Take me to the River.....

This weekend we were lucky to be invited over to Jace and Liz’s river house in Rileyville, Virginia. Just beyond Front Royal, it took us under 2 hours to get there, but it was practically on the Shenandoah River, and it felt like we were much further than just 90 miles from home.


Drinks (of course) upon arrival

Also joining us this weekend were Mike and Kim, another couple Jace & Liz had met at a wine event in the area. They brought their gorgeous dogs along for the weekend; Jake the Retriever and Nadia and Raja the Siberian Huskies.

Mike has an excellent blog, Food and Wine Blog. He updates much more frequently than I do and is more focused than my tales of life in E land. He writes about food and wine, tales from this travels, life in the Baltimore area and much more. Mike attends a good number of tastings in the area, and his posts range from restaurant reviews and wine notes to new and interesting food and wine pairings. He is also a fantastic cook as we were lucky enough to fund out first hand.

After we arrived on Friday night, Jace grilled up some burgers and brats. We sat in the screened-in porch and enjoyed a Scott Harvey Zinfandel (I think 2003, could have been 2004) and a 2003 Arcadian Westerly Syrah with our dinner. Dessert was pound cake with fresh strawberries and whipped cream which we enjoyed with a great dessert wine supplied by Mike.



Saturday we went to the farmers market in Luray and kayaked down the Shenandoah River. I didn’t bring my camera (gasp!) because I was afraid of getting it wet. We saw lots of fish, as well as turtles and geese. We also managed an entire trip without tipping (or killing each other) in our 2-person kayak.

After our day on the river, Mike got down to the business of dinner. He prepared a delicious spice rub for his ribs and smoked them for about 2 hours.




men at work


Even a no-joke rainstorm couldn’t deter Mike from keeping those ribs over the fire.


Liz grilled up fresh zucchini from the market. Getting the wet grill started was a bit of a challenge, but we came up with a pretty good solution for that.


finished product...yum!

We had some incredible wines with dinner:
1975 Château Beychevelle
1975 Château Léoville Barton
2000 Château Gloria St. Julien
1998 Château Bahans Haut-Brion



As a treat, Jeff from Glen Manor Vineyards joined us for dinner. Jeff developed an interest in fine wines while working for a nearby Linden winery. He established Glen Manor Vineyards in 1995 which Jace and Liz have visited. Today, Jeff manages 10 acres of vineyards which we went to visit on Sunday. (More about that later). He brought over a bottle of his 1999 Linden Glen Manor which was very nice.




Enjoying the incredible 1975 Château Beychevelle

After dinner we went outside and enjoyed the fire, the rest of the wine and of course, the company. It was a really great evening.


Mike, Jeff, Jace and David


E's


Kim and Mike


Ali and Kim


Liz and Jace

On Sunday we went to a few wineries in the region. We started out with a tasting and tour of Jeff’s Glen Manor Vineyards.




We tried his 2007 Sauvignon Blanc and 2005 Petit Verdot.



After we were done sampling his wines, Jeff gave us a tour of how he makes them.


Vineyard at Glen Manor


Grape press at Glen Manor


De-stemming machine at Glen Manor


Oak barrels at Glen Manor

It was very nice of Jeff to show us around his place. We bought a bottle of each wine we had tasted and then headed for our next stop.

Next we arrived at Chester Gap Cellars, where we met winemaker Bernd Jung.




We sampled some of his wines including 2006 Sauvignon Blanc, 2006 Viognier, 2005 Merlot, and 2005 Cabernet Franc.



Chester Gap Vineyard


Next we headed to Rappahannock Cellars where we didn’t stay long, but Liz bought this fun “Group Therapy” T-shirt for a psychologist she knows.




Finally, we headed to Linden Vineyard for our last stop of the afternoon.



We were treated to their reserve Cellar Tasting (thanks Jace!) and had a lot of fun.







While the boys paid for our purchases, Kim and I hung out with the dogs for a while.


We finished up the afternoon with a fantastic picnic overlooking Linden's vineyard.

We had a really great time this weekend. Thank you again to Liz and Jace for hosting us and for being so much fun. Also, thanks to Mike and Kim for driving in from Baltimore, for bringing great wines, making yummy food and for lots of laughs the whole weekend.