Bookworm At The Winery

Last Saturday was not a good day for me. I was really out of it and could not seem to get anything I wanted done. Rather than try to stick to all my original plans, I decided to go out The Winery at La Grange to re-hide the geocache that I had hidden there.

Before my original cache hiding place was torn down, the manager at La Grange rescued the container and contacted the geocache approver. At first, I did not think I would make it out there for a while, but when I needed the change of pace on Saturday, I jumped at the chance to visit this beautiful winery again.


Because of the beautiful weather, the winery was packed! But with a little patience, I was able to get one of the servers to retrieve my cache from the office. I meandered around for a while scouting out new potential locations. Many of the likely spots were close to muggles, and I had to keep looking. Finally, I found a cozy spot that looked promising, repackaged the cache, and tucked it into the new hiding spot. For my fellow geocachers, you can find the new coordinates here.


With the cache hidden, I decided to spend some extra time relaxing. I picked up a bottle of refreshing Cuvee Blanc, a container of artichoke and crab dip, and a bag of pita chips from the tasting room before traipsing down to a comfy wooden beach chair near the grape vines.

The view was stunning; the sunshine warming; and I lost myself in the pages of The Warded Man by Peter V. Brett. Oh, if only every Saturday could be so delightfully spent!

VA Wine Trail Geocaches - first stop, Winery at La Grange

This past weekend I got to do something I have wanted to do for years! I hid my first geocache. Woot!!

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.)