I have been contemplating this for years but never really found a good location to hide one. Recently, I had the idea to start planting them at the various vineyards scattered around the Virginia countryside. Dan and two of our friends were also interested in this plan, and together we decided to start hiding a track of VA Wine Trail geocaches.
The first location to be published was the beautiful Winery at La Grange, a favorite of everyone in the group. The managers of the facility were thrilled to be the first cache. They loved the idea of adding some wine corks for prizes and showed me a few possible hiding places. My dad, his friend, and I even got free wine tastings, which was a wonderful surprise. :) You can see the geocache listing here.
More caches are in the works for Pearmund, Swedenberg, and Hume vineyards, not to mention the vineyards I am planning on visiting this weekend with Dan and his cousins. If you would like to be alerted when these caches go live, you can follow me on Twitter at @AtTheLampost.
For those who have never been to Winery at La Grange, it is located on Antioch Road, near the intersection of 66 and 15. La Grange is an ideal vineyard for a day with your friends. The winery sells over ten different wines, which makes it easy for everyone to find at least one that they like. It is also a good spot for history buffs, because the tastings are done in a historic 1790s brick manor. As you go through the tasting, the servers always tell fun stories about the house’s history.
La Grange has some indoor seating and lots of outdoor seating. The grounds are open and spacious, making them very welcoming to people with children or dogs. (Dogs are allowed on the grounds, but not in the tasting room.) One of my favorite things about this vineyard is the scenery. Their views of Virginia’s rolling hills, grape vines, and a distant white mansion are both spectacular and relaxing.
On this last visit, I enjoyed a glass of their fantastic sangria (which is only available at the winery) and decided to take home a bottle of Cuvee Blanc (a yummy white wine for hot days) and a bottle of Reserve Cabernet Franc (a fantastic new red they recently started selling. It’s seriously delicious!).
Have fun treasure hunting and wine tasting!
(If you do not know what Geocaching is, check out my earlier explanation here.)
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