More vineyards

On Sunday morning, the last day of my long weekend away, I got up late and went out for a big breakfast. Not quite an English breakfast but still. (I ended up at Cracker Barrel which is ok though I much prefer iHop.) The plan was to head home via some wineries. I am trying to get to as many of the local wineries/vineyards as possible. But I was a little early. I ended up sitting in a car park for 45mins watching my kindle as they didn't open until noon.

The first was Cave Ridge. It was really pretty and the people were lovely. I ended up coming away with 2 bottles, a voigner (white) and a port like desert wine which was really tasty.  Some of the others were nice but not worth the price they were asking. It would be nice to sit and have lunch there with some of their wines.

Courtyard

View for drinking.

On the way to the second vineyard, I stopped a lavender farm to get some fresh lavender for my bedroom. They also had a little farm with rabbits to play with and other animals to feed. I couldn't resist!

Bunnies fighting for lettuce

Having a sneeze.

Slightly freaking looking goat

Pony

Ducks

Turkey!

The air smelt amazing and so relaxing. I spent some time wondering around the gardens

Lavender

Bottle tree

Flower

I did have to do a double take and slightly backed off when I saw this guy. Way too big for my liking.

Spider!

The duck pond was also really pretty and the sun was out. Though the water was a very unnatural blue.

Duck pond

Boy and his firefly jar.

The second vineyard was Crosskeys.  The wines were ok but like with most VA wineries they are really overpriced. The only one I did buy was another port style red dessert wine which was really good. I didn't like this place as much as the last one as the service just was not half as good. The place was beautiful but they people were more stuck up.

Cross Keys vineyard

I ended up getting something to eat and chilling to make sure I was ok to drive home. They had some live music and, though, not much choice in food for me, the salad was very tasty.

Live music

Ice tea and salad

I ended up going down the i-81 to get home instead of the back road as it would have just taken too long. I still hate the i-81. More people try to kill me on that road than another. Most should not have licenses! But I got home safe and it was a great weekend. Possibly the last weekend away for a while. But I still have the hot air balloon voucher so need to rebook that. So maybe....

Lavender festival

Sunday was the annual Lavender festival at Beliveau Estates vineyard. They have lots of lavender products and of course lots of wine.

Lavender everything 

After a bowl of lavender ice-cream (odd but nice), we headed over to the Winemaker's reserve barrel tasting which we decided to do instead of the regular tastings. These wines are all the pre-released wines which won't be out for another few months. And the guy who owns and runs the vineyard does the tasting which was great. I got to ask lots of questions.

Ivan preparing for our wine tasting

Chemistry wine

 The wines were really nice and I think we will have to go back and get some when they are released.  And he let me have 2 glasses side by side so I could taste the difference between the ways they oak the wine, either using a teabag of wine chips or putting it in an oak barrel which was really interesting. (And I loved the beakers of wine!)
After the tasting and grabbing a bottle of my favorite (a desert wine which goes amazingly well with chocolate so of course we had to get some chocolate as well!), we sat on the grass listening to a small jazz band and enjoyed the sun.

The band

Enjoying the music

The winery