November is a big month for club pickups for me. I usually have 3-4 come due, and that’s great because it’s in time for thanksgiving and I can give some wine as presents.
Last Saturday was a big club pickup day. Wine Friend 1 and I headed out to start our day at Arterra – where we just grabbed wine that had been held for me. The amazing Crooked Run blend, which sold out a few weeks ago, is currently one of my favorites, and amazing Jason held four bottles for me. We didn’t taste there, but I got my four bottles, and added two cab franc to the mix. Now that it’s cool, they’ll have the firepit outside going, and it will be a great spot to spend the day relaxing. I’m looking forward to winter with Cab Franc at Arterra. Their holiday open house is coming up, and they are part of the Fauquier County Winter Holiday Wine Trail, so check it out – it’s a good deal.
After Arterra it was time for Stone Tower – they had the wine club package pickup set up and ready to go. We got there at noon, and it was already packed – all of the 21+ bars were full until we wandered downstairs, where the bar had space. It too filled up within minutes. We went through a nice tasting flight and ended up getting a dozen oysters on the half shell with some amazing sauvignon blanc.
This was paired with the 2016 Estate Sauvignon Blanc. And it was an amazing pairing! It was so good I added two bottles of it to my order (spoiler alert- it also pairs well with thanksgiving). The package had a blanc de blancs, pinot noir, cab franc and petit verdot. Amazing package. Sticking with this club 🙂
Finally- a zoom down to winery at la grange for package tasting and release.
The release had a number of yummy wines in it… (since it was a few weeks ago, I’ve given one as a gift and drank two or three of the reds….. *sigh* its hard to keep up these days!).
We sat and ate our lunches with a nice glass each of red. It was significantly more crowded than usual, and we had Zach F, not Zach M, (and I hope I didn’t offend Zach F by telling him he wasn’t the real Zach- oops! Main Zach was at the main tasting bar serving it up, and was having fun – Other Zach was a riot in the tank room sharing an assortment of wines from the tasting menu.
So a good time at both, and remember that December is Secret Envelope Month at La Grange – you can win anything from tastings to a glass to a free year in the club! Get back there and enjoy!
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