Now, I know those of you who know me are like, "Wine!? Anne?" but I like to try anything before I pass final judgment. And when it comes with yummy snacks, I am definitely not gonna turn it down! So, wine-tasting results:
1- You have to be crazy / rich to open a winery because they are an ass-load of work! The owner of Notaviva Winery is a tell-it-like-it-is guy and he gave us the inside scoop. Fun fact about Notaviva, he and his wife are both music technology majors (ie - music producers, sound techs with bands, and media consultants) so they pair their wines with recommended music choices. How cool is that?! Yes, I asked, and he recommended a Cabernet Sauvignon to go with brass and french horns. Apparently, there are massive grants going to research about music/ taste relations. They strap you down, make you drink wine and listen to music... where do I sign up?
2- I don't like red wines. Period. I think it's the tannins in the reds that gets me, because it's not the alcohol content (all our wines were the same) and it's not a certain type of red (we tried two). However, I do like Chardonneys and Viognier ("vee-in-yay" ... stupid french names; it's written "viognier" why can't it be "vee-og-ni-er"?) The viognier gave me the reaction, "hmmm... this one doesn't make me gag! it's even good!" ... and I LOVE dessert wines. We tried a port. It was yummy. :)
3- Wine tastings are good for the snacks! We had sliders with garlic aioli instead of ketchup/mayonnaise, stuffed mushrooms, roasted carrot mash & chips, chicken salad in filo cups, and brownie bites.... soooooo good!
Sadly, we didn't have time to get John fully fed before we got there, so he needed dinner after the wine tasting. We took the road straight into Leesburg, thinking only of not getting lost. Sadly, downtown Leesburg is kind of like downtown Williamsburg... but deader. I mean, there was NObody out at 9:oo pm on a Friday! We finally found a Wendy's like an oasis in the desert. (We later learned that every chain business sits just outside of Leesburg on the bypass. Oops.)
On to Saturday: SUPER yummy b'fast prepared by Chef Jeff (no kidding, that's his name). Quiche and fresh muffins and yogurt and good teas. Saturday we were on our own until dinner, so John and I went out to a local outlet mall and browsed / walked (knowing dinner would be very bad for you and exercise is good). It was really nice. I think I dragged him into every shoe store there, trying to find a replacement for my knee-boots. (Why do I love him? After about three stores, he started pointing them out to me so I wouldn't miss any.)
Ok, on to dinner. John and I laughed that there should be a name-change for the weekend, as it wasn't much of a cooking "class." It was more like being a live audience for a cooking show on TV: Chef explained how everything was done, pointed out tips of the trade, answered any questions we had... but we the guests didn't really "cook." John got to cut the meat, I plated a few items, one guy grated some cheese, but that was about the extent of what we did. Most of the food was fixed ahead of time, and it would have taken us all day to actually make it ourselves. So while it wasn't a "class" it was more than you'd get going into a restaurant and ordering those dishes.
Chef laughed that if we wanted to cut something, we needed to do it on the first course, as she wouldn't let us handle knives after a few glasses of wine!
1st Course: Rare Beef with Crustini (garlic toast) and creamed leeks (they look gross but are GOOD!)
2nd Course: Salad w/ beets, shallots, and goat cheese (which is surprisingly tasty)3rd Course: French Onion Soup... so good there is no picture of it :(
Main: Chicken Roulade (roll-up) with green beans and mashed potatoes & carrots (So-so, nothing really stood out like the other courses did)
The mash was put into a piping bag and swirled onto the plates. On of the guys at our table said it looks like soft-serve ice cream. I think that's why we were a little disappointed in this dish because we all were expecting orange creamsicle ice cream and we got mashed potatoes and carrots. Not exactly the same thing. :(
Dessert: THE BEST BREAD PUDDING EVER! with strawberries, blueberries, white chocolate, and a amaretto / cream sauce.... yummmmmmmmy!Sunday was just breakfast then heading home. We rolled on kind of early after breakfast (fritatas and eggs and oatmeal) as it was starting to snow a bit and we didn't want to get into any difficulty. I think we also had the longest drive out of everybody there (most were local, northern-VA people). It was so nice just to have a weekend of being in a new place, eating good food, and not having to worry about anything! Very relaxing.
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