After attending the first two years, last year I wasn’t able to attend TasteCamp in the Niagara region of both Canada and New York. I guess life got in the way or something, where are my priorities right? Well this year TasteCamp is coming to my neck of the woods, to explore the Northern Virginia wine region of the Commonwealth and I’ll be there.
Below are the details….
TasteCamp 2012 heads to Northern Virginia
Fourth edition of wine bloggers and wine writers’ meeting heads to Loudoun County, May 4-6.
The organizers of TasteCamp are proud to announce that after exploring the regions of Long Island, the Finger Lakes and Niagara (US and Canada), the event will hold its fourth edition in Northern Virginia wine country on May 4-6, 2012. Several important partners and sponsors have confirmed their participation and are working together to create an exceptional opportunity to discover the very best that Virginia wine has to offer.
The 2012 program will feature the combination of vineyard visits, grand tastings, conversations with winemakers and camaraderie that has made the event so successful over the last three years. Participants will also take part in what has become a TasteCamp tradition, a BYO dinner where wine lovers share special bottles in a freestyle evening of discovery and one-upmanship.
TasteCamp founder and New York Cork Report executive editor Lenn Thompson said that there was much reason for the event to head for the vineyards of Virginia: “The 2011 Wine Bloggers Conference was a great opportunity for both Virginia and bloggers, but I wanted to bring TasteCamp to Northern Virginia to offer a truly immersive experience. We want attendees to eat, drink, sleep and breathe Virginia wine for three days. It’s of course impossible to fully explore a region in just a weekend, but that doesn’t stop us from trying.”
Over its three first years, TasteCamp has generated significant attention for the wine regions where it has taken place, generating dozens of stories and articles every year. It also offers emerging wine regions an exceptional opportunity to have their wines tasted by a passionate outside audience that brings a different light to local wine production and creates new conversations with local winemakers.
Essential Virginia partners
Three of the region’s top wineries will be hosting TasteCamp participants for lunches, dinners and grand tastings of Virginia wines, where many other wineries will provide a portrait of what this increasingly important wine producing state can offer. The three confirmed host wineries are:
Breaux Vineyards, in Purcellville overlooking the valley between the Blue Ridge and Short Hill Mountains, is one of Virginia’s most popular estates, with over 100 acres under vines.
Boxwood Winery, founded by former Washington Redskins’ owner John Kent Cooke, is located in the historic village of Middleburg, and produces Bordeaux blends from 100% estate-grown fruit, in collaboration with renowned consulting winemaker Stéphane Derenoncourt.
Tarara Winery is located in the foothills of the Catoctin Mountains on 475 acres along the Potomac River in Leesburg. One of Loudoun County’s oldest wineries, Tarara focuses on single-vineyard wines.
TasteCamp 2012 organizers are also excited to be counting on partnerships with two key Virginia organizations. The Virginia Wine Board Marketing Office (Virginia Wine) and the Loudoun Convention & Visitors Association (Visit Loudoun) will both be partners of the event, offering logistical, financial and/or transportation support.
Accommodations
Rooms have been set aside at the National Conference Center, in Leesburg, Virginia, only 12 miles from Dulles International Airport and a short drive from most of the vineyards visited over the weekend. A special room rate is offered to TasteCamp guests at this large-scale facility located on a quiet 110-acre campus.
TasteCamp 2012 organizers will have more announcements as the wine weekend approaches.
About TasteCamp
The concept for TasteCamp, created in 2009 by Lenn Thompson, executive editor of the New York Cork Report, is a simple one: getting enthusiastic journalists and bloggers together in a region that is new to them, to taste as much wine as possible and speak to as many winemakers as possible over the course of a weekend.
Most smaller, lesser-known wine regions in the world would love to get their wines in front of new audiences, but it can be a challenge. With TasteCamp, the new audience comes to them.
This is not a junket — attendees pay their own travel expenses, including their hotel rooms and meals. Through generous sponsors, some meals may be deeply discounted.
Follow the Latest updates on TasteCamp 2011:
• On Twitter: #TasteCamp
To participate as an attendee, contact Lenn Thompson at lenn (at)newyorkcorkreport.com
To participate as a sponsor, contact Frank Morgan at frank.j.morgan (at)gmail.com.
For more information, contact co-organizers Remy Charest (remycharest (at) mac.com) and John Witherspoon (vcuspoon1 (at) comcast.net)
Media and interview requests:
Lenn Thompson at lenn (at) newyorkcorkreport.com or
Frank Morgan at frank.j.morgan (at) gmail.com.
This year I attended the 4th annual Taste Camp, which was hosted in Virginia for the first time (Northern Virginia wine country to be specific). This year what really stood out as unique were the marked differences in grape growing and vineyard management techniques between the winemakers with whom we had the pleasure of taking vineyard walks.
Each winemaker is so passionate about his/her reasoning for using a particular trellis system, vine spacing, row spacing, etc. that one could easily be convinced that this must be THE WAY to do it in this part of Virginia. That is until a conversation with the next winemaker, who easily debunks the previous method and convinces you of a new ONE.
It seems that a lot of the winemakers in the region tend to use the Smart-Dyson (SD) type of trellis system or a variant of SD called Ballerina trellising versus Vertical Shoot Positioning (VSP). I have known about SD for years as we implemented it on several rows at my families’ vineyards about 5 years ago. It seems that over time it has become increasing popular in the Commonwealth, although I know it has been used here for quite some time.
I didn’t think about it at the time we were viewing these vineyards, but one winemaker who doesn’t use SD mentioned that he feels the reason these systems were used was to help thwart problems with vigor and that it was more of a band-aid fix, versus a real solution to the problem. Funny enough, that was the reason we decided to do it at our vineyard, because we had such vigor issues that we couldn’t seem to keep under control, so SD was our attempt at a fix.
Either way you slice it, the winemakers, vineyard managers, etc. are doing what they feel is proper for their site. I think the best thing to do is to continually evaluate your techniques, although it can be time-consuming and costly to rip up vines and replant or re-trellis. We saw a great example of this at Linden Vineyards with Jim Law. After 20 years of doing what he felt was right with some of his Chardonnay vines, a few years ago he decided to rethink things. He planted them based on what he knew then (trellis style, orientation, slope, etc.) and now with his extensive hands-on knowledge about soil type, he is moving things around to give what he feels is a better expression of the grape and the terroir. Pretty amazing – but it seems logical. I mean nobody can get anything exactly right on the first try!
It’s a risky proposition though and an expensive and time consuming one, that I’m sure is hard to swallow no matter how right you think you might be.
The dialogue about vineyard techniques discussed above is one of the great things about Taste Camp. In addition to the immersion in wine, it offers the chance to connect with the people involved, to learn how and why use particular techniques, and to TASTE the results of those techniques. I’m glad there are a variety of styles being used, because that’s what lends variety to the experience and to the wines (for better or worse).
I would like to thank everyone who gave us their time and shared their stories and passion over the weekend. More posts to follow on some of the wines and individual people who are, or WILL be, putting Virginia Wine on the map.
Megan and I just got back from Napa/Sonoma valleys, where we had an awesome trip exploring tons of wineries and loving every minute of it. The next few blog posts will outline our 3 days there and will have lots of pictures and information about all the wine tasting that we did, as well as about our cottage we stayed in and the restaurants were we dined. ENJOY!
Going over the Golden Gate Bridge
which way to Ferrari – Carano?
Day 1 – We left San Francisco, minus our luggage that did not arrive with us the night before, enjoying the beautiful views of the San Francisco bay…eagerly awaiting our first tastes back in the California Wine Country. On our way up to the Russian River Valley, we stopped in Healdsburg to get some lunch goodies from the Oakville Grocery. It is a great market with tons of cheeses and fresh made to order sandwiches, that are great for picnic supplies
Oakville Grocery Store – HealdsburgStop 1 – Our first stop of the day was Ferrari – Carano (you might have heard of it). As you can tell from the pictures below, their winery is palatial. Upon entering the tasting room we discover that they have two tastings, one for $5 dollars that tasted most of the wine they regularly distribute and then a $15 dollar tasting of wines down in the barrel room that includes reserve wines and wines that only go to wine club members and or tasting room patrons. We opted for two of the $15 tastings and split the list of 8 wines. The room that the tasting was conducted in was beautiful and adjacent to one of their barrel rooms, with lovely wood furniture and ornate iron chandeliers. Here is a list of what we had for tasting 2005 Sauvignon Blanc, 2004 Forella Chardonnay, 2004 Tre Terre Chardonnay, 2004 Reserve Chardonnay, 2003 Zin, 2002 Syrah, 2003 Sangiovese, 2002 Tresor. All of these wines were fantastic but I will comment on the 3 we purchased all of which are not distributed to the east cost for wholesale. The 2005 Sauvignon Blanc was great and is different from their Fume Blanc you may have seen on the shelves, and includes in addition to the Sauv. Blanc a bit of a Muscat Clone. It offeres great apricot and floral notes with peach and honeydew following in the mouth, with a very smooth mouthfeel and not as tart as some Sauv. Blancs. Our 2nd favorite/purchase was the 2003 Sangiovese which is completely dry farmed for that extra umph. It was delicious with blueberry, blackberry toast with a nice slightly spicy finish. 3rd favorite/purchase and these are not in any order of preference (just of how I wrote them down) is the 2002 Tresor which is a blend of primarily Cabernet Sauvignon, and Merlot with Cab Franc and Petit Verdot in the mix as well. The 2002 Tresor had 20 months in oak and aged 24 months in the bottle. Cocoa and Eucalyptus on the nose with a yummy taste of blackberry and raspberry layered nicely with a mild earthiness and a smooth tannic finish. It was an awesome wine!! Megan and I both definitely recommend the extra money for the reserve wines, they are all amazing and most are hard to find on the East coast.
Stop 2 – Yoakim Bridge Winery
Yoakim Bridge is a small 2000 case winery (so everything is sold from the tasting room or wine club) in the Dry Creek Valley, just a ways down the road from Ferrari-Carrano. They have estate grown Zin and purchase all of the other grapes from local Dry Creek growers. The winemaker and owner is David Cooper who does everything in the winery by himself which is truly amazing. Check out the picture below of Megan and David in the winery, where he is displaying his beautiful Cabernet that is needing another punch down. David only has red wine and they are all fantastic. For tasting were the 2002 Zin, 2004 Merlot, 2003 Cuvee (Cab. Franc, Merlot, and Cab Sauv.) 2004 Cabernet Sauvignon, and 2002 Syrah. Our favorite and purchase from Yoakim was the Zinfandel. Beautiful with spicy raspberry that wasn’t too jammy, great chocolate and long finish. The Zin was estate grown, and blended with 6% Cabernet Sauvignon from Wallace Creek Vinyeard.
Stop 3 – Seghesio
Seghesio is another winery that most of you have probably heard, and there Sonoma Valley Zin is usually a staple on a lot of wine lists. Well Seghesio was tasting 5 wines that day, but we got to taste a few extra due to our enthusiasm and great discussion we were having with the tasting room associate who was a Seghesio herself (daughter of the current winemaker). Again, all of the wines we tasted were fantastic and here is a list of what we tasted. 2005 Pinot Grigio (light fruity and crisp), 2004 Costiera Pinot Noir (blackberry, cherry, not too earthy), 2004 Sangiovese (spicy, tobacco and earth), 2004 Cortina Zin (jammy dark fruit, spicy followed up with cocoa) and the 2004 Old Vine (black raspberry, not as spicy, smooth). Those were the 5 wines that everybody got, the next 3 are ones that we got to taste special – 2004 Saini Zin (similar to the Cortina, with lots of rich chocolate and raspberry), 2004 Home Ranch Zin (1896 Vines, smoother than the other zins, still spicy, with jammy dark fruit flavors), and 2004 San Lorenzo which wasn’t even for sale (a great wine probably the “lightest” zin of the bunch, a great Zin for beginners. Seghesio was great and all of there wines were fantastic, we signed up for their wine club so we will be getting 2 bottles qtrly. 2 of which are already on the way. Yummy. We also ate our lunch at Seghesio with a nice bottle of water due to all the wine we had been having (I needed to drive some more haha). They have a beautiful picnic area and it was a beautiful sunny California day.
Megan at SeghesioStop 4 – Landmark Winery
We hit Landmark was me made our way South through Sonoma county towards the Glen Ellen Inn. Landmark is most famous for the Overlook Chardonnay that you might have seen at Costco. Our favorite and the bottle we purchased was the 2004 Damaris Reserve Chardonnay. It was lovely with nice light fruit aromas accented by apple and pear with a great taste of hazlenut and caramel, a truly yummy chardonnay. Our other favorite was the 2004 Syrah that was completely organic. It seemed lighter than most Syrah’s (which we like) and was filled with aromas of black raspberry, a smooth mouthfeel and a spicy finish. Landmark is farely small by California standards producing around 15,000 cases. They have beautiful surroundings and are a great place to have a picnic. (although we didn’t).
We headed on down the road to Glen Ellen which is about 12 miles North of downtown Sonoma. We had eatin at the Glen Ellen Inn last year when we were in wine country and remebered that they had six cottages out back along the creek for guests to stay. You check in at the bar in the restaurant and get your key. We were in Cottage number 2. Check out the pictures below, isn’ t it awesome.
Top picture of our cottage, bottom is of the courtyard out of room
That night for dinner we dined in the downtown Sonoma at the Girl and Fig, a great cozy restaurant that focuses on fresh local ingredients which is always great, especially when you are a vegetarian. I definitely recommend them, and they are a well known fixture in the Sonoma Valley.
All of the wines that we purchased on the trip were wines that you are not able to purchase back in Richmond. So even if we went to larger wineries we purchased the small lot stuff, that we knew would be a special addition to our “wine cellar”. All in all we came home with 2 cases of wine, stay tuned for Days 2 and 3 to come in the next week.
So hi there! I make jewelry, that's what I do but it's not all I do. See, about once a year in the summertime I get an offer to be in a group show and I always say yes because, phhf! The deadline is so so far away. This brings us to last week when I realized the deadline was, like, NOW. Oops? Okay, so time to make art, and in this case, small art. Small like, 3x3. Small art is really good for me because I work small anyway and I'm comfortable with it. This is why I picked jewelry and metalsmithing as my major and not sculpture. For some reason, at VCU Sculpture Dept = Big Art and I am just so not down with that.
Anyway, what I make is tiny little collage box things with found objects. I have a huge bin full of random bits - vintage photographs, rusty bits of metal, old stamps, rocks, shells, mica, wooden boxes, keys, that kind of stuff.
My first step is to sort through all that foolishness and find a few bits that I really like, though sometimes I will start with a photograph and then create a bit of a story around it. It's kind of like putting a puzzle together without knowing what the finished picture is supposed to be. (Also, the pieces don't always fit together, but that's what pliers are for.)
Blah blah blah, am I still talking? Sorry, I did actually document this process with photos so maybe I'll stop boring you and start posting images.
It's important to start with a really messy work space:
See, totally not kidding about the mess:
Then I start messing around with my bits and seeing what goes where. I already had a 3x3" box and a sassy photo of my grandmother that I wanted to use:
Here's the layout I decided to go with. The photo, a bit of handwritten note from the back of another vintage photo, a small key, a stamp, some brass sheet metal, and mica:
I added a cool bit of rusty found metal to frame it. I was pretty settled with this layout but hadn't yet discovered there was no good way to glue the key down on top of mica:
I added a copper nail inside to hold the key. I decided I didn't like the top piece of mica - it concealed too much:
So, away it went. Here's the finished product:
Here's the back:
And another photo:
It's hard to take pictures of small stuff, but hopefully you get the idea. Anyway, if you're local and you want to see (and purchase) some fantastic tiny art, please come to the opening on Friday! Here's the info:
...your "day in the life" photo is of a vacuum cleaner. Yes, this is what describes my life today - a vacuum. I bit the bullet and purchased a new vacuum cleaner today. And if you could see the floors in my house, you'd agree it was not a moment to soon. Not just any vacuum. A Kenmore Progressive Direct Drive - voted "best bag less vacuum" by Consumer's Report (do I sound like a Sears salesperson yet?).
All joking aside, this thing rocks. I had vacuumed a small carpet with my old vacuum before I went out to Sears to get the new one. So, to practice out the new fancy features of the Kenmore, I vacuumed the same rug. I don't think you can see the almost 1 inch of dirt that came out of my "clean" rug! Dust mites be damned - I'm gonna get you now!
I wish my niece and nephew were around to play with the nice big box. I love boxes. While through a child's eyes they can be anything - a car, a house, a fort; I see organization and simplicity. I really don't need another box though so, sadly, it will go for recycle next Tuesday.
On the crafting front, I finally finished up some new Lark Studio promos I've had around forever. I had read about a product called padding compound from this post back in 2004 (see? I told you forever). I was going to buy some, but I'm really tired of having so many leftover supplies. And, the more I found out about the product, I realized I would have needed to invest in some other tools or contraptions. So I passed. But, I still liked the idea of notepads and came up with a "quick and dirty" way to get them done. I lucked onto some really cheap 3 x 5 inch 50 sheet notepads by Mead. Since they were commercial notepads, they were already "sealed" with padding compound. I also lucked onto a small supply of book binding tape from Making Memories on sale at my local scrapbook store. And guess what? The book binding tape was in Lark Studio colors - purple and blue. I printed my notepad covers, cut them to size, attached with the binding tape and tada! Lark Studio notepad promos for well under $0.50 each. Not too bad, eh?
Okay, okay I know I said this project was supposed to be a "day in the life". But life gets in the way sometimes. So now we have "the past 2+ weeks" in the life... I'm in love with my new camera - but this sucker burns through batteries! I just recently got a set of rechargables, so some days aren't documented. But hey, I'm trying!
Sunday (1/7/07) was all about the familia...the Richmond Craft Mafia. Pictured are Tasha, Kelly, Leila, and bent over is Adrien. Beth, Maryellenand Nicole were also there. MIA was Crystal, but we let her slide since she was stuck working on a Sunday. Kate was also MIA, but since she was somewhere fabulous, I'm just not going to talk about her. We enjoyed our regular monthly meeting at local spot called Baja Bean Company. A member's brother owns it, and you know the mafia keeps it in the family! Okay enough mob humor. We got a ton of planning done for our February 3rd show (more on that later) and for Spring Bada-bing, our large-scale spring craft show. Now, to just get to crafting stuff for these shows...
Monday was a pretty normal day. Went to work, came home, had dinner, husband got himself trapped in the utility room, checked emails...you know, normal. What? Your husband doesn't get trapped in the utility room of your house on the regular? 
We have a older house. And as sometimes happens, our doors are starting to really get warped. The door to the utility room hasn't closed completely in about 6 months. A room door closing wouldn't normally be an issue, but the utility room is not insulated or conditioned, so it gets mad cold in there in the winter time. In an effort to "fix" the problem (which I knew was not the knob) my husband decided to change the doorknob. After changing it, he closed the door, hard, to show me that the door would now close - and then couldn't get it open. Luckily, I used my sweet b&e skills to get him out. I must really love him, since I didn't use the situation to my advantage. Hmmm... I wonder what I could have gotten him to commit to while he was trapped in the freezing cold utility room?
Tuesday was "date night". DH and I got to hang out with our good, newlywed friends Kirsten and Andy. Yes, break out the shades - the rock is blinding in the photo! Lots of fun to be had with cheap margaritas, good salsa and a roaming balloon artist. Unfortunately I don't have any pictures of the balloon artist (this is when the camera batteries died), but he was f***** awesome! He made this little girl an Ariel (The Little Mermaid) balloon! It's wrong to want to jump a 6 year old for her balloon, right?
Fast forward to MLK day (1/15/07). Another episode of "this old house". I think the picture speaks for itself. 
Fellow fabric-o-holic Nicole and I went on the serious fabric sale shopping spree on Monday. While waiting in the longest line EVER in our local JoAnn's, I met the director of THE performing arts organization here in Richmond, Broadway Under the Stars and the lady who was doing the set design for their production of Tony n' Tina's Wedding. She was strapped for time and help, so I volunteered to dust off the set-design skills from my high school and college days and pitch in. Of course, no camera (I've got to get use to carrying it around with me)! The night was a hoot! If you have a chance to go see Tony n' Tina's Wedding, make it a point to do so!
Another fast forward to the following Sunday (1/21/07). Most of it was spent crafting! Those days are too few and far between. I cracked open a new Fiskars template and made some envelopes from recycled calendars (for more on this, see the next post). 
I've decided to extend my crafting resolution of "use what I have" into other areas of my life. I wanted something sweet to eat, so I decided to raid the pantry. I had leftover pistachios and cranberries from the holidays, so I made another batch of yummy cranberry-pistachio biscotti. After the baking, it started to snow a little so I settled in for a warm, cozy evening of music and crafting. As usual in Richmond, the snow quickly turned to ice, which turned into no electricity. So much for the warm, cozy evening of crafting!
