Following are the Gold Ribbon winners on our weekend wine tour schedule:
Casanel Vineyards: Chegada Cabernet Sauvignon 2007
Notaviva Vineyards: Cantabile 2008 and Calor 2009
Pearmund Cellars: Cabernet Sauvignon 2007, Riesling 2009, and Petit Manseng 2009

Silver Ribbon winners include:
Notaviva Vineyards: Verano 2009
Paradise Springs Winery: Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon 2008
Pearmund Cellars: Viognier 2009
Sunset Hills Vineyard: Sunset Rose 2009 and Viognier 2009

In the category of Label Designs, some of our winning wineries were:
Individual Label Design: Paradise Springs Winery, 2nd place, Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon 2008
Best Use of Whimsy on a Label: Notaviva Vineyards, 3rd place, Cantabile Cabernet Franc

These winning wines will be showcased at the Black Tie & Boots benefit gala on Sept. 22, when the “2010 State Fair of Virginia Best of Show” ribbon will be awarded. Winning wines will be on display during the State Fair of Virginia from Sept. 23-Oct. 3 at The Meadow Event Park. To view a complete list of the winners, please visit www.statefair.com/pdf/AwardsFINAL2010.pdf

But you don’t have to wait for the State Fair to enjoy these award-winning wines! Here are our upcoming wine tours to these wineries:
Saturday, Aug. 7: Notaviva Vineyards and Sunset Hills Vineyard
Saturday, Aug. 21: Casanel Vineyards & Corcoran Vineyards
Sunday, Aug. 29: Pearmund Cellars & Paradise Springs Winery

For a complete schedule, please visit Reston Limousine’s online Calendar at http://restonlimo.com/imscart/index.php?page=shop/events_calendar.

Unlike previous years, only red wines were tasted at the Jan. 23 competition; Virginia white wines will be judged later this year and announced in conjunction with October Virginia Wine Month.

The following wineries on Reston Limousine’s public wine tour schedule were judged among more than 200 entries from 61 wineries from around  the Commonwealth.

Silver

• Pearmund Cellars 2007 Cabernet Sauvignon
• Sunset Hills Vineyard 2007 Cabernet Sauvignon
• Notaviva Vineyard LLC 2008 Celtico (Chambourcin)
• Veramar Vineyard 2008 Ameritage
• Dry Mill Vineyards & Winery 2008 Merlot
• Pearmund Cellars 2007 Petit Verdot
• Pearmund Cellars 2007 Amentage (Red Table Wine)

Bronze

• Notaviva Vineyard LLC 2008 Cantabile (Cabernet Franc)
• Veramar Vineyard 2008 Cabernet Franc Free Run and 2008 Cabernet Franc
• Fabbioli Cellars 2008 Cabernet Franc Reserve and 2008 Cabernet Franc
• Veramar Vineyard 2008 Cabernet Sauvignon
• Casanel Vineyards 2007 Chegada Cabernet Sauvignon
• Dry Mill Vineyards & Winery 2008 Chambourcin
• Fabbioli Cellars 2008 Tre Sorelle (Meritage Red)
• Veramar Vineyard 2008 Merlot Free Run
• Casanel Vineyards 2007 Chegada Merlot
• Casanel Vineyards 2008 Batucada Norton (Rose)

Sunset Hills Vineyard

Pearmund Cellars

Dry Mill Vineyard & Winery

Casanel Vineyards

To visit these wineries and sample their award-winning wines, book a seat on one of our upcoming public wine tours every Saturday Sunday. To view a schedule of wineries and reserve your seat online, please visit our online Calendar at our Web site at www.restonlimo.com.

Guests on our Dec. 12 public wine tour, for instance, can enjoy fine wine and fine jewelry at The Winery at La Grange’s showcase featuring Debra Fabian’s unique creations. The wine tour begins at Pearmund Cellars, followed by a visit to its sister winery, The Winery at La Grange. Visit our online Reservations page to book your seat!

But you don’t have to wait for one of our public wine tours to enjoy the wineries’ daytime or evening events; Reston Limousine also provides private wine tours that cater to parties from couples to large groups. Please call 703-478-0500 and press 1 for sales to inquire about private tours.

Following are some of the most inviting winery events coming up this month:

Saturday, Dec. 12
Annual Champagne, Sparklers, & Hors d’oeuvres
Willowcroft Farm Vineyard provides gourmet hors d’oeuvres to compliment its fine champagnes and sparkling wines. Please call 703-777-8161 to make reservations.
Time: Noon-4 p.m.
Cost: $12 per person

Hunters Run Wine Tasting Barn

Santa comes to Hunters Run!
Santa will be at Corcoran Vineyards’ wine tasting barn, Hunters Run, for pictures with the kid; parents can enjoy a glass of wine by the fire while the kids chat with Santa and receive a treat.
Time: 1-4 p.m.

Brogue Rogues – Live Music!
Notaviva Vineyards hosts perennial crowd favorite The Brogue Rogues, a high-energy band that performs traditional Celtic music with a Blue Ridge Mountain flavor.
Time: 2-5 p.m.

Sunday, Dec. 13
Barrel Tasting
Sunset Hills Vineyard offers guests the opportunity to join winemaker Nate Walsh to sample future award-winning wines developing in the barrel before anyone else. The barrel tasting will be followed by a private reception in the upstairs loft (food and wine will be provided).
Time: Tastings take place at noon, 2:30 and 5:30 p.m.; limited to the first 25 guests.
Cost: Tickets are $39 per person.

Sundays Dec. 13, 20 and 27

Sunset Hills Vineyard

Rockin’ Holiday Sundays
Sunset Hills Vineyard offers live holiday music, complimentary samples of Amish Cheese, warm oven baked chocolate chip cookies, and their special holiday mulled wine every Sunday this month. Holiday gift baskets available for purchase.
Time: 2-5 p.m.

Friday, Dec. 18
Chili Night
The Winery at La Grange will help you beat the chill with a bowl of steaming hot chili and a glass of one of their classic wines. Bring family and friends to play games, or if you just can’t leave work behind, bring a laptop – they offer free Wi-Fi. For adults.
Time: 6:30-8:30 p.m.
Cost: $15 per person includes one glass of wine and all the chili you can eat!

Saturday, Dec. 19
Christmas Around the World Wine Maker’s Dinner
Pearmund Cellars celebrates the holidays with Ms. Clause, Kristen Parsons.
Time: 6:30-9:30 p.m.
Cost: $99 per person, plus tax and tip

David La Fleur Photo by Cheryl Mansley/Scott Anderson

Saturday, Dec. 26
David LaFleur – Live Music!
Notaviva Vineyards hosts David LaFleur, who has been performing his unique mixture of folk, Appalachian, blues, and bluegrass for more than 20 years.
Time: 2-5 p.m.

The results are in from the 5th Atlantic Seaboard Wine Competition, and Reston Limousine’s Public Wine Tour friends have collected their fair share of medals!

The competition, sponsored by the Atlantic Seaboard Wine Association, took place July 18th and 19th at the Regency Country Club at Dominion Valley in Haymarket. More than 100 wineries in 11 states entered their best products, and here are some of our northern Virginia winners:

Chrysalis Vineyards
Best Of: 2005 Reserve Norton Locksley
Gold: 2005 Reserve Norton Locksley
Silver: 2008 Albarino, 2008 Barrel Select Norton , 2005 Estate Bottled Norton, 2008 Viognier

Fabbioli Cellars
Best Of: 2007 Chambourcin
Silver: 2007 Cabernet Sauvignon, 2007 Chambourcin, 2007 Reserve Cabernet Franc
Bronze: 2007 Tre Sorelle

Hillsborough Vineyards
Silver: 2005 Bloodstone
Bronze: 2006 Garnet, 2005 Ruby

Pearmund Cellars
Best Of: 2007 Petit Verdot
Gold: 2007 Petit Verdot
Silver: 2007 Cabernet Franc
Bronze: 2007 Ameritage

Sunset Hills Vineyard
Best Of: 2007 Reserve Cabernet Franc, 2007 Cabernet Sauvignon
Gold: 2007 Reserve Cabernet Franc, 2007 Cabernet Sauvignon
Silver: 2007 Petit Verdot

Veramar Vineyard
Silver: 2007 Estate Club Merlot, 2007 Norton
Bronze: 2008 Seyval Blanc

Veritas Winery (on Reston Limousine’s Charlottesville Day Trip)
Gold: 2006 Kenmar Dessert Wine
Silver: 2006 Othello, 2007 Reserve Cabernet Franc, 2008 Reserve Sauvignon Blanc, 2008 White Star
Bronze: 2008 Harlequin Chardonnay, 2007 Petit Verdot, 2008 Viognier

Willowcroft Farm Winery
Silver: 2006 Cabernet Sauvignon

If you’d like a visit these award-winning wineries, visit www.restonlimo.com for a schedule of our upcoming Public Wine Tours !

Unique Winery Opens

Vint Hill Craft Winery, the latest project by Chris Pearmund of Pearmund Cellars and Winery at La Grange, recently celebrated the first weekend of its month-long Grand Opening with educational wine tastings and tours.

“This is all about you through a customized experience specifically tailored to your interests” Chris says. “Taste wine with us and we’ll show you how the professionals do it and what they look for. Choose to make wine with us and it will be crafted to your specifications, in your style with your name, a label of your design and of course, your story behind it.”

At Vint Hill Craft Winery, individuals or groups will work with expert winemakers from grape to bottle to create a barrel of their own of their choosing. After a year of “hands-on education,” the new winemakers will be rewarded with the juice of their labors – about 25 cases of wine.

Baltimore Wine Travel Examiner Terry Sullivan recently posted that he’ll be making a barrel of Cabernet Sauvignon; read his behind-the-scenes tour of the winery on his site, The Wine Trail Traveler.

Vote for your favorite Virginia winery!

It’s time for fans to head over to VirginiaWineEvents.com and cast your vote for your favorite local winery! The poll ends Aug. 17 and accepts only one vote per computer network, fyi!

At the 2009 State Fair of Virginia Wine Competition, for example, Chrysalis Vineyards, Pearmund Cellars, Sunset Hills Vineyard, and the Winery at La Grange took gold and silver ribbons in a blind tasting of 239 wines from 48 Virginia wineries.

Gold Ribbon
Pearmund Cellars – Ameritage 2007
Sunset Hills Vineyard – Reserve Cabernet Franc 2007
Sunset Hills Vineyard – Petit Verdot 2006
The Winery at La Grange – “Fletcher’s” Chardonnay 2007

Silver Ribbon
Chrysalis Vineyards – Mariposa 2008
Chrysalis Vineyards – Viognier 2008
Pearmund Cellars – Old Vine Chardonnay 2007

Other wineries on our Public Wine Tour also won in the label competition: Hillsborough Vineyards took 1st place for its Bloodstone label, and Notaviva Vineyards and Fabbioli Cellars took 1st and 2nd, respectively, in overall winery presentation. Sunset Hills Vineyard received an honorable mention in that category as well.

The competition, which took place in Montepelier, featured wine varietals of Chardonnay, Viognier, Cabernet, Merlot, Cabernet Franc, Merlot and Petit Verdot.

“We had the most wines entered this year than ever before, and it is nice to see the industry grow and really go forward even from just five years ago,” senior judge George Davis says. “National industry trends reflect lighter, less tannic wines and less use of oak. We saw more un-oaked wines this year and the submissions of un-oaked Chardonnay is a perfect example. Among the reds, the Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot wines had less oak exposure as well. They all were well-made wines.”

The State Fair of Virginia will announce the top winning wine – “Best in Show” – on Sept. 23. The winning wines will be displayed at the 2009 State Fair of Virginia, which returns September 24 through October 4 at The Meadow Event Park in Doswell, Virginia.

Ready for your own tastings of these and other award-winning  wines? Visit www.restonlimo.com for a schedule of the wineries on our upcoming Public Wine Tours !

This year’s results were announced at The London International Wine Fair, which took place May 12-14. A total of 10,285 wines and 2,240 companies submitted their products in this year’s Decanter competition, according to the monthly wine magazine’s Web site.

Following are our wine tour winners:

Pearmund Cellars’ Petit Verdot 2007 (red still)
Pearmund Cellars’ Viognier 2007 (white still)
Veramar Vineyard’s Chardonnay Reserve 2007 (white still)
Veritas Vineyard’s Kenmar 2006 (white sweet)
Veritas Vineyard’s Viognier 2007 (white still)

Want to taste award-winning wines from the 2009 Decanter winners? It’s as easy as booking a reservation on one of Reston Limousine’s wine tours!
Pearmund: Public Wine Tours on June 20, July 12
Veramar: Public Wine Tours on June 28, July 25
Veritas: Charlottesville Wine Tour June 20, July 19, August 15

Your visit begins at Pearmund Cellars, which boasts a 7,500-square-foot geothermal winery in the foothills of eastern Fauquier County. Here, you’ll enjoy tastings of classic and reserve wines with for $5 and $7 fees, respectively; both come with a souvenir glass. New on the tasting menu will be the 2008 Viognier, scheduled to be bottled on May 10. High hopes rest on this delicious varietal, as the 2007 vintage garnered a gold medal in Vineyard and Winery Management Magazine’s Great Harvest competition.

Judging by the long list of Pearmund’s regional, national and international awards on its Web site, guests on this tour are in for an amazing experience that will continue at the next stop, the Winery at La Grange.

Tastings take place in an 18th century manor house, where guests can choose between a Classic Tasting for $5 that includes nine wines or a Classic Plus Tasting for $8 that includes two special reds and a taste of the Snort, a Port-style red. As at Pearmund, you’ll leave with a souvenir glass with either tasting.

Among the winery’s portfolio of award-winning wines, the Fletcher’s Chardonnay stands out as a front-runner. The white Burgundean style wine which won a Best of Show and gold medals at the 2008 State Fair of Virginia Wine Competition.

At either of the wineries, be sure to ask about one of Chris Pearmund’s latest projects, a “brother winery” to Pearmund Cellars and Winery at La Grange. At Vint Hill Craft Winery, individuals or groups will work with expert winemakers from grape to bottle to create a barrel of their own of their choosing. After a year of “hands-on education,” the new winemakers will be rewarded with the juice of their labors – about 25 cases of wine.

Cost: $35 per person (does not include tasting room fees or gratuity)

For other lunch options, tour schedule, and other information, visit Reston Limousine’s Public Wine Tours page.

To book this tour, please call 703-478-0500 Option 1.