Great Grapes Wine Festival: Take 5!
We figured on the way there that this was our fifth time attending!
Justin + Amanda offered to drive us, but it’s tradition to bike there 
We like the exercise and the fun.
We packed a killer picnic to enjoy with our wine samples! Lucky us we were allowed to bring food in and it was a great idea to picnic while we sampled some wines.
Herbed goat cheese from Costo
Parrano Cheese + Costco Bries
Breads
Veg
Hummus
Aged meats
Fruits
RFTC cupcakes!!!
We grabbed a sample to enjoy while we ate..
But it went down too fast so Matt and I went looking for more
And came back with a bottle of RagApple Lassie Chard – an old favorite!
I had a small glass during lunch –
I had at least 2 of these sized plates of the delicious French picnic
He had three –
And I ended with one of these…
Half hot pink and half light pink (really only ate the frosting. The light pink was better)
Then we went tasting – us, The Hungry Wanderers and Whit’s Getting Fit!
Yummy
We felt that two wineries really stood out: Round Peak for its hip label and consistently impressive wines + Grove Winery for its quality Italian reds. North Carolina is not exactly a fabulous wine country, and many of the others achieved "meh" status for the muscadine (BLECH!), fruit (literally) and flat + dry varietals.
However, lots of wine was tasted.
And the bright sunshine was HARSH! We all came home a little pink.
Despite tasting at probably 10 different wineries, I felt I did OK maintaining my composure
And found a soap stand!
There were so many delicious flavors. I got a few for Christmas gifts
We eventually decided we were wined out (even though we’d probably only tasted half of the options!)
We came home and set up a relaxing atmosphere of furniture on the patio taking in the most gorgeous day ever.
After an hour or so of hydrating and chatting, we decided it was pizza pizza time. I had fun taking votes on pizza toppings, hunger status, salad preference to decide on our dinner plans. [I'm turning into my mom!]
It’s tradition to order pizza from Wolfman down the street and walk to pick it up. So us three girls set out on a walk to fetch the pie.
We got one veggie with shrooms, green peppers and roasted red peppers
And one Pepperoni-less jalapeno and sun-dried tomato pizza. They forgot our pepperoni!
Luckily they still tasted great. (Sorry again for the pepperoni problem Justin!)
The boys put together the salad while we were gone – spinach with carrots + leftover goat cheese with a homemade dressing
I had a slice of each plus salad –
Plus an extra sliver (that’s Matt ’s seconds on the right)
And I shared a pumpkin beer with Whit. Definitely didn’t need this half-beer, but it tasted good with the pizza.
For dessert I brought out a chocolate platter and we had a tasting!
Scharffen Berger samples and some leftover symphony brownie cut into pieces. I also broke out a Hershey’s Bliss Dark Chocolate bar and we determined that it was excellent in comparison.
Very long, super fun day and I’d by lying if I didn’t admit that I’m relieve it’s over. I’m so tired, so thirsty and so ready to climb into my bed and have a healthy 3 meals tomorrow!
Great Grapes Wine Festival: Take 5!
We figured on the way there that this was our fifth time attending!
Justin + Amanda offered to drive us, but it’s tradition to bike there
We like the exercise and the fun.
We packed a killer picnic to enjoy with our wine samples! Lucky us we were allowed to bring food in and it was a great idea to picnic while we sampled some wines.
Herbed goat cheese from Costo
Parrano Cheese + Costco Bries
Breads
Veg
Hummus
Aged meats
Fruits
RFTC cupcakes!!!
We grabbed a sample to enjoy while we ate..
But it went down too fast so Matt and I went looking for more
And came back with a bottle of RagApple Lassie Chard – an old favorite!
I had a small glass during lunch –
I had at least 2 of these sized plates of the delicious French picnic
He had three –
And I ended with one of these…
Half hot pink and half light pink (really only ate the frosting. The light pink was better)
Then we went tasting – us, The Hungry Wanderers and Whit’s Getting Fit!
Yummy
We felt that two wineries really stood out: Round Peak for its hip label and consistently impressive wines + Grove Winery for its quality Italian reds. North Carolina is not exactly a fabulous wine country, and many of the others achieved "meh" status for the muscadine (BLECH!), fruit (literally) and flat + dry varietals.
However, lots of wine was tasted.
And the bright sunshine was HARSH! We all came home a little pink.
Despite tasting at probably 10 different wineries, I felt I did OK maintaining my composure
And found a soap stand!
There were so many delicious flavors. I got a few for Christmas gifts
We eventually decided we were wined out (even though we’d probably only tasted half of the options!)
We came home and set up a relaxing atmosphere of furniture on the patio taking in the most gorgeous day ever.
After an hour or so of hydrating and chatting, we decided it was pizza pizza time. I had fun taking votes on pizza toppings, hunger status, salad preference to decide on our dinner plans. [I'm turning into my mom!]
It’s tradition to order pizza from Wolfman down the street and walk to pick it up. So us three girls set out on a walk to fetch the pie.
We got one veggie with shrooms, green peppers and roasted red peppers
And one Pepperoni-less jalapeno and sun-dried tomato pizza. They forgot our pepperoni!
Luckily they still tasted great. (Sorry again for the pepperoni problem Justin!)
The boys put together the salad while we were gone – spinach with carrots + leftover goat cheese with a homemade dressing
I had a slice of each plus salad –
Plus an extra sliver (that’s Matt ’s seconds on the right)
And I shared a pumpkin beer with Whit. Definitely didn’t need this half-beer, but it tasted good with the pizza.
For dessert I brought out a chocolate platter and we had a tasting!
Scharffen Berger samples and some leftover symphony brownie cut into pieces. I also broke out a Hershey’s Bliss Dark Chocolate bar and we determined that it was excellent in comparison.
Very long, super fun day and I’d by lying if I didn’t admit that I’m relieve it’s over. I’m so tired, so thirsty and so ready to climb into my bed and have a healthy 3 meals tomorrow!