Corcoran Vineyards and Brewery

Corcoran Vineyards and Brewery is nestled off a cute country road just north of route 9. It is the first combined winery and brewery in Virginia and is definitely worth a visit – or multiple visits. :) This delightful, family-owned business is run by Lori and Jim Corcoran, and Dan and I had the wonderful opportunity to take a tour with Lori on one of our most recent visits.

Since we have visited the tasting room before, Lori started off the tour at the wine cellar, which was filled with tanks, barrels, and scattered boards covered with wine notes. She eagerly told us about the various wines she was making and what she was looking forward to creating in the future.

Lori opening a barrel to taste
To our great excitement, Lori even let us try a special barrel of white port wine that she was creating just for friends and family. Needless to say, it was delicious, and the time it had spent in an old whiskey barrel gave it an added warm that instantly spread through your whole body. We’re hoping she makes more for the general public! lol

Dan and I getting to smell a barrel of the white port wine:

After touring the wine cellar, we walked over to the brewery. At the time, the brewery had 16 different beers available! There were lots of different favorite beers in the group. Dan loved Slainte Stout, Onceyougo Black Ale, Wheatland, and Catoctin Ale, and I enjoyed Wheatland and Hops the Bunny Ale.

Taps at the Corcoran Brewery
The tasting room at Corcoran offers a variety of red and white wines. Some of the ones we have really enjoyed are the Apple Wine, Riesling, Petit Verdot, and Tannat. I also like the Cello that Lori makes with Petit Manseng grapes, spirits, and lemon zest. It makes a great gift for Christmas or birthdays – just ask my dad. :)

Before leaving Corcoran, Dan and I took some time to walk around the grounds and find a good location for our latest VA Wine Trail geocache. We are quite proud of the hiding spot we found! You can find the new cache coordinates on the geocache page.

We also found some herbs growing that Lori had cunningly labeled for visitors, pointing out which wines would go well with that herb.

Parallel Wine Bistro

Last Monday was Dan’s official birthday, so I decided to take him out to Parallel Wine Bistro, a restaurant I had heard about from multiple friends. Located in Ashburn, Virginia, Parallel Wine Bistro provides a fun atmosphere, a unique wine experience, and delicious food. It is a little more expensive than some restaurants. However, you can easily avoid a high bill by sharing plates or by looking for their coupons on Specialicious.

For those who were in the area last Monday, you remember how absolutely beautiful the weather was – temperatures in the low 70s to high 60s and mostly clear skies. It was the perfect evening to sit out on a patio, and that is exactly what we did when we arrived at the bistro.

After saying hi to a friend who works there, we settled into our seats and started scanning through the menu. We started with orders of puff pastry wrapped brie and tomato bruchetta, which were fantastic. The brie came with apple butter (yum!) and walnut and raisin compote, and the bruschetta had the most delicious vinaigrette drizzled on top.

With our appetizers ordered, we turned our attention to the wine lists. What’s fun about Parallel Wine is that the food menu takes up two pages and the wine and specialty drinks menu takes up four! (there are many specialty and local beers for those who do not like wine) Because there were so many wines that we wanted to try, Dan and I decided to choose wines from their “Flight” list. The Flight list gives you 2oz glasses of three different wines on the menu. (2oz is about a 1/3 glass of wine) For my choices, I went with Lucky Star and Pennywise from California and Fingerprints from Argentina. Dan chose Maximo from Spain, Cigar box from Argentina, and Wine Men of Gotham from Australia.

Dan showing off our first flight round
While we were enjoying everything, we ended up joining in on a trivia contest that the bistro holds every Monday. Dan has participated in these many times before, but it was my first time playing. The questions were very diverse, and for a while, Dan and I were in fourth place!

Since it was a special occasion, we had fun sharing some extra food and wine. For dinner, we split the lamb shank plate that came with a bunch of veggies and wonderful risotto; and for dessert, we enjoyed a chocolate raspberry torte and some caramelized bananas with ice cream. In my second round of flight glasses, I had Sivas Sonoma from California, Domaine Guicharde from France, and Cigar Box from Argentina. Dan tried a few other wines that were not really his style and switched to a full glass of Maximo which had been his favorite.

My delicious raspberry torte
For people who love supporting Virginia wines (Woot for VA Wine!), you will see options from Fabbioli, Breaux, Veritas, and Tarara on the menu. However, I do recommend trying some of the global wine, because it is always a good idea to expand your taste and knowledge of other winery locations. :)

One unique feature of Parallel Wine Bistro that Dan and I did not have time to try was their wine machines (see image at the top). These machines contain 32 different bottles of wine from which you can either get a tasting, a half glass, or a full glass. To use the machines, you need to obtain a wine card that you can swipe to select and pay for the wine you want to have. I thought this was a really cool concept, and we are looking forward to using it on our next visit.

Morven Park

Just outside of Leesburg town limits lies majestic Morven Park, home to Virginia’s 55th governor Westmoreland Davis. I first learned about the park at Leesburg’s monthly First Friday event, where a volunteer handed me a flyer and told me about some of the features the park offered. One important thing that I learned from the volunteer is that leashed dogs are allowed on the grounds – important knowledge for anyone who likes to bring their dogs on day trips.

A gorgeous tree I found in the gardens.
Covering 1000 acres of open and wooded property, Morven Park is a fantastic picnic location. The grounds contain numerous gardens, all of which are well maintained and great for pictures. The grounds of the park are free, and you can tour the governor’s mansion or take a ride in a horse drawn carriage for a small fee at different hours during the week and weekend.

One of the garden paths
I have visited the park on a few occasions and have always found it open and relaxing. Sometimes I see other visitors, but each time I have gone, it is never crowded. On my most recent trip, Dan and I brought the dogs with us. They LOVED running through the fields and playing fetch with fallen branches. :)

Puppies resting in the shade after playing fetch.
Whether you live around Leesburg, or are just passing through, Morven Park is a great location to visit. I would also recommend it to people who are planning an event, such as a wedding or party. The gardens and mansions are excellent settings for any event!

For any additional information, visit the Morven Park website. Enjoy!

A view of the mansion from one of the farther fields

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.)

How to Add a New Car to Your Loudoun County Personal Property Taxes

This week brought a very exciting experience for me. I bought my first car! I was very sad to see my old mustang drive away, but the new car represents all that lies in my future. :)

My new car is a Subaru Forester! I picked out this car because, even though I loved driving my mustang, I needed a car that would meet the following requirements: 4WD/AWD for snow or dirt roads, a bigger second row seat for friends/family, and space in the back for the puppies. My new Forester meets all these things, and it has a roof rack for bikes/Christmas trees/etc... Huzzah!

After the excitement of purchasing a vehicle, you face the stress of getting it registered and claimed. Luckily, the dealership helped me with the registration, and my insurance only took a few minutes. However, getting my car registered for my county sticker was more difficult than it needed to be. I hope other counties are not as aggravating, but for anyone living in Loudoun County, Virginia – good luck!

Because I had such a stressful time getting my county decal, I have decided to include a nice set of instructions in today’s blog. Hopefully, Google will do its job and direct people to these instructions, saving them all the headaches I had to deal with!

To Claim a New Vehicle on Your Personal Property Tax in Loudoun County:

1. In an internet browser (IE9 does not fully support this site yet), navigate to this exact URL: www.loudoun.gov/cor.
   
   (Do not attempt to search for this site on Google, because it will not direct you to the correct page. Also, trying to navigate from the loudoun.gov home page is ridiculous, but if you insist on doing so, this is the path to follow: Home>Government>County Departments>Departments A-G>Commissioner of the Revenue)


2. In the left-hand menu, click Online Services.


3. On the Online Services page, under Vehicle Personal Property Division, click Register a Car, Truck, Motorcycle, or Motor Home.


4. On the Disclaimer page, read the information and click Yes.


5. On the Personal Property Tax Declaration page, select the Property Type.


6. Click Continue.


7. On the Add Account page, fill in all the required information.


8. Click Submit.


9. On the Registration Confirmation page, print a copy for your records.

After adding the new vehicle, you can get your county decal mailed to you by doing one of the following:

• If you have unpaid personal property taxes, you have to pay them before requesting your new decal.


• If you are up-to-date on all personal property taxes, call the Treasurer’s Office (703-777-0280) and request that the decal be transferred. You will need both the new car account code and the old car account code.


• If you are new to Loudoun County and have never paid personal property tax here, go to this URL (http://www.loudoun.gov/FAQ.aspx?TID=66) and follow the instructions listed under the first question.

I hope this helps you get your new car registered with Loudoun County. Believe me, you do NOT want to put this off, because there are multiple tow truck companies that regularly patrol neighborhoods looking for cars with no decal!! (This I know from experience… the bastards.)

Enjoy your new vehicle! I know I will. :D