a day of virginia wine with ellie

Ellie came to visit about a month ago. On paper, she came so we could see the Veronica Mars movie together on opening night. As loyal marshmallows, seeing it together and on opening night was the only possible option (if that made zero sense, can I recommend an Easter weekend spent binge-watching the series on Amazon Prime?). Her visit was perfectly timed for other reasons, too. She was here the night that I found out I got the Rangel Fellowship. Let me tell you, that girl can scream. We were in the packed movie theater on Friday night, around 10:15pm, waiting for the movie to start, discussing whether to get a small or a large popcorn to share (priorities). Ellie went to grab the popcorn and a soda while I had the job of holding our seats (a very serious job, no doubt). I opened the email and saw the "congratulations" in the subject line, and my entire brain turned to mush. I jumped up out of my seat on autopilot, and like 20 rows below me, walking towards the exit, Ellie started waving her arms and motioning for me to sit back down (i mean, this theater was seriously packed, and we had prime seats we did not want to lose!). I couldn't form a real sentence to try to tell her what was going on. I just kept saying, like a broken record, "I gotta go!" And Ellie read right through me and she just knew. So she started jumping up and down, and screaming. No, really. Screaming at the top of her lungs "congratulations!" and "holy shit you got rangel!" and so we met in the middle and hugged and jumped up and down together. (Mid-hug, she got the attention of our seat neighbors... i mean the whole theater was watching us anyway, so it wasn't hard, and asked them to save our seats. she is a very good friend and just as good a multitasker!)

In addition to seeing the movie (amazing) and having one of my closest girlfriends there to celebrate with me, we also used the weekend as an excuse to do something we never did while we lived together in this fine city: get out of the town and out to some vineyards. It was Ellie's first time at Virginia wineries, and we picked some winners.

We started at Hiddencroft Vineyards, where the dessert wines surprised the heck out of me by being so similar to ice-wine that I had to ask if they somehow use similar techniques (it's not nearly cold enough in Virginia to do so, but our tasting guide said that many are, in fact, processed in a similar style as ice-wine!). In my opinion, the dessert wine is what they do best. That and the views. They're situated on a whole lot of land off a literally beaten path... we drove down a gravel and dirt road for miles and even called to make sure we were heading in the right direction. There's a small creek and a ramshackle old barn that begs for exploration and adventuring, which is exactly what Ellie and I did, wine glasses in hand.

Next, we ventured over to Doukenie, a popular northern Virginia winery that we were excited to finally try. The most impressive parts of the winery were the scenery (including a beautiful lake) and the man who did our tasting. He was hilarious - sardonic and dry and, ultimately, very friendly. The wines were lacking. He did everything he could to help us find some we enjoyed, even allowing us to taste some reserve wines. There was one red (a 2010 Merlot) that captured our attention. Overall, this winery is a "miss" for me. Skip it and head to...

North Gate Vineyard! Oh my. This is my kind of winery. It's small, green, and the emphasis is truly on producing quality wines. We enjoyed everything we tasted. The dry Rose and the Petit Verdot (2011) were the standouts. We stopped in at the end of the day, less than an hour before they were closing. The winemarker's birthday was that day, and the staff brought out a cake, and everyone still there (including us) sang and wished him a happy one. It has that feeling - of being welcomed, home, comfort, warmth. It was the clear winner of the day, and we'll be back.

And that is how Ellie and I do a weekend reunited.