Category Archives: Wine

The Cicadas Are Here!

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Cicadas Are Here

This past fun-filled weekend we had to hurriedly prepare a spray for the vineyard, only to have our sprayer malfunction in the worst possible way — two strainers in the back blew out from the strain of the pressure.  Our air blast sprayer (produced by a company called Air-o-Fan) run at about 100 pounds per square inch, and the strain on the strainer takes its toll.  One blew out, and we thought, no problem, because we had one extra.  Drove back to the barn, put on the new one, returned to the vineyard, cranked it up — and the second strainer blew (there are two).  No replacement for that one, which mean’t no spraying that day.  We’re experiencing severe disease pressure — what to do?

Indeed, what to do?  We had a wine festival in Richmond the next day, and the day after on a plane to California to visit family and friends for a graduation at the University of Southern California, first swinging through San Francisco to see relatives and a fabulous dinner planned at Restaurant Gary Danko on North Point in The City (more on that later).  We’ll be away a week and can’t delay a fungicide application, with our Phomopsis problem lurking in the vines.  A few quick calls secured replacement parts (a half dozen) from the manufacturer, which will be overnighted, and calls to our beloved neighbor who tends to the fields and keeps an eye on things (but has never run the sprayer) took care of our other problem, which is to make sure we applied a treatment very soon, not that the rains have passed, for now.  Russell came on over 20 minutes after our rather frantic phone call, had a quick tutorial and instructions on operating the thing.  Many thanks to Air-o-Fan (and to Russell) for coming though for us!

Saturday proved a bit forbidding, with violent thunderstorms in the forecast that were to peak mid-afternoon.  But the storms missed us, and it was a rather pleasant afternoon at the Snag A Job Pavilion in Glen Allen for the Central Virginia Wine Festival, an event put on by the Richmond Virginia Tech Alumni Association, a fundraiser for scholarships for Richmond-area students attending Tech.  Fabulous cause with fabulous people running it.  And the volunteers!  We had teams assigned to us to help pour (they were in a word (and we’ll say it again) fabulous — such enthusiasm, such grace and good cheer!   And of course they loved the wine (how could they not?), and purchased several bottles on top of the wine we gave them as a thank you gift for helping.  The festival staff helped us unload, and when it was over they loaded us up to go (we were among the first out of there) — we felt like Princes.

Just before our sprayer mis-adventure on Friday, however, we looked down and spotted our first cicadas on the fence post at the gate to the vineyard.  We are due to have a massive invasion of the periodic cicada this year, an event we look forward to with curiosity and dread.  We didn’t see them in Richmond on Saturday, or up north in McLean on Sunday, but they are all over Annefield.  When packing up to depart the next day for the festival we spotted dozens of them in the grass and crawling up the side of the house, many of them just emerging from their exoskeletons.  Many that we saw had just emerged, with their crazy orange eyes, waiting for their shells to harden, milky white and vulnerable.  They haven’t started singing yet.

Our First Cicada Found

Nymph Shells

Dr Tony Wolf of the Alson H. Smith Jr Agricultural Research and Extension Center of Virginia Tech Virginia circulated a memo about them (and included an ominous note that there is a threat of potential spring frost on Monday in the Shenandoah Valley) advising what winegrowers need to do about the 17-year periodic cicadas emerging this year — in a word, nothing.

Periodical cicada spends most of its life as a nymph, feeding on xylem sap from tree roots. In the final year of development, nymphs crawl from the soil, climbing tree trunks or any other structure. During the night, the nymphal skin splits along the midline, and the adult emerges. Adults appear in mid- to late-May (a few individuals may be heard as early as late-April). They appear around sunset, males slightly preceding females. Males congregate en masse in “chorusing centers”. Singing peaks around 10:00 AM. Adults feed on a wide range of woody plants during the day; such feeding is apparently restricted to the females because the male digestive tract is rudimentary. Egg-laying begins about 2 weeks after emergence. Eggs are inserted into twigs in groups of 10-25; the slit into which the eggs are inserted is 1-4 inches (2.5-10 cm) long. Females may lay over 500 eggs. Oviposition peaks in the early afternoon. Adults are active for about 6 weeks. Eggs hatch 6-10 weeks after oviposition, whereupon nymphs leave the twigs and drop to the soil. Nymphs tunnel to the roots where they establish themselves for feeding.

What threat do cicadas pose to grapevines?  If you’re new to grape growing since the last emergence of periodical cicada’s you may think that the insects are causing significant damage, and your immediate reaction will be to ask what insecticide might be sprayed to keep the insects off your grapevines. While that’s an understandable reaction, my advice (TKW) would be to find something else to do and not worry too much about what the insects are doing. You are going to see shoot breakage and you may want to defer trunk and cordon establishment on young vines until next year, but grapevines are pretty resilient. Injury by egg-laying is a much greater problem than feeding is, but it’s helpful to realize that the egg-laying (ovipositioning) on mature grapevines is not as detrimental as it can be for young fruit trees or woody landscape materials, which you may wish to protect. The cicadas will deposit eggs in grape shoots and smaller cordons of the vine. Unsupported shoots often break beyond the point of egg-laying, but because this occurs relatively early in the growing season (June), lateral re-growth will normally compensate for the loss of a primary shoot tip. In older wood, the oviposition site typically heals.

Insecticidal control of cicadas is not very practical because of the extended period of emergence and activity (up to 6 weeks) and because insecticides would have to be applied very frequently to come in contact with newly emerging insects. Fine netting is an option mentioned in the above-cited Fact Sheet, but the economics of this approach with grapevines is questionable. Young (first-year) vines are a special consideration in that one is attempting to produce shoots to serve as trunks in the following year. One potential means of protecting the shoots would be the use of grow tubes, which would discourage cicadas from at least the first 24 to 36 inches of the shoot. Alternatively one might simply retain several shoots in the first year in the event that one or more shoots break during development.

They’ll put on a spectacular show.

Incidentally, at the Central Virginia Wine Festival, our newly released 2012 Annefield Vineyards Viognier was named best white wine at the event.  We last attended this festival two years ago (we had a conflict last year) and received the same honor.  We like to think they love us and we certainly love them.  Its a great event, a worthy cause, and we’ll probably be back. next year.  Go Hokies!

Hokie Fest

 

Taming the Festival Beast.

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Apple Blossom Festival Attendees

Beware the Festival Beast!

When the sun was sunken, he set out to visit
The lofty hall-building, how the Ring-Danes had used it
For beds and benches when the banquet was over.
Then he found there reposing many a noble
Asleep after supper; sorrow the heroes,
Misery knew not. The monster of evil
Greedy and cruel tarried but little,
He drags off thirty of them, and devours them
Fell and frantic, and forced from their slumbers
Thirty of thanemen; thence he departed
Leaping and laughing, his lair to return to,
With surfeit of slaughter sallying homeward.
In the dusk of the dawning, as the day was just breaking,
Was Grendel’s prowess revealed to the warriors:
A cry of agony goes up, when Grendel’s horrible deed is fully realized.
Then, his meal-taking finished, a moan was uplifted,
Morning-cry mighty.

-Beowulf

Almost two years ago we wrote an especially cranky post in this space about our experience with the Shenandoah Valley Hot Air Balloon, Wine & Music Festival at Long Branch, a historic house and farm in Clarke County, Virginia, just outside of the town of Winchester (“Those Blasted Wine Festivals“).  That three-day event occurs each October, so the cumulative effect of three very long days of nonstop work at the end of the season made it the “nail in the coffin” on working these beastly things.  Or so we thought.

This past weekend we were again in Winchester, only this time for the Bloomin’ Wine Fest at the Shenandoah Apple Blossom Festival.  This two-week event takes place in historic downtown Winchester which is in the northern reaches of the Shenandoah Valley. The wine festival opens the celebration and lasts just two days, so perhaps the cranky quotient was reduced by a third.  It was actually a great crowd, many gaily attired in pink and chartreuse, and we had some fantastic, enthusiastic helpers with us.  We couldn’t have done it without them (and if any of you are reading this, thank you!).

But for some reason when contemplating our evolving attitude about wine festivals, this correspondent immediately thought of  ”monsters.”  Why monsters?  In the mind’s eye its a big lumbering thing, ruthless and out of control, like Grendel in the Anglo-Saxon epic poem Beowulf.  The Latin root for “monster” is monstrum, which means “an aberrant occurrence” that is interpreted as a sign from the Almighty that something is wrong with the natural order of the world.  Drill down deeper, and we learn that the root of monstrum is monere, which bears a dual meaning: to warn, but also to instruct.

Every age has its monsters.  Beowulf, which dates from the 7th century, gave us Grendel, who in the passage quoted above carried away 30 Thanemen and devoured them.  The monsters of our age are more insidious, being nearly human (possibly dwelling among us unnoticed, like vampires), or formerly human, like zombies.  Funny how a decade ago references to vampires littered the cultural landscape, acting as a metaphor for the human condition — bloodsuckers on Wall Street, that sort of thing — while the horror metaphor of our times is the zombie, a mindless, soulless creature seeing human flesh for nourishment.

Is the rampant wine festival culture a phenomenon limited to Virginia?  Hoping to find a central repository of information on them, we had a look at localwineevents.com, which showed that virtually every state has them, and the larger wine growing regions have lots of them.  However, the listings on that website aren’t dispositive; for example, a search on the site found none in Kentucky (which has over 66 wineries), but a quick web search found several festivals in and around Louisville and Lexington.  Checking other states without listings on that site, such as Alaska and Hawaii, we found even more festivals, so clearly not all events are listed there.  If anything, this exercise shows that there are far more wine and food festivals than we realize, and that they aren’t an aberation — they may be the rule.  And if they are the rule, then they can’t be called monsters because they aren’t aberrations.  If anything they are simply unruly beasts in need of some discipline, so let’s call them the “Festival Beast.”

A wine festival is without a doubt an exhausting, arduous way of promoting wine that sucks the life from you.  ”Zombie” is probably the better metaphor because we do feel brain dead the day after.  And if one festival goes away, another rises in its place.  We get calls all the time from people organizing new ones to benefit some cause or promote some region or town.  Clearly there is no killing the Festival Beast, but we can try to tame it and live with it.   And like good wine zombies, we rise from the dead and keep on pouring.  Because we have to, given the realities of the art of selling wine.  What can we learn from the “Festival Beast?”

Taming the Festival Beast

What are the “realities” of the art of selling wine?  Look at it as a three-legged stool: (1) onsite sales direct to consumer via tasting room, online sales and wine clubs; (2) offsite direct to consumer via remote events (festivals and trade shows); and (3) wholesale (wine shops and restaurants).  All three have their challenges, but the offsite events are the most daunting, physically — the dreaded “Festival Beast.”

There are three recurring themes in our encounters with the public at these events, all related to that saying forever linked to the sale of real estate: “the most important thing is location, location, location.”  These questions can be summed up as “Where are you located?”  ”You’re awfully far away!”  and “Where can I buy your wine locally?”  Let’s have a look at each.

Where are you located?  Perhaps the measure of when we can stop doing as many as we do now (which aren’t that many, compared to many other wineries) is when we no longer hear this question: “Where are you located?”  That will show we’ve reached a level of renown that allows us to put our promotional efforts in other places.  Festivals are, in the end, exposure and advertising without the expense of a media buy and the advantage of reaching a narrowly focused target audience.  Even so, wine may be sold, and some events are “profitable” (translation: cash positive in the end), but others are not, and on those occasions when the value of what is poured exceeds the money taken in, that is when we strike that event from our list of possibilities for the next year.

You’re awfully far away!  Another constant refrain: the buyer who is disappointed by our remote (to them) location.  ”I’ll never be able to come visit because you’re so far away!”  Perhaps, but we ship it to you, and with online orders of six or more bottles, we provide free UPS-ground shipping to your door.  If you join one of our wine clubs, we will ship your allocation twice a year and you don’t even have to bother ordering. We’re licensed to ship to all of the states abutting Virginia (except Tennessee), plus South Carolina and California, so shipping to the average Virginia wine festival attendee is not an impediment.

Where can I buy your wine locally?  Some expressed dismay that we were not available locally, but there is an answer to that, too.  Tell your favorite restaurants and wine shops about us and insist that they give us a call, or have them contact our distributor, Williams Corner Wine.  Their contact information is on the bottom of the wine-stained tasting notes that hopefully made it home with you.

Since we can’t escape the Festival Beast, we’ve learned to live with it.  Other wineries have clearly given the matter some thought, such as one winery in Washington called Hedges Family Estate that bills itself as the “Guardian of Red Mountain” and the Red Mountain American Viticultural Area, though one wonders what threat concerns them.  Their logo is a forbidding looking crest with what looks like a grinning skull and a sword crossing a shovel.  Let this guardian be our Beowulf and take on the Festival Beast — our Grendel, Grendel’s mother and that dragon everyone forgets about that leads to Beowulf’s demise all rolled into one.  Last March the Wine Business Blog published their humorous and helpful “Rules for Attending a Wine Festival,” so those of you attending a wine festival this year, take note:

- Don’t tether your wine glass to your neck
- Don’t pinch your fingers and say, “Just a little.” Dump it if you don’t want to finish it, but I’m going to pour as much as I damn well please
- Don’t violently lift your glass mid-pour and say, “That’s enough.” Same deal as above.
- Don’t say, “Give me the biggest thing you have.” This isn’t NASCAR.
- Let “smooth” take the day off from your vocabulary… the whole day
- Don’t shove. I mean… really
- Don’t say you hate Merlot. We all saw Sideways. Guess what: Miles didn’t want to drink Merlot because it reminded him of his ex-wife. That bottle he drank in the end—his most precious bottle—had a ton of Merlot in it.
- Don’t tell every winemaker about the winery that was down the street while you lived in Lodi
- Don’t ask how the wine scored… ever.
- Do wear a “Wine’er, Dine’er, 69’er T-shirt
- If you are going to wear one of the those little food trays that has a cutout for your glass, you better be damn sure you are cool enough to wear it. Note: no one is that cool
- Over-buff late thirties guy: Don’t try to impress your date by contradicting me. You’re going to fail. Yeah, try me
- Don’t lick your glass… pig
- Don’t talk about your sulfite allergy. There is a good chance you have no idea what you’re talking about
- Don’t dump into the water pitcher. And always look before you drink out of it
- Practice spitting at home; it will come in handy
- Don’t talk about the legs after you swirl the glass. Here’s a tip: the legs don’t matter.
- Don’t take your heels off and puke in the lobby
- Don’t ask what the most expensive wine on the table is
- Keep the rim of your glass food free
- If you proclaim that you don’t like white or rose, we will make fun of you when you walk away
- NO Perfume! And go light on the lipstick, honey

Bridal Party

Tent

Festival Goer

Annefield Vineyards’ 2013 Event Schedule.

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Giovanni Bellini & Titian, The Feast of the Gods (1514/1529), in the collection of the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC

Giovanni Bellini & Titian, The Feast of the Gods (1514/1529), in the collection of the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC

What is a “festival,” anyway?  The Oxford English Dictionary is rather precise, limiting it to two uses: (1)  day or period of celebration, typically for religious reasons, or (2) an organized series of concerts, plays, or films, typically one held annually in the same place, and providing this etymological source: “ Middle English (as an adjective): via Old French from medieval Latin festivalis, from Latin festivus, from festum, (plural) festa ’feast’.”  Bottom line: it’s a feast, a drunken revel, a celebration.

An entry in Wikipedia brings in historic context, A festival is an event, usually and ordinarily staged by a local community, which centers on and celebrates some unique aspect of that community and the Festival.  The traditional European wine festival would take place as a celebration following harvest in September or October, but here in the United States the wine festival often bears no nexus to wine regions, winegrowing or the seasons, with festivals taking place throughout the year.

Nevertheless, these celebrations of the vine provide numerous opportunities to sample the bounty of Virginia’s wineries.  Here is a list of the festivals we will be participating in this year.  There may be more – the Southern Virginia Wine Trail may have one in October, but as of this writing it has not been confirmed.  Also included below is a wine shop appearance scheduled in October.

Think about volunteering  - volunteers receive free admission to our Fall Harvest Party!  This year’s party is on October 5, 2013.

April 13, 2013 – Clarksville Lake Country Wine Festival, Clarksville

This is the 7th annual Clarksville Lake Country Wine Festival, featuring 15 wineries and all the usual trimmings — arts and crafts, fine foods, live music.  Its an interesting event with a resort-like feel, and a great way to open the season.

April 26/27, 2013 – Shenandoah Apple Blossom Festival, Winchester

The 86th Shenandoah Apple Blossom Festival presents a series of more than thirty events, including band competitions, dances, parades, a carnival, a circus, dinners, luncheons, a 10K Race, the Coronation of Queen Shenandoah, Firefighters’ events, celebrities, and of course the wine festival.  Last year’s Grand Marshall was Mario Lopez.  This is a big one, comparable to the Virginia Beach Neptune Festival — attendance is usually in the range of 250,000 people.

May 11, 2013 – Central Virginia Wine Festival, Glen Allen

This fundraiser is organized by the Richmond Chapter of the Virginia Tech Alumni Association, and features 16 wineries, food and entertainment.    It’s a great cause, raising money for financial need-based, academic scholarships awarded to Richmond area Virginia Tech students.  Additionally, proceeds from this event help support other student and alumni programs throughout Richmond.

May 25, 2013 – Inaugural Wine Club Dinner at Annefield

While not a festival, this will definitely be a feast.  This is a private wine pairing dinner exclusively for Jameson and Read wine club members and special guests.  We plan to hold it in the candle-lit dining room at Annefield, so seating is extremely limited.  We could spill over into the parlor, if necessary.  Invitations are forthcoming.  For information on our wine clubs, see this link.

June 15, 2013 – Richmond.com Uncorked, Richmond

Now this is a fun one — the finest Virginia food and wine outdoors on the grounds of the Virginia Historical Society in the Museum District.  All the trimmings — live music, local artists, glorious food.  This event benefits the YMCA of Richmond.

June 22, 2013 – Clifton Wine Festival, Clifton

This wine festival takes place in the historic Town of Clifton among the shade or sprawling oak trees.  This event brings together wineries, local restaurants, arts, crafts and music.  The 2012 festival featured 16 wineries from all over the Commonwealth.

September 7/8, 2013 – 18th Annual Neptune’s Fall Wine Festival, Virginia Beach

The Virginia Beach Neptune Festival is more than a wine festival.  There are over 35 events, ranging from sporting activities such as golf, volleyball, tennis, Sandman Triathlon, 8K run and surfing competition to the art and craft show, which attracts almost 300 exhibitors. The Boardwalk Weekend also includes the North American Sand Sculpting Championships, the Grand Parade, Youth Day and three stages of entertainment.

Pre-Festival events includes the Wine Festival, Senior Citizens activities, the Endless Summer Beach Bash, and many others.  According to the organizers, it has evolved into one of the Country’s top 100 festivals and is ranked as one of the top 10 on the East Coast.  It is a major visitor draw, bringing thousands of local visitors to the Virginia Beach Boardwalk. It is one of the largest such events in Virginia.

September 28, 2013 – South Hill Wine Festival, South Hill

This one is in an intimate setting in the Centennial Park in South Hill.  Last year’s festival drew 10 wineries from all over the Commonwealth , and featured live music, interesting vendors, and great food.  The proceeds benefit the South Hill Rotary and the South Hill Chamber of Commerce.

October 5, 2013 – Annefield Vineyards Harvest Party, Saxe

Like last year, our volunteers who helped during the year receive free admission to our end of the season blowout.  Fabulous food, great music, a relaxed atmosphere on the lawn at Annefield.

October 19, 2013 – Guest Appearance at Olde Virginia Gourmet, Stafford

Not a festival but a solo appearance at one of our favorite merchants with a devoted clientele.  We usually go home with a case or two of wine ourselves, so you all should do the same.  See this link for an account of last year’s visit.

October 26, 2013 – SoVA Wine Fest on the Lawn at Berry Hill, South Boston

This is the second annual wine fest at Berry Hill, on the lawn below the magnificent Greek Revival mansion now converted into a luxury hotel.  This event features all of the wineries on the Southern Virginia Wine Trail.  It’s the time of year when the air is just turning brisk in that invigorating way that makes you look forward to the warmth and comforts of autumn.

We Need a Little Black Magic.

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Tablescape at Rappahannock Restaurant.

Potions, roots, twigs and herbs for mixing drinks at Rappahannock Restaurant, Richmond, Virginia.

In Richmond for the Virginia Wine Expo, we were thrilled to enjoy some of the many restaurants contributing to what we’d call a foodie Renaissance.  Usually we seek out quirky accommodations like B&Bs, but this time we opted for convenience and selected the Hilton Garden Inn, which was practically across the street from the Greater Richmond Convention Center.

To the south was Grace Street, where we gravitated for dinner on Friday night.  We made our way first to Pasture and sat at the bar, where we enjoyed a couple of appetizers: Pimiento Cheese with Ritz Crackers, Chopped Mushrooms on Toast, and Fried Okra accompanied by a lovely Argentinian Torrontes.  Next we made our way further up the block to the newly opened Rappahannock, serving a variety of oysters.  The presentation was a tour of the Chesapeake Bay, with oysters originating from the Rappahannock River, York River, Virginia Beach and Chincoteague — with lovely poetic names like Witch Duck Oysters from the Lynnhaven River near Virginia Beach and Olde Salts from Chincoteaque on the Eastern Shore; from sweet to extremely salty.  Wonderful.  From there, a remarkable dinner at Chez Foushee futher down Grace Street.

Witch Duck — the name is derived from the legendary trial for witchcraft of Grace Sherwood in 1706.  Accused of witchcraft for the crime of not being popular (reportedly she wore her clothes too tight and possessed an attractive figure), she was ordered “ducked” — her thumbs tied to big toes (left thumb tied to the right toe, and vice versa), then tossed into the Lynnhaven River.  The theory being that water was the purest element, if she were a witch the water would reject her, but if she were not a witch but a good woman she would have drowned.  She survived and swam to shore, and was imprisoned for nearly eight years.  The charges were dropped and she returned to her farm and lived to be about 80 years old, dying in 1740.  She supposedly haunts the place of the ducking, and lights are seen dancing on the water of the Lynnhaven River each July around the anniversary of her trial.

Conjuring and witches were a leitmotif throughout the weekend, starting with the a frazzled morning driving from Northern Virginia to Annefield, loading up wine and festival gear, then making our way to Richmond to set up.  Somehow we forgot to pack our signage, but a phone call found a sign shop a block from the convention center that was able to create a banner for us in just two hours — thankfully our logo files are easily accessible on our website Trade & Media page.  They delivered the finished banner to our hotel.  Magic!  If you ever find yourself in a similar jam, call Fast Signs.

Saturday was off to a great start, with breakfast at Perly’s Restaurant on Grace Street.  Classic, quirky  diner presentation:  eggs over easy, pancakes, bacon, coffee.  Just what we needed, given what was to come: a long day of little rest.  Saturday proved challenging, but manageable, with the press of crowds three and four deep at time to sample.  There were few familiar faces, and most visitors were unfamiliar with us.  At least those who stopped to sample with us.  Is it that those who visited us in prior years chose to visit other wineries they were not familiar with?  Several people did say that was their strategy — visit only those they did not know.  Noticeably absent were wine shop and restaurant owners we’ve seen in prior years (one did make an appearance, from Olde Virginia Gourmet in Stafford), and our friends the wine bloggers.  This is pure speculation, but we wonder if the bloggers are suffering from “festival fatigue.”  We’re fairly certain that they prefer more intimate occasions to sample and enjoy wine.   But we heard from several last year that they were not extended the same courtesy as members of the mainstream media, which they took as an insult.

As the day wore on, every few minutes one heard a breaking wine glass, followed by an approving roar from the crowd.  The closing hours on Saturday proved troublesome, with the lines for people waiting to claim their checked wine stretching across the entire conventional hall floor.  Surely a hex had been cast over the wine check line.  Dinner was at a smoky and delightful (and delicious) Cuban restaurant, Havana 59 in Shockoe Bottom.  Really smokey — they were hosting a bourbon and cigar event.

Sunday was, as expected, not as intense.  At the close of the show as we were packing up, we were approached by a worker from one of the other wineries who explained that the wine check people had lost their purchase and wanted us to replace it.  Inexplicably she wanted us to give her replacement wine, then when we refused, holding to the position that since the convention center lost it, they should take responsibility and pay for it.  She stormed off yelling, as if possessed, “You’ve lost yourself a customer!”  This was someone who fails to grasp the notion of accountability.  We certainly were not at fault, and after tracking down officials with the convention center, they accepted responsibility and paid for the wine.  We blame the convention center for failing to come to us first to solve this buyer’s problem, and had they done that, surely this unpleasantness could have been avoided.  They certainly could have done it early in the day when everyone wasn’t pressed for time trying to pack up and get out.  But then, perhaps this buyer didn’t try to claim their parcel until the event was over.  In any event, we were on our broomstick and out of there in short order.

There were many, many other food and wine events that took place that week — special wine pairing lunches and dinners, preview parties, presentations and seminars — a week to celebrate Virginia wine.  Wish we could have been in town to attend these other events, which surely will multiply in the years to come.  In the end, we must ask ourselves, “Is it worth it?”  Two days on, then one day to recover is, well, exhausting.  We brought enough wine to cover what was sold and poured last year (over two and a half days), and brought home 14 cases.  Granted, we opted for a 10 x 10 space this year rather than the 10 x 20 we had last year, which means fewer people could sample at any one time, and if memory serves nothing was sold that first half day anyway.  Our goal with these things is to cover our expenses while introducing the Annefield brand to a new cohort of people, and in that sense, “mission accomplished.”    Now if only we could conjure up interest in Virginia wine by more restaurants and wine shops, we’d truly consider the weekend a success.