A few more tastes from the weekend

We made our traditional weekend trip over to Blacksburg to hit the Blacksburg Farmer's Market. The market is, we would guess, 30 - 40% bigger than last summer. The variety of vendors and the amount of choices to make is almost overwhelming, but sure is fun. While there we bought a few things (basil for pesto, blueberries, handmade noodles, and local beef), and then headed on over to Vintage Cellar for the regular Saturday wine tasting. It was a closeout weekend so a lot of the wines were limited in supply, but it was surprisingly dead in the shop compared to what we expected. We guessed everyone was at the lake/park enjoying the long weekend (since it wasn't raining on Saturday until early evening). Here's a list of the wines we tasted:

282. 2011 - Niño Jesús Calatayud - Figaro Tinto
283. 2003 - Clendenen Family Vineyards - Nebbiolo
284. 2008 - Villa Maria - Riesling
285. 2005 - Clendenen Family Vineyards - 90% Syrah, 10% Viognier - Rancho La Cuna
286. 2011 - Concha y Toro - Malbec Xplorador
287. 2010 - Beaulieu Vineyard - Merlot Coastal Estates
288. 2006 - Balthasar Ress Hattenheimer Nußbrunnen - Riesling Erstes Gewächs
289. 2010 - Montes - Pinot Noir
290. 2010 - Trimbach - Pinot Noir Reserve
291. 2012 - Valley Vineyards - Chenin Blanc - The Royal
292. 2012 - Santa Alessandra - Pinot Grigio Valdadige

There were a number of good wines, but the real standout was the Clendenen Family Vineyards - Nebbiolo.  We both like nebbiolo, but this was unusual as it was grown in California, not Italy, but made in a traditional italian style.  It was very very good and was on sale for half its original cost on closeout!

We also had a bit of wine from our cellar with pesto made with our fresh basil and the handmade fettuccine noodles we got from the Farmer's Market.   It was an older chardonnay that we thought had been aged in stainless so it wouldn't be too buttery and fight with the richness of the pesto.  It was apparently not aged in stainless and hadn't aged very well in the cellar so it was kind of a miss and we didn't even drink two glasses with dinner.  It was disappointing.

293. 2006 - Azura Wine Cellars - Chardonnay

Finally we had some Brett-made thai chicken curry for dinner on Sunday and he tried a beer we brought back from our trip.  

294. Baxter Brewing - Stowaway IPA

And with that we're very very close to 30% of the way through!