Late Feb Snow Day Wine and Looking Ahead to Oysters and Eluvium

I’m pairing today’s snow day with Early Mountain’s Etlan. I feel entitled. I walked the dogs twice, shoveled the snow away as it was turning to rain, did a load of laundry, cleaned up all the dishes, and seriously thought really, really hard about vacuuming.

Last Friday I was driving home from a work trip to Charlottesville and decided to stop at Early Mountain. As it was Feb 15, they were closing early for their Valentine’s Day dinner, but I snuck in a glass of Etlan and bought their very last bottle.

On Friday afternoon, they were nearly empty and there were staff setting up for the dinner program. One guy was at the tasting bar finishing up his tasting. I went on up and debated a tasting versus a glass of wine, decided I wanted to stay married and alive by getting home on time for dinner, and went for the glass of wine and bottle purchase.

Etlan is a gorgeous red wine, with 57% merlot, 35% cab sauv and 8% cab franc. There is a lot of silky darkness in it. I actually felt like it must have petit verdot in it too because there is that funny taste at the very end that reminds me of the tannins in petit verdot, but there is none!

Did I tell you that we are going to the Oyster Festival? I’m very excited. Husband, Dad, and Wine Friend 1 are all coming! The writeup says that many kinds of oysters are available, so hubby will get a ton of deep fried oysters while the rest of us gorge ourselves on raw oysters on the half shell and really good wine. The early mountain package pickup is then too, and I’m hopeful about getting some of the 2016 Eluvium at that point (pre-release!).

Early Mountain took home a ton of medals in the Governor’s Cup, and they deserve them. I was surprised to see that Rise did not end up on the list, but maybe they didn’t enter it, looking for bigger competitions, or just to enjoy and sell it. Four gold medals though, including the ’15 and ’16 Eluvium (remember I have one not yet opened, and will get a few at the oyster festival!), the ’16 Novum (not sure that it’s been released yet), and the ’17 Madison County Cab Franc – I cannot recall if that was the one I gave my dad or not. Hmmmm.

So I’m really looking forward to the oyster festival, sharing this spot with hubby and wine friend 1, and having delicious oysters while also checking our more Early Mountain wines.

What did you enjoy on this snow day?