Wine Women of West Virginia

 

Recently I started reading the Washington Post again.  Let me clarify, I started reading the daily edition since I have always read the Sunday Paper.  In fact, reading a Sunday paper with a cup of coffee on Sunday morning has been a tradition since I was in High School.  The actual paper changed depending on which city I was in but reading the Sunday paper has been a constant. Any way certain sections of the paper have become my favorites.  I have blogged about articles that I have read in Living Local so if you missed those go back and take a look.

This past Wednesday I was reading the Food section, always one of my favorites.  Many of my friends are “foodies” and in order to even try to be five steps behind them, I like to read this section.  There is a wine column that I like.  This week as usual they made some recommendations which I am sure are excellent however I just can’t see myself spending $39 a bottle.  Please don’t get me wrong if that is something you choose to do by all means do so in fact check out the wine recommended in the Post.  I have included the link below for those of you who do not get the Post. If you are familiar with these wines, I would love to know what you think about them.

Lucky for me I am part of a wine club, but not any wine club.  We are the Wine Women of West Virginia.  I will get back to the name in a minute.  The wine club formed in a most unusual way.  A few years back a then colleague was having some surgery.  I called to ask if there was anything she needed and she said having company once she felt up to it would be great.  So a few of us from work, wine in hand, went to visit her.  We actually made it a wine tasting, setting up shot glasses to taste all the wines everyone brought. We ended up having a blast and decided to meet on a regular basis.  We now have ten members and all are amazing women and great friends.

The name came much later.  One of the members has the most wonderful cabin in West Virginia.  She invited us to the cabin for a weekend and the official club was born.  John Denver’s song Almost Heaven West Virginia does not adequately describe how great it is there. I can shed the stress of my life even if it is for a short period of time and refuel.  Being in the mountains is amazing. 

Picking wine for any of these gatherings is always fun.  I try to research each wine the way I would choose a book that I blog about.  There is a wonderful wine store in Laurel, MD on RT 198.  They just changed the name.  It was Corridor Wine and Spirits but now it is Total Wine.  I have included the link for it if you feel like checking it out.  I usually spend several hours there.  They have a wonderful staff that is incredibly helpful.  The other thing that is nice is that they often have cards that describe the ingredients in the wine so that if you are looking for a white wine that has vanilla, pears and butterscotch you can look on these cards. They have wine tastings on the weekend and I have discovered a few very good wines from the tastings. The link http://www.totalwine.com/

So pick up a good bottle of wine, gather some friends and Enjoy!

Here is the link to the Washington Post's Wednesday wine article

http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/food/5-blaufrankisch-wines-to-try/2013/04/15/29a7f626-a263-11e2-82bc-511538ae90a4_story.html

And if you are a beer lover, this article is for you

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/going-out-guide/wp/2013/04/17/beer-madness-who-will-emerge-victorious-in-the-battle-of-crisp-vs-hops/?tid=gog_ent_article_grid