Given the low clouds and rainy/drizzly conditions one might be tempted to despair about the weather for the upcoming weekend, but don’t give up the ship! The annoying high pressure center to our north that has been pumping Atlantic moisture into our a…

Given the low clouds and rainy/drizzly conditions one might be tempted to despair about the weather for the upcoming weekend, but don’t give up the ship! The annoying high pressure center to our north that has been pumping Atlantic moisture into our a…

Whether you’re downtown or in Spotsylvania tomorrow (Friday), we are going to have some cool stuff open to taste. At the Plank Road store (next to Ukrops), we’ll be tasting out a fantastic Malbec from Argentina, the Lonko Single Vineyard from Patagonia. When the Washington Post did a tasting of Argentine Malbecs this one got their #1 rating. We’ll also be tasting a Cabernet Franc that I personally love with my beef stews, a Pinot Grigio that will make you never want to try Santa Margarita again, and a Gruner Veltliner from Austria that is one of the best values in our store.

If you happen to be downtown, we’ll have guest taster Kirk Evans from the Roankoke Valley Wine Company tasting out some of their imports, include two California reds, a dry Riesling from Australia, and a French Viognier that is ridiculously good for being less than $20.

Tastings start at 4pm and end at 8pm. Don’t gamble on what you buy, come try the wines first!

A fortnightly rant, FL-S style (Bulldog Edition), with lots of honey for a sweet new year. And early happy birthday wishes to Del. Albert Pollard.
The Jewish High Holidays – the Days of Awe (or for some of us, Shock & Awe) – begin at sundown, tomorrow.
It all starts with Rosh Hashanah, symbolized by the systematic sounding […]

A week or two ago I was sent up to Colonial Beach, the so-called Playground of the Potomac, to get a picture to illustrate a story about some proposed beach ordinances that on face-value, appeared to eliminate fun and/or shenanigans at the beach. Locals the reporter and I spoke to suggested it was directed specifically […]

*thank god for football
I tend to get down in the wintertime. I guess it is the cold and the gray skies. My wife on the other hand told me she can’t stand the summer, especially August. Come to think of it, I don’t like it either. And not just because I sweat like a pig […]

Note: this post has been sitting in the drafts for a long while – not sure why. -mike
With my wife very close to completing her capstone project for her master’s degree, I thought it would be a good time to get out of town and let her have some peace and quiet to finish up. […]

It seems like every time I get around to updating this thing, I preface it with ’sorry I’ve been away’ or some other excuse for not being a regular blogger. For a while I got hung up on Twitter and Facebook, both of which are simultaneously entertaining and eternally frustrating. I guess it speaks to […]

My first NFL game of the season was a long day. One of the reporters and I left Fred. Vegas at 8:30 am for the 4:15pm game in East Rutherford, anticipating at least some traffic. As it turned out it was a smooth ride all the way to the stadium. This was my first visit to […]

There’s lots of Oktoberfest beers out there right now. With the season nearly upon us, there will be lots of parties and imbibing German lagers. There are some very good ones out there and we try to pick the ones we like the best. As it turns out, many of them are domestically made. One of our favorites is Bell’s Octoberfest, brewed in Michigan.

As a special treat, this year we managed to get (in our opinion) the best German Oktoberfest you’ll be able to find in Virginia, which is the one made by Ayinger in Bavaria. We’ve been selling Ayinger’s hefeweizens and lagers for a while now, and their Oktoberfest is very true to the style. A fairly strong amber lager, it’s somewhat malty and grainy with some hop bitterness and quite aromatic. Forget Beck’s and the other big brands, this is the real deal. Available at both stores and the wine bar (by request).