Wine Tour Anniversary

Before I begin, I must be cliche and say what I’m sure more bloggers are saying.  Kanye West, that was a total jerky move dude….not cool.

Moving on.

Brent and I celebrated 5 years together this Saturday!!  Where has all the time gone?  Children are little black holes that suck time right out of it’s place, not to mention the sucking of the elevation straight out of our bossoms.

Brent had this BRILLIANT idea.  We live near LOADS of wineries.  Like…too many.  He thought we should go tour them.  So we prettied ourselves up, handed our darling dearies in to the arms of my generous sister Jennie (thank GOD for the one person who’ll actually take our children for an evening), and set off in search of wine.

Our first stop was The Fort Wine Company.  I read on their website that they have a bistro so off we went for lunch.  When we got there we had a tasting of all their fruit wines.  Now I’ve been known to say numerous times that I pretty much despise fruit wines.  Its like drinking syrup.  Yuck.  These wines, on the other hand, were clean, fresh, crisp and most importantly…dry.  Gotta love a dry wine.  They served fruit platters there so we sat outside in the shade under an amazing grape arbor, I with my glass off apple pear wine and Brent with his glass of blueberry.  We enjoyed this amazing platter of food.  My word, I’ll be going back there.  All for $30.  An experience and a lunch for such a cheap price.

We then moved along from winery to winery tasting what they had to offer, hearing their secrets of where to find the next amazing wine.  I found my most favorite Merlot in the world at a little place called Blackwood Lane.  Sitting ontop of an large hill, this old post and beam home made us feel like we were in another country.  The view was excellent.  This place was a lot more expensive but seriously, have you ever tried a wine that’s buttery?  Velvetty even?  Well I certainly have.  Their Merlot almost sent me through the roof.  You can definitely taste when a wine company has a wine maker that knows exactly how to get the most out of their grapes.  Unreal.  The next time Brent and I have special evening I’m going to make my way back up that hill and buy us that $40 bottle of Merlot.

My 2nd favorite Merlot was from Township 7.  I loved their farm and their service.  They paired the Merlot with a rock salt and pepper dark chocolate bark that was to die for.  I think today I’ll attempt to recreate it in my kitchen as we couldn’t take it home (peanut allergies) for when we decide to enjoy our bottle of Merlot that we purchased there.

It’s funny, when you look at what communities around you actually have to offer, you can make an easy vacation out of a day.  We honestly felt like we were in another country.  These places were amazing!  I can’t wait till next time we have a chance to go out and tour more…there’s so many we hardly touched the majority of them.  It’s also on my agenda to tour some of the farms around here.  There are many organic farmers in these parts, I should be taking advantage of all the local goodness around me.

It was so nice to spend a day with my Brent.  I love him more than ever.  Him and I, despite having a child diagnosed with autism, have had the best year of our marriage this past year.  We’ve totally opened up to each other, we’re no longer afraid to say what we feel, Brent has energy for us at home now because his job is so much easier and less stressful.  We are so well matched I almost feel bad bragging about it, because it really is THAT good.  Our relationship is peaceful, loving and respectful.  I love it.  Had I married someone who argued a lot, said mean things out of anger, yelled, etc…I’d freak out.  Because of my past, I cannot handle men raising their voices at me.  It triggers memories and emotions of things I’d rather leave forgotten.  Brent is the perfect gentle person for me.  It’s great.

Now that my siblings have gagged and barfed, I’ll move along to some photos of our adventure.  Enjoy!

PS I just got a call…I didn’t make the show…