It’s hump day everyone! I hope you’re all having a great week so far. Oh, and happy 1st day of May! If I had to pick a favorite month out of the year it would be May, not only because is it my birthday month, but the weather just seems to reach those perfect temperatures and the dreary, rainy days of April are far behind you.
Not only was this past weekend my beautiful wedding shower but on Sunday we also attended the annual Great Grapes Wine & Food Festival in Reston, Virginia. It’s nestled right in the middle of the Reston Town Center which is a cluster of delicious restaurants and some fun adult night life. Great for happy hour with the girls too! We attended because one of our good friends wanted to celebrate her birthday there with friends, what a fabulous idea! The weather did not want to cooperate, but when there’s wine involved we knew we’d persevere! The festival included over 20 different Virginia wineries and over 200 different types of wine and some food tents as well.
It was a great afternoon spent with friends! The first half of our day was spent under a heavy drizzle so we spent some time in the covered area where they had about 10 tables set up. We then ventured out onto the grass area where we had amazing lamb kabobs and purchased a pre-made salsa mix that is out of this world!
We tried so many new wines, I fell in love with a new white wine blend called Vidal Blanc, I can best describe it as tasting like a Viognier. I don’t drink white wine too often, but when I do it’s almost always a Viognier. It has a fruity after taste, almost peach-like and tastes amazing on a hot summer day. It’s a particularly difficult wine to make, as the grapes must be picked at exactly the right time, but I can say to the wine makers, truly worth your efforts! This was probably why I only found 1 tent that had it, I might have missed it among the others, but I was ecstatic that I had finally found a sampling with a Viognier! I ended up buying a bottle of a fabulous Viognier from the Potomac Point Vineyard & Winery. We also ended up getting what I believe was the best wine there, a beautiful Cabernet Franc from the Lake Anna Winery. We tasted a few Cab Franc’s throughout the day, but this one stood out amongst the rest, it was by far a group favorite. We are looking forward to making some delicious steaks on the grill and enjoying our wine :)
If you ever have a chance I would highly recommend attending your local wine festival. It’s a great way to sample new wines and a great way to spend an afternoon. When the weather is nice everyone brings blankets & chairs and we split a few bottles and listen to the live band, you sure can’t beat that for a Saturday afternoon!
Looks like it was a lot of fun! I definitely want to go next year! And I'm going to have to try and hunt down a Viognier, I love fruity white wines!
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