On Saturday, after taking a drive down skyline drive, we finally went to visit the vineyard.

The Winery is located in this fascinating ”Stonecastle” building:

Gorgeous Huge Grape Vines!

The inside of the “Stonecastle”:

This is a Horton Vineyard Wine label collage:

Ryan and I had a great time visiting the Vineyard!

We tasted most of the Semi-Sweet, Sweet, Fruit and Desert Wines.

We liked them all!

We had previously only tasted 3 of the fruit wine flavors from Horton, and were pleased to find that the rest of the fruit flavors and all of the wines we tried were wonderful!

So we got one of each! And a couple of others that we really liked

Aren’t they beautiful?

Chateau Le Cabin Blackberry, Blueberry and Raspberry Wine

Chateau Le Cabin Cranberry, Strawberry and Plum Wine

Chateau Le Cabin Cherry, Pear and Peach Wine

Sweet Concord, Stonecastle Blush, and Eclipse Wine

When got home we opened finished a bottle of Cranberry:

We can’t wait to go back!

After visiting Monticello last month, I have developed an interest in Monticello and Thomas Jefferson, and found this book to be a gorgeous photographic depiction of Thomas Jefferson’s home at Monticello.

Review

“A rare coffee-table book, not only handsome but full of worthwhile text and insights into the life . . . of Jefferson.” — Los Angeles Times”This book takes us on a photographic and textual adventure into the spirit of Monticello.” — Southern Living

Review
Monticello, Thomas Jefferson’s magnificent mountaintop home in Charlottesville, Virginia, has attracted public attention ever since Jefferson’s day, when sightseers regularly visited the grounds in hopes of catching (more…)

It was Horton Vineyards Cheateau Le Cabin Blackberry Wine.  It tastes just like blackerries!

We have since tried several of the other flavors. They are all delicious!

In fact, it was the blueberry wine that we were drinking while Ryan was fishing at the Boar’s Head Inn, we bought it earlier that day at the Michie’s Tavern General Store.

We went into the general store for a wine tasting, and tasted some terrible wine. . .  I take that back, it was terrible to us, but wine connoisseurs would probably feel the same way about the sweet fruit wine we enjoy.  We tasted some extremely dry red and an extremely dry white, and decided to see if we could find anything better.  This is what we found. . .

Sweet Blueberry Goodness!

Perhaps one day we will “acquire” the taste for something other than sweet fruit wines and Rosé.

Mallard Couple:

Pekin Couple:

Mallard Stag Party:

Then all of the sudden the ducks and geese gathered together in a group.

In the middle of the group was a lady, feeding them. She was British and has lived in the Charlottesville area for about 10 years.  She comes several times a week with a bag of cracked corn to feed the birds at the Boar’s Head Inn.

It was amazing!

But what I found most amazing was. . .

that her dog waited patiently and will she fed them!

However,  Ryan couldn’t wait to see what was in the stocked fishing pond.  So he grabbed his fishing gear, and I grabbed my wine and to the pond we went.

First Fish of the Day!

Here’s Another:

Awe! A little family of Canadian Geese.

A little tiny fish.

Snack?

Another little fish. . .

Not too bad!

At this point Ryan had walked around the entire pond, it was almost dark, and we were out of wine; so he had to stop fishing

We took that time to admire the Vegetable Gardens.

Wildflowers bordering the garden.

Beautiful Expanse of Gardens

Orchard

Gorgeous rock wall separating the garden plateau from the orchard.

And this is our garden:

Not quite as beautiful, but much more entertaining!

Here is Old Man Roy plowing our garden

with a plow that’s even older than he is.

He insisted on doing the plowing, because only he is capable of making sure the rows are straight.

Our Garden Now:

The garden is fully planted with Potatoes (Red, White and Baking), Radishes, Cucumbers, Squash, Zucchini, Onions (Red, White and Yellow), Garlic, Corn, Green Beans, Peas, Tomatoes, Asparagus, Broccoli, Cauliflower, Peppers, Watermelon, Cantaloupe, Kale, Beets, and Sweet potatoes!

We are looking forward to not buying any groceries for a couple of months!

Everything is coming up beautifully!

The first of our crops! Radishes.

Anyway, we decided to take a quick trip to visit some of the historic sites in the Charlottesville area.  We live less than an hour from Charlottesville, Va, making it a wonderful place to escape to on a whim.  Here is an overview of our trip I will go into greater detail in later posts.

Our 1st stop-

Monticello- The home of Thomas Jefferson

What a beautiful place!

Our 2nd Stop- Michie’s Tavern

Where we had a delicious lunch at The Ordinary!

Our 3rd Stop- The Carter Mountain Orchard

One of the best views I have ever seen!

Our 4th Stop: Ash Lawn-Highland- The home of James Monroe

Final Stop of the Day- The Boar’s Head Inn

After all of that we still had time to enjoy some fishing and dinner at the Boar’s Head Inn before calling it a night.