First Day in Monticello

First off, my wife is a good sport. She is on the risk-adverse side, so the fact that she willingly accompanied a couple of friends and me to Skydive Orange to watch us willingly jump out of an airplane at 13,500 feet needs to be commended.

After that feat, we celebrated by visiting some of the Charlottesville area's most well-known wineries. This is my first trip down to the wineries of the area and they have, for the most part, lived up to the rave reviews I have been hearing since I started this blog a couple of years ago.

We started at Barboursville because, given its size, reputation and Most-Favored Winery status in the Governor's Mansion, it was the logical place to start. I wasn't a fan of all of their wines - their Pinot Grigio and Sauvignon Blanc for the whites and the Sangiovese and Merlot left much to be desired - the quality of the Reserve lines more than lived up to the winery's reputation. I couldn't help think that Barboursville is as close to the Napa Valley wine amusement parks like Beringer and Robert Mondavi that we will ever have on the East Coast, but it is well worth a trip and became so popular with good reason.