Wine & Cheese (fries)

How is it already 8 days into October?? Time is flyin' by - maybe because of all the fun we're having. (Minus my driver's license going MIA, but thanks to St. Anthony - it has been found!)

When I think of "the south" and southern states, I usually think of the states south of Tennessee and the Carolinas. But when it comes to history, during the American Civil War, Maryland was right at the border between the North and South, and was actually a slave state. 

So, should I be surprised that there are plantations in this state? Not one bit, but it is a new experience to visit a plantation. We were lucky to receive some tickets for the Annual Riverside WineFest at the Sotterly Plantation (a National Historic Landmark) and it was pretty cool!

The main house

These were just a few of the buildings on just part of the property that we visited. I couldn't begin to tell you how many buildings there were because it was very spread out!

Spread out down the hill from the plantation's main house were tons of tents with over 20 Maryland wine vendors, crafts, art, food, live music... so much going on!

Looking down on the main event area. Notice the Patuxent River peeking through the trees.

I can't say I'm a huge wine drinker... I've watched the documentary on Netflix about sommeliers, and I'm pretty sure Andrew and I cracked jokes about the bodies, notes, flavors, derivation of ALL drinks we had for the next week (most non-alcoholic).

The good thing is, you don't have to be an expert to sample wine for a whole afternoon. BUT, we did learn a lot, such as, there are certain grapes that are known to be used for wines made in Northern Maryland, and different grapes more commonly used to make wine in the Southern parts of the state. What type of grapes, you ask?? I can't clearly remember, but if you're really interested... click here or here. 

It's easy to say how I judge my wine: I like it, or I don't like it... or a polite "That's interesting." My first mistake of the day was after sampling only four wines, I bought a glass. I advise, and note for future reference to myself and others, do not do this. Because you walk away from one vendor to a next, and want to keep sampling but you can't because you're glass is full! Each vendor varied from having 3 wines to try, up to 8. Some vendors served their wines sectioned by whites & reds, sweets & drys, or let you try them all in an order from white sweet, down to red dry. I learned pretty quickly that I am a fan of dry white wines. Who knew?

I did start a list of some wines that stood out to us, and wineries we'd like to visit. (If anyone wants to come and visit and go to wineries, let me know! ;)) This was one of MY favorites - Slack - which had a delicious sangria, amongst other wines. Andrew's favorite of the day was not your typical wine, it was a meadery - wine made from honey. I can only describe the taste as interesting. There were 4 different meaderies we tried from Orchid Cellar. One even was made with hot chilli peppers which was VERY interesting.  But the most appealing wines that we could both agree on.... we're the ones that tasted like fruit juice - very delicous, adult fruit juice from Far Eastern Shore Winery. My favorite was a Raspberry Dragonfruit Shiraz, and Andrew's favorite was the Cranberry Pinto Gris. Both were SO GOOD. 

Like I said before, there was more going on besides the wine. We had some pulled pork and cheese fries for a late lunch, while we listened to the band playing (music varied... interestingly enough playing some punk rock at times). I even got to meet the Oyster King! He'll be at the Oyster festival coming up in a week in a half in Leonardtown.

All in all it was a good experience! This may be a new tradition for us out here :) As I just mentioned Leonardtown it reminded that The Weather Channel recently started a series called "American Supernatural" and Leonardtown was featured in an episode! You can view a clip here. It's about a haunting in Leonardtown (which I wasn't aware of), and if you catch the whole episode on the actual cable channel - let me know! We don't have cable so I can only view the clip, but one of our friend's was interviewed for the episode. Pretty cool, right??

But I've been getting behind on writing some posts that I've been meaning to get around to, but... most times when I get my laptop out, this happens: 

And it's hard to ignore a cute, furry 12 pound dog in between you and your laptop. So hopefully more posts on a regular basis. I haven't even told everyone about driving in Maryland - because that's a treat. But until then, hope everyone is having a good week! If not... it's almost the weekend! :)