Looking to celebrate St. Patrick's Day at your favorite winery this weekend? You are in luck. Veramar is celebrating St. Patrick's Day with live entertainment and Irish Faire. On Sunday, you can go to Bluemont Vineyard has their Celtic Celbration on Sunday (and they should be releasing some new wines this weekend).

Whichever way you go, enjoy!

On Saturday Veramar had a library tasting. We got to compare different years of their Chardonnay, Cabernet Franc and Norton as well as highlights of some of their other wines.

Justin Bogaty, the winemaker, and Jim Boagarty, the owner, led the tasting and gave the attendees insight not only into the wine but also into their style of winemaking and how it has changed over time. They were great about answering questions and it make for a very intimate experience. It really helped that they limited attendance to 20 or so people.

They did spend a lot of time trying to convince me that Norton can make a good wine, and Jim even suggested a recipe that I should try with the '06 Norton. So, I am going to give it a try and see if I can be converted.

I know a lot of people plan on being at the Virginia Wine Showcase this weekend, but don't forget Valentine's Day is next week, which means chocolate and wine tastings at several local wineries:

• Swedenburg Winery is doing it right with a chocolate fountain and plenty of fun things to dip in it.


• Veramar is also having a chocolate fountain, plus a chance to win a diamond ring (a plus for many, but it makes those of us who are engagement-adverse a little nervous ;)).


• Of course, I wll be at Breaux with the wine club. Truffles and their excellent Cabernet Sauvignon are perfect pre-Valentine combination.

If you have an extra $3,000 (plus airfare) and really love wine you can go to a weekend wine camp in Sonoma. The camp is sponsored by the Sonoma County Winegrape Commission and looks like fun.

if you don't have $3,000, you can do a wine camp at Veramar for about $375 per couple.

The wine club went to Veramar on Sunday. I was bummed that they were completely out of their Cabernet Franc, but i did enjoy their Pink Chicken -- a light rose perfect for sipping out on their patio.

Their D'Ora was also an excellent dessert wine, a late harvest Viongier; very sweet with hints of pineapple and citrus flavors.

Their Red Chicken was a good Bordeaux-style wine, comprised of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Cabernet Franc grapes. It was a medium body blend with a taste of brown sugar and a smoot finish.

The Great Grapes festival was a lot of fun. There were a number of nice wineries represented as well as the booths that usually follow the wineries. The festival was well-laid out and the lines were very short for the tastings.




Some highlights:

Lake Anna had an excellent 2004 Cabernet Franc. Very peppery with solid Earth tones, it was a great example of Virginia Cabernet Francs.

Peaks of Otter had two very unique wines. The first, called Chili Dawg is 97% Apple wine blended with 3% Chili Pepper wine. They serve it with a touch of Cheese Whiz and it really does taste like a Chili Dog. The second wine is not really a drinking wine, except on a dare. "Kiss the Devil" is made from 30 different Chili Peppers and it is H-O-T. This is really a spicy wine :). They have you follow it up with a shot of Apple wine just to cleanse your palette.

Veramar did not have their Cabernet Franc out, but they did have their Rooster Red, which is a light, well-balanced wine. Very enjoyable. They were also offering their famous mulled-wine, which was perfect for a drizzly afternoon.