grape with resounding success.  It is still going strong at the end of each October with many of Virginia's favorite wineries, a Tour de Grape bike event and some great local craft vendors all set up in the historic courthouse area.

With a longstanding love of wine, it was simply just a matter of time before we would attempt to start a vineyard on this little piece of paradise.  We invite you along on this adventure of the grape.  Pour a glass, pull up and chair and Salute!  (or Sláinte, a votre santé, Prost, ΥΓΕΙΑ, Skål, ...)

The Dream

Like authors Frances Mayes and Peter Mayle whose works were the inspiration for the title of this blog, we had a dream - to get away from the 'rat race' and find a simpler life in the countryside.  On a sunny seventy degree day in mid-December of 2001, we finally made that dream a reality.  We packed up two children, two dogs and all our worldly possessions into a U-Haul, three cars and a pickup truck and headed off into the country...specifically Powhatan County.

So much has happened during the past decade and more.  We suffered our daily commute to the city as the price of gas skyrocketed from 99 cents per gallon to $4.29 and back to the current price of $3.26.  Our ten acre private woodland evolved to pasture and eventually market gardens, orchard and - someday soon - vineyard.  Livestock too had their seasons;  horses and a mini-donkey came and went, followed by goats and sheep.  Chickens have been a constant.  At every stage we learned new skills, mostly by trial and error and more often than not, with comic results.   Though they didn't seem so at the time, the memories make us laugh now.  And we are far from done.