Knitting 40 shades of green

Run for Virginia Wine

Last weekend I ran a half-marathon, this weekend I have done very little other than sleep...well I did have a 6 hour meeting with 4 hours of driving yesterday for the union but overall it has been a "take it easy" weekend. I guess my body is letting me know what it needs.  I am now among the ranks of the half marathon finishers.  My time was not as fast as I might have liked but I finished and now I have conquered the hardest part -- the mental struggle of whether or not I can do it.  And I have already set a goal for my next one...with just 13 weeks it might be a little lofty but look I was even smiling during my last race...
I credit that to Jeff Galloway.  The race organizers had a wine reception on Thursday night before the race and as soon as I walked in and mentioned to the woman checking me in that I was going to run walk the race, she dragged me over to Mr. Galloway and left us to chat about race tactics.  He asked a few questions about my training and then proposed a plan that was radically different than what I had planned on doing.  I was sceptical but who am I to argue with a former Olympian?  So, I took his advice and while I was pretty tired on Saturday night and just wanted to stay off my feet, by Monday when I met with my trainer I felt pretty much recovered and didn't feel at all affected by Tuesday.

Now I just need to figure out how to run it a whole lot faster, the first 5 minutes can be made up but not stopping for the bathroom (something I did for my friend P. who was wonderful about running with me despite her ability to keep a much faster pace), the other minute and 13 seconds that I would like to take off my pace time will be all training.  With 13 weeks until Labor Day, it started this morning.  Will I continue with the Galloway run/walk method?  That remains to be seen, I started his book during my lunch break today.

Half Baked Half Marathon

If you have talked to me in the past couple of months, I have mentioned that I will be running a half marathon but when I went to sign up for my first choice (because anyone who knows me knows I won't run for just anything, it is all about the party), it had sold out.  I entered the second chance drawing but unfortunately didn't make that one either.  So I adopted a plan B which included traveling to Oregon.  Same party, different venue but that race was ages off.  Not until Labor Day.  That is at least 9 months away, and then it was seven and six and now 4 and while I monitored the site to make sure it wasn't selling out, I also didn't sign up for it.  Without this race a reality on the horizon, I let my training slack off, in a good week I might get out once or twice for a jog but most weeks if it wasn't for paying trainers twice a week, I might have nothing to show for the week.  Then 8 weeks before the race I had been rejected from sends an email that with purchase of the dinner the night before and a contribution to Special Olympics, I could have one of 100 spots saved for charity.  Well, I jumped on it.  And then realized, this was a half marathon, and it was happening in 8 weeks.  Had I run in the past month? 

I have always said that if I am going to race, I am going to run even if I could walk faster...but then I had 13.1 miles staring me in the face with only 56 days to train -- oh wait, can't train on race day so 55...I searched around on line and looked for a run walk training program.  SInce Jeff Galloway is the featured speaker at the dinner maybe it is only appropriate. Well, when you are a beginner they definitely think you should take more than 8 weeks to train.  So I chose a 14 week plan and started on week 7.  I have been plugging along and getting in two short runs and an endurance run most every week (easier on vacation than once work started back) and today I ran my longest run before the race which will happen in 3 weeks.  10.62 miles just about killed me but I could have used a little more water and maybe figure out fueling for long runs.  I am trying to stay positive about adding another 3 miles on race day -- the next two and a half weeks will be spent adding one more minute to the run intervals for a goal of running 5/walking 1 intervals for race day.  For me, the mental race is always the hardest but this one may have a physical challenge as well.  I will finish...and then on to running the half in Oregon.

Wine Blogging Wednesday #74: Value Sparkling Wine

I read a few wine blogs irregularly and one of them mentioned this monthly event, Wine Blogging Wednesday.  I thought I would check it out and as I headed over to the site, I found an aggregator for monthly posts on wine centered around a theme.  With the theme for this month very near and dear to my heart "Value Sparkling Wine", how could I not jump in?  For goodness sake, everyone knows of my bubbly love.  To paraphrase Napoleon, ... you deserve it in victory and you need it in defeat. 

 

Due to my own inclination to support local producers, I thought I would review a Virginian sparkling wine. My first inclination was to review one of my local favorites Horton Sparkling Viognier but a glance in the closet showed that I was all out.  A trip to safeway showed they carried quite a few Horton wines but not the sparkling, the wine shop and liquor store didn't help either and with the price point right at $25 maybe I should try something else.  The liquor store turned up a bottle of Barboursville Brut for $16.90.  Their website describes it as

A classic sparkling wine of distinct Northern Italian influence, the non-vintage Barboursville Brut is estate grown Chardonnay (80%) which has avoided malolactic fermentation and any exposure to oak, and Pinot Noir (20%) from some of our oldest vines. The most honored sparkling wine in the region, a staple on leading wine lists, this is the wine which greets not only every visitor to Palladio Restaurant, but also all guests of The Inn at Little Washington. The growing season does not yield a Chardonnay for the extended winery aging or shelf life of a wine in the Champagne style, but lends itself beautifully to the cultivation of young-harvested sparkling wine grapes destined for vinification in the Prosecco style, of primary and secondary fermentation in stainless steel tank, with generous lees-aging for a brilliant, luscious, and flagrantly romantic palate.

The bubbles are fine and cascade through the middle of the glass not the standard lines of bubbles you get in champagne.  The color is light and the nose is appealing.  The wine has an initial tart nice with a nice acidity, the finish brings on fruit (I always feel like I am guessing on this but I think hints of apple and pear).  It leaves me wanting more.

Read more of my adventures in Virginia Wine Country can be accessed through the links on the Virginia Wineries Page

Virginia Wine

On Tuesday I listed as one of my goals for the year to

Continue my tour of Virginia Wineries: My partner in wine is out of the country for a couple of years and unable to get to many of the Virginia wineries and so I hope to continue our quest solo and hopefully document it here.

In order to help keep track of this goal, I thought I would add a winery page to the blog and link in the side bar where all of these trips and notes could be posted. I will list the wineries there (wineries I have been to are marked with an *) and link to them as I write reviews.  So if you are interested in Virgina Wineries, go check it out. 

I'd complain but no one would listen

So instead I will whine wine.

Last year, early in a relationship, I picked up a 2010 Virginia Winery Guide on a winery excursion and the idea of visiting the almost 160 wineries listed there in came to the light of day.  I am nothing, if not motivated by clearly set goals.  When the 2011 guide arrived with it's close to 190 wineries I decided to stick with the 2010 version. 

Father's Day was on Sunday and since I was without my father, who I am sure would have loved the excursion and was watching from whichever version of the afterlife provides for the most fun, and the co-conspirator  of that goal was without his children who would be arriving from overseas for the summer in a few short days, we decided to knock out a few wineries. 

Our first stop was Three Fox Vinyards in Delaplane, VA.  We tasted 8 wines that are made at the winery and 2 guest wines from other wineries in VA (Barboursville Leggero Chardonnay and Thibaut-Janisson Sparkling Chardonnay) .  The whites were unoaked and strong on citrus flavors and quickly moved toward the off dry category.  The reds were in the Italian style and while drinkable were a bit lighter than what I choose to drink on a regular basis. 

The real gem of this winery is the setting.  If you are looking for a romantic place to take a date on a picnic, this is your place.  They have tables with umbrellas set on a patio, a porch and out in the yard.  If none of those spots suite your picnic needs, they have set up tables between the rows of baby grapes, and even have hammocks and picnic tables over along the tree line for the after lunch sipping and napping.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our second stop was Delaplane Cellars, which was having a bit of a celebration for Father's day.  The lovely stark and modern tasting room had a stage with a guitar player and singer for our listening pleasure and had brought in wood fired oven pizza to fill the father's bellies. 

We tasted 6 wines and I much preferred the reds in this line up.  I felt the Springlot, grown on two acre vineyard just 3 miles west of the winery, had a nice rounded flavor.  It is a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Merlot, and Petit Verdot which are aged separately and then blended before bottling.  I also enjoyed the Cinq which included the above grapes plus the addition of Tannant.  It was a bit spicier and tasted as if it would grow better with age.  The pizza smelled delicious and so we ordered a couple of glasses and enjoyed a personal size pizza despite having had sandwiches earlier and a wine bag full of snacks. 

We made a brief stop to experience the last of the spring harvest at Hollin Farms.  We picked some lettuce and some beets but with the heat we have been experiencing we were really in between the spring and summer crops. 

 Our final stop of the day was Naked Mountain Winery which is on a beautiful slope of the blueridge.  The winery has changed hands in the past year and the new owners and their staff were wonderful hosts.  We tasted 9 wines at this stop and found quite a few of them to be pleasing.  The barrel fermented Chardonnays were oaky and the reds were quite drinkable.  We enjoyed these wines enough to leave with three bottles one of which we started with some snacks before leaving the vineyard.  Don't worry we corked it and brought the remainder of the bottle home. 

All in all it was an enjoyable wine outing which allowed us to cross another three vineyards off of the map for a total of 40 vineyards visited together from the 2010 map.  (We may have visited one or two new ones from the 2011 by mistake.)