When I came up with the winery idea, Erich had been visiting, and he talked me out of a very expensive all-inclusive package plan, and broke down for me what I could recreate from that package at about half the cost. I ended up doing almost everything we discussed to a “T.” I couldn’t be happier with ohow things turned out, and I offer some pointers in case you may be considering doing this on your own. (Which you should!)

• DEFINITELY pack your own picnic. Every winery had a picnicking area. It was about half the cost, and we had enough to feed us all through the next day. And wineries a varied as far as food options are concerned.

• If you plan to stay overnight, make sure your hotel has a fridge in its amenities to save your food or new wines. We stayed at the English Inn. I loved this place! The breakfast alone was the best perk. We did UVA college town at night.

• The picnic: I put together a cooler and a basket. Bottled water was the savior, especially since we were driving through the wineries. Other things to consider: Cheese, crackers, wet naps, grapes and fruits, cookies or brownies (i.e. easy to eat dessert). The other thing I did which I thought worked well, was buy a nice chunky bread that would go well on its own, with wine, with cheese and as a sandwich bread for an egg salad (or, if desired, lunch meats, chicken salad, etc. etc.) I packed when we were ready for a heartier lunch.

• Research the hours beforehand of any wineries you really want to try. Most places only do tours on the weekend, but we got the impression that weekends were a madhouse. So we missed out on getting to see the actual process. Also, some places do not welcome large groups, so consider that if you are coming with a lot of people.

• One of the wine maps I got was totally inaccurate. Make sure you cross check the locations with google or something. It took us about 45 minutes to get from the first place to the second place, which turned out to be close. Not 10 minutes, like the VA wine map led your to believe.

Things I learned and my reviews:

Most VA wineries offered a Viognier (vee-yon-nay), which we learned is a grape that grows particularly well in VA. We did the central VA tour.

Barboursville: elegant, beautiful, friendly, yummy wines. Our man really took us through everything really well. He told us a food pairing for every single wine we tasted. There’s a B and B to stay at there, elegant Italian restaurant and there are historic ruins to walk around. So more stuff to do than just wine. We bought a really nice Reisling there and a really smooth dessert wine there. The owners are Italian, so all of their wines are intended to compliment meals and were not necessarily great sipping wines alone. There was a very full-bodied red that we tried here that sat like a meal in my stomach. $4 per person to taste which includes a souvenir glass, moderate to high priced wines.

Horton: The winery itself was impressive from the outside. The inside fell short of what we expected out of a winery. The people were very nice. But unless you like sweet and fruity wines, I think it’s skippable. This winery actually adds different fruit concentrates into their process. I bought two bottles here because I actually liked that for dessert cooking, like soaking a pound cake, which they recommended. The viognier here was reallly dry. Free to taste, inexpensive and convenient to get to.

Kings Family: We caught this on JMU hang out day. I loved our cute little gay wine pourer. He made the experience so fun. Some girl heard “Asian oak barrels” when he had explained it was “aged in oak barrels” and that became a launch pad for all sorts of inappropriate jokes. Really great wines, I liked them all, and beautiful landscape. Elegant, but definitely more relaxed feel compared to Barboursville or Veritas. Offers food for purchase and wines by the glass to enjoy on premises. Free to taste, moderate to high priced wines.

Veritas: This may have been my favorite. This was a really elegant place. Their viognier was the only viognier that we really, really enjoyed. The chardonnay and the savignon blanc were the only two wines on a list of 10-15 or so that I didn’t like. I wanted to buy a bottle of every wine. Plus, since it was a little off the beaten path, it seemed quieter and the landscape was gorgeous. We bought the viognier here, because we swore at this point we weren’t leaving VA without one. There was a merlot that we tried here that would have sucker punched me if it could. JLo’s impression “HELLO. I AM A MERLOT.” impression of a merlot went through my head. Free to taste main wine list, $5 to taste all wines off the reserve list. High priced wines.