Fall at Wisteria Vineyard

Mary and I were lucky with our schedules last weekend, and we headed out to the Hawksbill Cabin on Friday afternoon. Soon after we arrived, our neighbors Sally and Dan invited us to join them for the evenings on Main concert in downtown Luray, this time with Clarence “The Bluesman” Turner, at the BB&T performing arts center.


Although it turned out that Dan couldn’t join us when he was called out for a rescue at the Park, we enjoyed a great time hanging out with Sally and seeing the show. We also ran into our neighbors Sue and Moussa, from Wisteria Vineyard, and other friends Steve and his wife from volunteering and other community events. It was an excellent kick-off to a fine weekend, making us feel "at home".

With the holidays coming up, I figured we needed to have some wine around for potential visitors and host gifts during the festivities, and I wanted to make a stop by the vineyard for this. Since they are so close by, only a mile and a half away on the roads – probably a half mile away if we could cut straight through the intervening properties – we went late Sunday afternoon, thinking that they’d be less busy with drive-in visitors at that late hour. Judging from the parking lot, the tasting room had seen steady traffic all weekend.

There were still some visitors checking things out, including the new two “paths” for tasting at Wisteria, the Sweeter Path, and the Dryer Path. These highlight some of the new vintages, including: Pinot Gris, Steel Chardonnay (completed in steel barrels, Wisteria also has a traditional oak Chardonnay), Velvet (a semi-sweet Rose’), and Sweet Daisy – a late harvest ice wine (and Wisteria makes a $1 donation for each bottle to the local SPCA). I decided to add a few bottles of each of these to complete my case…the balance was in the traditional Norton red, our native Virginian grape.

There was a lot of news to collect, including the unveiling of the artwork that opens this post, a graphic that greets vineyard visitors with a stylized map of the farm. A trip out into the vines, or a walk to Hawksbill Creek, makes a great addition to an afternoon here.

Sue shared the news about two awards their wines recently received – as a new winery, this is pretty impressive stuff. The steel Chardonnay won a bronze medal in the Virginia Governor's Cup competition, and the Norton won a bronze in the Atlantic Seaboard competition earlier in the summer! They were very encouraging, and still are, whenever we talk about setting up some kind of business in the Valley. We are still looking for the right thing to do…may have some news on this front off and on over the winter.

On Wisteria’s web page, the working farm aspect of the operation is featured – there is the flock of Romney sheep, two flocks of chickens, and then the three dogs, including “Sweet Daisy” – the boss of this pack. I’ve got a photo here of some of the sheep, including young Blackie, the lamb I included photos of in an earlier post. As dusk approached we went outside to enjoy the quality atmosphere, and later went for dinner with the proprietors and neighbor John.

We talked about some of the events they’ve recently held, including the live music nights, private parties, and the fund raiser for the local shelter a few weeks ago…it was on a week night, so Mary and I couldn’t join it, although my friend Steve and his wife did, and they told me it was a great success. These things not only make for a nice time, and they certainly contribute to the sense of community in our little neck of the woods.

Most of the visitors we’ve had this year were treated to a stop by Wisteria. It’s become a favorite thing to do for us. We’re looking forward to our next one!

Some web references:
Wisteria web site: http://wisteriavineyard.com/
Clarence “The Bluesman” Turner web site: http://bluesmanturner.com/