In 1996, John Kiers bought an abandoned 100-acre farm near Staunton. He planted 20 acres of it with grape vines in 1999.

 It’s hard not to giggle when someone pours you a glass of wine from a bottle four times its regular size. It’s like the person should be wearing clown shoes and an oversized bow tie. But when Geoff Macilwaine, manager of Wine Warehouse, hosted a party to honor an aisle-bound employee last weekend, he expertly […]

Mead, the honey wine drunk by famous olde tymers like King Midas, Chaucer and the Vikings, hasn’t had a big following since, well, King Midas, Chaucer and the Vikings. Mostly poured by velvet-clad, corseted “wenches” at renaissance fairs, mead’s been trapped in the Middle Ages. But with a current estimate of 60 dedicated meaderies nationwide […]

When we made our reservation at Peter Chang’s China Grill, manager Gen Lee asked us to bring wine because he doesn’t love their list. The request came as no surprise. Wine certainly isn’t the first pairing that comes to mind when you think of fiery hot and intensely spiced Sichuan cuisine. Beer, yes, or maybe even small sips of water between tears.

Charlottesville cried into its hot and sour soup when legendary Sichuan chef Peter Chang skipped town, but then we counted our fortune cookies when he reappeared to open Peter Chang’s China Grill this spring. There, chefs trained in his techniques and fiery recipes give us a place to swoon and sweat seven days a week […]

Ironic that the cradle of all things civilized, including wine, should only now be experiencing a renaissance in winemaking. But since its B.C. days of fueling bacchanalias and famous philosophers, Greek wine became something of a tragedy.    Winespeak 101 Amphorae (n.): A vase-shaped ceramic container with two handles and a narrow neck used to transport and […]

If you think my job as a wine writer is cushy and glamorous, you’re right. On winery visits, I get to frolic through the greening vines, sample new wines in the cellar and then taste the finished products in comfy tasting rooms, eating all the oyster crackers I want.

As pleasant as the sleepy and sparsely populated summers are here, the start of school injects energy back into this brainy little town. If you’re anything like me, you get student envy: wistfully thinking back to brand new Trapper Keepers and 5-Subject notebooks. The good news is that with your compulsory education complete, you can use your free time to learn while you drink.

The melody of an ice cream truck can whisk you down memory lane as fast as a lick of a Bomb Pop, but this vestige of nostalgia seems to have gone the way of the paperboy and the milkman. Thankfully, there’s still one truck jingling its way around town.

James Bond had his shaken-not-stirred martinis; The Dude had his White Russians and Carrie Bradshaw had her Cosmopolitans. In this day when our Facebook profiles precede us, it’s nice to have a signature that captures our three-dimensional selves. Hairstyles, clothes and scents help to define our styles, but I say drink orders are the window […]