Road Trip!

A break in the action at work left me with a weekday off and an unquenchable yearning to leave the environs of Washington DC.  Those of you who know that I used to be a lobbyist are familiar with my bipolar swings of desperately missing politics and wearily hating this city and all it stands for.  Thus it was that I traveled to the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains for a day trip, in search of Chenin Blanc.

No other white wine so confounds me during blind tasting as Chenin Blanc.  I usually guess that it's a lightly wooded Chardonnay, a lower acid Riesling, or something nondescript.  I am fond, however, of thinking it's just my lack of experience with the grape and not a hole in my palate that is to blame.  So I have been gathering lots and lots of examples of Chenin for a grand tasting sometime in the early autumn.

The wine I was looking for is from the Breede River Valley in South Africa.  Most of what we get here is the States is from the coastal regions of SA, and Breede is right behind that, with a more continental climate.

 It is also stunningly gorgeous.

Alas, I didn't find the bottle I was looking for; which sucks because the WSET loves Chenin and South Africa and London is lousy with Breede River examples.  I did, however, find a few other gems - A Walla Walla Chenin, One from Baja Mexico, and ...wait for it...India.  I sorta knew on some level that they made wine in India, but it never occured to me that they export the stuff.  Stay tuned for tasting notes from the gala event.  And enjoy a few pics from the trip!

 Pink Mercedes!

The Blue Ridge

Winchester, VA