Event - Blacksburg Fork and Cork

Who's ready for wine tasting? I am! Hello everybody and welcome to Megan and Liam's dank trip to the Blacksburg Fork & Cork. I was lucky enough to be accompanied this gorgeous spring day by my partner in life and crime, Liam, who was generous enough to model most of the pictures I took. 

Over the next week I'll show off 7 wines from the tastings, but for now, a pairing. 

Only the finest for us kids, a bottle of Our Dog Blue from Chateau Morrisette, which is a wine my dryer sensibilities and my sweet-craving boyfriend can both agree to tolerate, and corndogs. 

Surprisingly enough, the sweetness in the wine brought out the sweeter flavors in the corn dog (as long as you didn't put ketchup on it first). It did not, however, pair well with the funnel cake we stole I MEAN BOUGHT along with our lunch, where it didn't balance at all. The overall flavor became overwhelmingly sweet and just destroyed the experience. We ended up saving the rest of the bottle until after the funnel cake for the sake of our tastebuds. 

My personal wine of the day was the Virginia Mountain Vinyard's Cabernet Franc, which I bummed off some like-minded college students in line for a different tasting. The medium body was decidedly delightful against the red fruit flavors of plum and blackberry and a spicy finish of red currents and black pepper. 

And now, excited closeup pictures of dogs: 

 

That, was dogs. Thank you. 

Winery Visit - Chateau Morrisette

Chateau Morrisette 2: Wine Harder

Welcome to the gorgeous Chateau Morrisette in Floyd Virginia... again! This is my second visit but my first opportunity to partake of a full tasting! When I was here a few months ago, the tastings were flat booked but I snagged a spot on this foggy April day. After having a few wines at the restaurant last time I was here, I was very excited to try the full gamete.

The entire winery was stunning, completely blanketed in fog. Although the best views are on a perfectly clear day, the fog descending down the mountain and into the vineyards was gorgeous in and of itself. 

The tasting room was exquisitely quaint, high faulted ceilings and rustic wooden infrastructure. We came during a fantastic weekend: for the 40 Days sale, all wines were 40% off. As huge fans of Chateau Morrisette from the bottles my folks kept at home to the ones I got from the grocery store at the beginning of this class, this was an exceptional time. 

Wines Tasted: 2017 Vin Gris*, 2016 Viognier, 2016 4 White Grapes**, 2014 Cabernet Franc, 2015 Petite Verdot, The Black Dog, Our Dog Blue, Sweet Mountain Laurel, Red Mountain Laurel, Sweet Mountain Apple... and a Cherry and a Merlot

and the Cabernet Sauvignon**, and a few others. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't a tad tipsy at this point. (Stars on my favorites)

[my personal favorite of the tasting]

We ended up trying some couple more than 10 wines, and they were fantastic. My boyfriend is, eh, not a lover of wine as I am, but he found a few sweet, juicy wines that suited his fancy. The Mountain Laurel wines as well as the non-grape wines were fruity and sweet enough for his unresolved palette. Maybe one day I'll get him on the track towards better wines... one day... if only he was still in college so he could take this course. 

Wine Dinner - Chateau Morrisette

Chateau Morrisette Visit: 

Welcome to the beautiful Chateau Morrisette! Nothing says crisp winter/spring months like trekking on over to Floyd with the family for... lunch. I was a little bummed to not be able to see the entirety of the vineyard/process rooms (my grandparents are, unfortunately, not as spry as they used to be), but the opportunity to eat lunch with a pairing sounded amazing to me. 

The restaurant was gorgeously quaint, white walls with rustic vaults. There were these little antler sconces on the walls that added a very Virginia touch to the whole thing. We were seated in the middle dining room next to a toasty fire, fantastic in its own right. 

    

For dinner, I ordered the oriechette: it was my cheat day and I had a mad craving for carbs.  The meal was paired with the Chateau Morrisette Viognier, the personal favorite wine of my mother. The pasta, first off, was exquisite: normally oriechette is served in the classic Italian style with broccoli rabe, but Morrisette's was unique, instead served with candied ginger and caramelized onions. That candied ginger ended up being the star of the show: when contrasted with the softer buttery flavors of the Viognier, the subtleties of the ginger and the intense sweetness and acidity of the flavors underneath really shown.  

The... main course, as it were ended up being roasted Brussel sprouts in a whipped feta cream sauce. We ended up ordering a few plates and they became the star of the dinner. The crisp, dry flavors of strawberry in the Vin Gris punched through the cream sauce, exemplifying the underlying flavors of pepper and lemon, and made the perfect blanket for the caramelized and bitter tastes of the Brussel sprouts. That night for dinner I ended up going home and making the exact sprouts withs sauce and opening up another bottle... it couldn't be helped.

The Vin Gris was exceptionally delightful... I ended up finishing it in the back seat of the car on the way home.  You can find the link to the tasting review previously in my blog.

The last food of the meal we ended up making the last course at home, if it still counts: cherry wine brownies. It was a simple fix that ended up making, simply, the best brownies I've had the chance to eat. It ended up being a simple exchange - switching the water in brownie mix for Chateau Morrisette's Cherry Wine - that created cherry based, fudgy, chewy, unparalleled brownie. Good god damn, if you haven't done this with a wine before you better; it's life-changing.

And there it is, three courses and three wines, each better than the last.