Shenandoah Valley
Eight months into the COVID-19 pandemic, Brendan and I were both getting pretty stir-crazy with a stockpile of vacation days to spare. My parents had an extra timeshare to trade in, so we started looking around at different places we could go within driving distance that could scratch our travel itch.
In the end, we decided on a townhouse on Massanutten Mountain, in Virginia’s picturesque Shenandoah Valley. The area is rife with vineyards, hiking spots, and best of all — no one else around in November! We invited our friends, Jason and Brittany, to join us for the week
Looking at Massanutten Mountain from Brix & Columns Vineyard
day one
After nearly four and a half hours of driving on Sunday, Brendan and I made it to Massanutten just after dark to check in to our timeshare, Mountainside Villas. We seemed to be the only ones in our group of five townhomes, and we settled in for a quiet, relaxing week.
Our timeshare was a cozy loft with two bedrooms upstairs and a small kitchen and living room downstairs. The best part — the downstairs bathroom had a sauna and giant whirlpool bathtub for ultimate relaxation!
day two
On our first full day of vacation, I woke up early to work on my National Novel Writing Month project (Flux), enjoying the sunrise over the mountains with a cup of strong coffee.
After breakfast at Thunderbird Cafe right off the mountain, Brendan and I grabbed groceries for the week before venturing to the closest vineyard, Brix & Columns. They offered wine flights instead of true tastings due to COVID-19, so I chose a flight of five reds and Brendan opted for the “sweet” flight. We ended up purchasing one from each flight, a red called Kerus II and their dessert wine, called Lil Em.
day three
On Tuesday, Brendan and I ventured farther out towards Charlottesville to King Family Vineyards, a winery my sister had visited with one of her friends studying at UVA. While we were the only people at Brix & Columns, King Family was much more of a destination spot, with families having picnics outside despite the robust wind threatening to blow their tablecloths and food away. They only offered a single flight of five pre-selected wines, so Brendan and I each got one with a box of crackers as a palate cleanser. We ended up enjoying their Crosé Rosé so much we grabbed two bottles (one to enjoy during the week, and one to take home) as well as a bottle of their Roseland white wine.
We chose to take the scenic route home, on Skyline Drive (aka Virginia’s extension of the Blue Ridge Parkway), admiring the rolling mountains as we wound around the countryside. Dinner was takeout from Peking China Restaurant, when we realized we were running out of restaurants that weren’t too far off the mountain (all of the resort restaurants were closed due to the off-season and covid). Luckily, Jason and Brittany would arrive the next day and we’d have more of an excuse to stay in and cook the ingredients we’d bought.
Muse Vineyards
day four
Wednesday, we drove to Elkton to a small coffee shop known for its delicious house roasted beans, looking for Christmas presents for Brendan’s family.
Next up was a hike off of Skyline Drive, Virginia’s portion of the Blue Ridge Parkway. Brendan and I picked a short but strenuous two mile trail straight up the side of a mountain, filled with late-fall oranges and browns. We decided to relax back at the loft instead of venturing out to more vineyards, wanting to leave some of the close ones for when Jason and Brittany could try them too.
Our friends arrived just in time for dinner, delivery from an Italian restaurant at the bottom of the mountain.
day five
We started the day off with a round of mini-golf, a tight game that ended up with Jason the victor and Brendan and I tied, with Brittany not far behind. Honestly, the best outcome that could have happened, since Brendan and I get too competitive with each other to the point that others fear for our relationship.
In the afternoon, we headed up towards DC to visit Muse Vineyards and Shenandoah Vineyards. Muse was a newer vineyard, and we had to take the Prius straight down a steep gravel hill and then over a single-lane bridge to get to the parking lot — I’m glad Brendan was driving! We were nervous about making it back up the hill, but the car was fine, if noisier than I like since the gas engine actually had to turn on. Muse also offered a short hiking trail around their mostly-bare vineyard, with all the vines dormant for the winter. We picked up a bottle of Pichet and headed back towards Harrisonburg to Shenandoah Vineyards right before they closed for the day, which specialized in German-type wines, Brittany’s favorite!
The four of us stopped for dinner in Harrisonburg before going back up to Massanutten, ready for another day of wine and beautiful weather.
Hiking along a stream off of Skyline Drive
day six
Since most wineries didn’t open until after lunch, we occupied our morning with a short 3-mile group hike to a waterfall off of Skyline Drive. After we felt good about how many calories we’d burned, we were ready for some more tastings!
We started with CrossKeys Vineyard, whose tasting had a record-breaking fifteen wines on its list! Our favorites were a red blend called Joy Red, and another dessert wine similar to Lil Em from Brix & Columns, named Ali D’oro.
Our next stop was the one I’d been most excited for, White Oak Lavender Farm & Vineyard, a working lavender farm who broke into the wine business and added a hint of lavender to almost every wine. Brendan and I picked up Dragonfly, a Traminette and Chardonnay blend, and I treated myself to a bottle of Royale Velvet, their port-style dessert wine, as well as a few gift bottles for Christmas. We also grabbed lavender-scented stocking stuffers to complete the last of our Christmas shopping.
Late afternoon, we still had the energy to visit one last vineyard, and noticed Marceline wasn’t far down the road. They didn’t offer tastings or flights at the time, but I enjoyed a mulled wine that took me back to our Parisian adventure and Brendan delighted in a wine slushy as all the various dogs that called Marceline home wandered around, begging for pets and scraps.
Our complete haul (including some Divine Llama bottles that Brittany brought up for us)
day seven
The four of us ventured out further on our last day before heading home, going east out of the valley to the other side of the mountains to reach Barboursville Vineyard, a historical winery that my grandmother recommended to us. Barboursville had the most interesting tasting system we’d seen so far, with swipe cards and machines that dispensed an ounce of wine per swipe, so we could tailor our tasting to exactly what we wanted. Brendan even got an extra swipe due to a broken machine! Wine-wise, they probably ranked as our favorite vineyard over the entire week.
We looked around on google maps for other wineries close by, since we had driven all this way, and came up with Reynard and Chisholm, which was on Brittany’s master list of wineries she wanted to visit. We stopped by Reynard first, a very tiny vineyard with just a few patio chairs and Brendan and I split a flight of red wines while Jason and Brittany split a mixed color tasting.
Chisholm was our last stop of the day, and of the vacation, with a small lively festival going on. Live music played — the first we’d heard in nearly a year, and kids ran around enjoying themselves while we savored our last wine flight under an ivy-covered pergola.
day eight
Reluctant to leave, we packed up all of our wines and headed back to Cary on Sunday. Little did we know, we would return in only six short months, when my parents would decide to replace our lost Alaskan cruise with another trip to the beautiful Shenandoah Valley.