Blenheim Winery

On Sunday, January 27, 2013, my sister, her boyfriend, and I went to the Blenheim Vineyards in Charlottesville, Virginia. The land was originally owned by John Carter, who was the secretary of the colony of Virginia at the time. The winery's building was built in 1730 and named in honor of the War of the Spanish Succession. But this winery was also known for housing Thomas Jefferson and his wife during the cold winters. 
I was quite excited about this trip because not only was it my first visit to a winery but also because of the amount of history surrounding it as well as. The only downside to the trip was how cold it was. Driving to the Vineyard was a trip in itself. We drove on gravel paths for about 10 minutes before we even got to the Vineyard, but along the way we saw a lot more Vineyards that we were thinking of trying next time. I was amazed at how many were in that one area.

Inside Blenheim Vineyards

When we first get to the Vineyard we immediately go inside because of how cold it was. The first thing we did when we got there was try the wines! They told us they only had 3 types of wines left to taste because they were sold out of all of the other wines they produced. They told us that they normally sample about 5-10 but because of the busy we only got to sample 3. We paid $5 for the wine tasting but we got to keep the glass that came with it and they said that the next time we came back with the glass we would not have to pay for a wine tasting. I thought it was a pretty good deal. 

Blenheim Vineyard Glass

The 3 different types of wines I tasted were painted white, red table wine, and painted red. They only offered crackers to wash out the taste after every wine. I was actually hoping for some sort of cheese but I guess have crackers was better than nothing....My favorite wine was the painted white wine. I loved how fruity it smelled and tasted. My next favorite would have been the painted red. It went down really smooth and it also had a bit of a kick to it. I really did not enjoy the red table wine. Something about it just made me want to make a face every time I sipped it. It smelled decent but when I tasted it, it seemed like there was too much alcohol in it and I couldn't taste the flavors. Needless to say I ate quite a few crackers after trying the red table wine. While we were finishing up the last drops of our wines, my sister, her boyfriend, and I went out their back door to see the view. It was amazing because their entire back door was made of glass.

Backdoor

 While my sister and I were enjoying the view outside, we noticed our wines getting colder by the second. To me the colder my wine the better it tasted. I stayed outside until I finished my wine. Their back door also had an amazing view of their vineyard

My sister and I

Backyard view

After we finished our wine we continued our exploration of the vineyard inside the house. Downstairs of the house was where they made the wine. There were barrels and barrels of wine. They told us that the new wines would be ready by the beginning of March if we wanted to come back and try them. It was a bit chilly downstairs but they said that was how they kept the wine good. I was expecting their downstairs to be a lot bigger because of what I saw from the movies but it wasn't as big as I thought.

I plan on coming back here to taste their new batches of wine in March!

My Personal Experience with Wine

When I first tried wine it was in cooking. My parents used rice wine in a lot of their cooking and I loved the smell and the taste of the wine in the food. I once tried to drink the rice wine by itself but it was horrible. After that experience I decided it was best to only have rice wine in the food that I'm cooking. Growing up I saw my dad drink wine on special occasions but recently I have seen him drink it in the evenings. I would always love the smell of the wine my dad drank but when I would take a sip of it, it was the most disgusting thing ever to me.
It wasn't until college that I started to try wine again. My first bubbly wine was Andre. It was pretty good but that didn't last for long. Why? Because I drank too much of it in one sitting. Like they say too much of a good thing is a bad thing and that's exactly what happened to me with Andre. After that experience I decided to try out the different types of wine and maybe then I would learn to appreciate wine. When I tried a different type of wine again it was red wine. Bad choice to start off and once again I was on the boat of I hate wine and I didn't think I would ever learn to appreciate it or enjoy it.
Finally my junior year of college came and I was  going to study aboard in Europe. When I was talking to the professor they said that wine was a lot cheaper than water and it was custom to serve wine during most of the meals. I wasn't too happy to hear that. When I first got to Europe I tried some wine that someone had said was sweet. When I tried it, it was not sweet at all. What did they mean it was sweet? There was nothing sweet about it. I thought all hope was lost in enjoying any type of wine. It wasn't until half way through my trip that I found a wine that I enjoyed. It was dessert wine that one of the other students recommended when I told them that I have not liked any of the wine I have tried. They said that it was a lot sweeter and it was a white wine so I would be able to enjoy it more than what I had been trying. I gave it a shot and I loved the taste and it was actually sweet! After that I began asking around for the sweeter wines and my love for the sweet wines began.
When I came back to the states I began researching some of the different wines. I found really sweet wines and fell in love with them. But as I started to branch off into the less sweet wines the sweeter wines that I had loved started to taste overly sweet to me. I started to dislike how sweet those wines were and started to move towards the less sweet wines. My favorite that I've tried so far is Strawberry White Zinfandel  made by Wild Vines.

I still do not enjoy red wine but I feel like I am a lot closer to enjoying it than when I first started tasting wine.