Memorial Day 2025: Glen Manor Vineyards

Many months ago, when we learned that Ellie was getting married on Memorial Day weekend, we let Jeff and Kelly know that we were going to be in the area. Although we text now and again, we had not seen them in the flesh in coming up on 8 years.

Gorgeous Memorial Day at Glen Manor Tasting Room

Our plan was always to return to Northern Virginia after the wedding in spite of the vast amounts of Memorial Day traffic. In our last minute preparations, Kelly let us know that the tasting room would be open (it's generally closed on Mondays) for a members-only event and that we would get together after the tasting room closed.

From Richmond, we drove to the winery arriving in early afternoon after having taken back roads from Richmond to avoid all the traffic on I-95 and I-66. Although it was a gloomy day for most of the drive, as we neared Front Royal, the clouds fled the scene and it became a gloriously beautiful day. The clear skies would prove to be fleeting, but for one afternoon, the weather was perfect.

Because we could not check in until 3:00 and could not get in touch with the B&B owner to see if it were possible to check in early, we decided to go by the winery and just hang out until 3:00. After that, we would get situated in our room and then return for the after party around 5:30.

Enthusiastic Greeting from Kelly

Recovering From a Long Wedding Weekend

One of the things that we always seem to end up doing after hours is blind tasting and this visit was no exception. Once we arrived, Jeff, newly showered after a hard day in the vineyard, pulled out a bagged white that proved to be a Fiano, a wine that stumped everyone. We were tasting it as the last few customers left the tasting room.

One of the last customers to leave was a mutual friend, Jason Bise, who was one of my most valued wine reps in the restaurant business. We caught up for a few minutes and I found out that he is now manager of the Purcellville Knead Wine (pizza and wine) store, an offshoot of the original store in Middleburg. He brought a wine for Jeff to taste and left it for us, bagged, on the counter.

Jeff's palate has always been better than mine and he nailed the light-bodied, high acid, lower tannin, lightly extracted red as Nerello Mascalese, a grape I have tasted only a few times in four decades. It proved to be an Etna Rosso (90% Nerello Mascalese, 10% Nerello Cappuccio). I could only say that it was an Old World wine and not Nebbiolo and not Pinot Noir. Nerello reminds me of Pinot Noir in many respects but also of Frappato, lightly colored and fruity, with good acid. The fruits are on the lighter spectrum: cherry, cranberry, and strawberry.

A little later, Jeff returned with a bagged red with tons of cherry fruit that I recognized as Nebbiolo, but not a classic Langhe. Unbagging showed it to be a Valtellina Superiore from Lombardia. Valtellina is the northernmost winegrowing region in Italy and there Nebbiolo does not reach its potential as it does further south in the Piemonte.

Drinking other expressions of Nebbiolo has made me realize how special the wines from Piemonte are. And drinking lots of Piemonte Nebbiolo, my favorite wine over the past five years, has made me realize how much I prefer the more delicate Barbaresco and Langhe Nebbiolo to the more robust and powerful Barolo.

Kelly's Spread

She Also Made Chocolate-Pistachio Bars

Kelly, bless her, brought out a vast tray of noshes that we were not expecting; she always goes overboard. We all migrated outside to enjoy the beautiful day. Once customers left, we got to catch up with our friend Keri, who now lives with her husband in the Silicon Valley, and who had come in for the long weekend. Keri and her father were customers at my restaurant and she also worked the tasting room at Glen Manor.

As we sat around outside shooting the breeze until 8:30, the rabbits came out to eat on the lawn and the sun and clouds made great shadows on the vineyards and Shenandoah National Park behind the vineyards. Towards sunset, the sun shone like a spotlight on the vineyards, a magical sight. It was getting dark as we left, a full hour earlier than in Oregon, something that should not have surprised me, but did.

 

Song Sparrow Serenaded Constantly

Keri and Denise

Telling Another Dumb Joke!

Once Again in One of My Happy Places

Virginia Whirlwind

We took a whirlwind one-week trip back to the East Coast, two days of which were spent traveling, leaving just five days to see Ann's mother, go to Ellie's graduation, visit Carter in Morgantown, and to see our friends.

Here are some photos from the trip. There's a lot of beer involved in these photos. Ann's mom is in a nursing home and not doing well, the source of much consternation. It took a lot of beer to get through the days where she did not recognize her own daughter and son-in-law.

One of our Favorite Portland Breweries

We started off by spending the night in a hotel at PDX because of our early morning departure and desire to avoid the heinous rush hour traffic. We stopped by Culmination Brewing, one of our favorite East Portland breweries on the way for a bit of dinner and a couple of beers.

Mad Fox Brewing, Falls Church, VA

After a long and grueling flight and dealing with DC rush hour traffic on the other end, we ended up in a brew pub in Tysons Corner. Not only was it yuppie mating hour at the noisy overcrowded bar, the beer sucked by Portland standards. Ultimately, we found Mad Fox brewing in Falls Church as a place with decent beer, as an escape from the drama of dealing with Ann's mother.

Rosé at Linden Vineyards

After a couple of days of seeing to Ann's mother and her house, we took a drive out west on I-66 to visit with Jim Law at Linden Vineyards. Shari was very kind to bring us a glass of 2018 rosé to enjoy on the deck while we waited for Jim to come in from the vines. He was gracious enough to spend a few minutes chatting, but it was clear that he needed to get back to the vineyard, so we took our leave after soaking in the landscape that we love so much.

It was pretty interesting that while talking with Jim, we met a young guy who works at another local Willamette Valley winery and with whom I had corresponded via email, but had never met in person. It is truly a small world.

I Never Get Tired of This View at Linden

From Linden, we made the short drive north to visit with Jim and Betsy Dolphin at Delaplane Cellars, just months before they would sell the property and retire to Florida. Jim was just starting on blending trials when we arrived. Suffice it to say that he never got to blending trials, especially after Betsy showed up and we started cracking bottles. Jim had previously invited us to go out to dinner with them, but we had to demur because of a very early morning departure for Charlottesville and Ellie's graduation.

Jim Dolphin at Delaplane Cellars

Lemonade from Lemons

2018 was a horrible year in the vineyard with feet of rain playing havoc on the grapes. Many winemakers focused on making rosé as a way to salvage something from a crap year. Jim was showing off his label poking fun at the whole disastrous situation. Betsy also opened a bottle of her special ICOE cuvée. ICOE is fitting for Betsy: In Charge Of Everything. Traffic going back in to McLean was hellish with an accident blocking the Beltway. Miserable.

My Spirit Animal

And sure enough, Saturday morning came very quickly. We left very early in the morning from McLean to make the two and a half hour drive to Charlottesville. Although we left early to beat the traffic and to find a good place to park, when we arrived at the Grounds for graduation, it was teeming and the lines to get in were very long.

Lillie met us and went ahead to save seats for us while we went across the street in search of coffee. Wouldn't you know that there is a Starbucks in the bottom of Newcomb Hall, a vast change from the days when I was there. Though not a fan of Starbucks, I was in need of coffee and Ann in need of a little breakfast.

Waiting for Ellie to March

The morning started out warm, humid, and cloudy, the cloud cover being the only thing that kept the day even moderately comfortable. About 30 minutes before the ceremony the sun popped out and made things truly miserable, especially for the kids in their black gowns. Unlike when Rita Dove kept us entertained with a short and focused speech at Lillie's graduation, Ellie was blessed with one of the worst commencement speeches I have ever heard—long, disjointed, rambling, and largely self-congratulatory. Finally, graduation wrapped up and we all walked a half a mile or more to the theater building where Ellie's diploma ceremony was to be held.

It was a long mile and a half walk for me in the blazing sun to retrieve our car and meet the rest of the gang who Ubered to a local brewpub for lunch.

Parched After Graduation in the Heat

Ann and I stayed with Lillie, Ellie, and her friends after lunch to have a final beer at the bar, before we headed back to Northern Virginia late Saturday. Sunday, we headed out to see Jeff and Kelly White at Glen Manor Vineyards. We spent a beautiful afternoon with them before heading back to McLean.

I Also Never Tire of This View at Glen Manor Vineyards

We got back late and then Monday went to see Ann's mom. We made plans for a late dinner with Ann's cousin Chris. Surprisingly, Mary wanted to go along with us and we were happy to have her with us. She even managed a tiny sip of Ann's beer.

Mary Tasting Ann's Beer

For our last full day, we drove out to Morgantown to see Carter, taking a ten-minute stop at the Farmers Market in Winchester to see Beth, Mark, Jessica and the other vendors. We arrived in Morgantown mid-afternoon and got the grand tour of his grungy frat house. We could tell we were cramping his style, but ultimately he decided to go to the brewpub across the street from our hotel with us. The Iron Horse Tavern has a great local beer selection and pretty decent food as well. I was really happy that the pub featured ales from Stumptown Ales in Davis WV, which I believe is my benchmark brewery for craft beer on the East Coast.

Beer Board, Iron Horse Tavern, MorgantownWV

Back to Northern Virginia with 1200 miles on the odometer completed the final leg of this whirlwind trip to Virginia. The flight from Dulles to PDX was routine. After driving from the airport to the house, it was good to have the trip behind us.

Little Crease Mountain to High Peak, GWNF

With the rain forecast for early in the day on Sunday, we decided that we would do an afternoon hike for our fourth hike of the 2017 52 Hike Challenge. And because we had dinner plans with Jeff and Kelly in Front Royal after our hike and after the winery closed for the day, we decided to hike George Washington National Forest between Strasburg and Front Royal.

After a late awakening and a leisurely pot of coffee, we drove in the rain into Winchester to Steamy's to have a breakfast bagel of egg, bacon, and cheese with proprietor Lenny Sweet. I had on my chef shoes over my hiking socks and quite apparently there is a hole in the sole of my chef shoes. Predictably, my sock was soaked walking to and from breakfast and I had to change it out when we arrived at the Elizabeth Furnace day use area in Fort Valley, my right foot cold and miserable.

The very real threat of rain (though we only had sprinkles for about 10 minutes twice during the hike) was enough for me to leave the big Nikon at home and only bring the iPhone. Many was the time I was wishing for a big lens during the day.

Ann on the Peak of Little Crease Mountain

When we arrive at the trailhead in the George Washington National Forest, there is often a kiosk that has a map of the surrounding area which I always photograph with my phone as a useful reference during our hike, without having to pull the topo map out. I didn't notice until much later (we didn't need the map at all) that this particular map is useless for most of the hikes departing from the Elizabeth Furnace area, those to the east. As an aside, we have hiked pretty much all of the trails shown on this map in the last year. You can see that our route for the day, up to Sherman Gap and back along the ridge to Shawl Gap is way off the map to the right. Good job USFS!

Non-Helpful Map

The Elizabeth Furnace day use/picnic area is situated on the banks of Passage Creek, with a short entrance road leading east off Fort Valley Road over Passage Creek to a main parking area on the far side of the creek. In the winter, the bridge is gated and there is no automobile access to the main parking area so you have to park in the spaces before the bridge and walk in.

On a really crappy rainy day, we saw a lot of cars in the parking lot before the bridge, a lot more than we would have expected. As we were gearing up, a couple walked up to a nearby vehicle wearing waders and bearing fly rods. Then I started figuring out why all the vehicles were there, especially when we walked by the signs below on our way to the creek.

Passage Creek is a Favorite Trout Stream

The photo below is one of those for which I wish I had my big Nikon. There is something really nice about the symmetry of the horizontal lines of the fallen tree, its reflection, the fly rod, and Fort Valley Road above.

Fly Fisherman, Passage Creek

The start of our day was in mist with the threat of rain, though the bulk of the rain had fallen and stopped 20 minutes before our arrival. It was tough to figure out how to dress for such a day. We started cool and rainy with temperatures expected in the mid-50s coupled with thundershowers and late in the day, very gusty winds.

Rainy and Muddy Start to the Day

We left from the southeast corner of the main parking lot on a white-blazed trail (which may be called the Botts trail). The walk south along Passage Creek from Elizabeth Furnace was beautiful and peaceful despite the weather and the inherent sloppiness of the trail. I had expected to see beaver sign along the creek and remarked to Ann as we stopped to take this photo that I was surprised that we had not.

Peaceful Passage Creek

 Not two minutes later, we came across abundant beaver sign, just to make a fool of me.

No Sign of Beavers Here

From the creek, the white-blazed trail starts to climb gently and merges with the pink-blazed Sherman Gap Trail at the site of the monument shown below. The monument indicates that the Old Dominion 100-Mile Endurance Run cares for this section of trail and it is very well maintained indeed. This trail heads south and upwards but gently for a good long stretch before turning due east and heading straight up the mountain in a very steep climb.

Ann and I found it to be all the climb we wanted to take on. From the Old Dominion web site: "The next three miles are best left undescribed but are summed up in the phrase “Sherman Gap”. Rumor has it that the gap was not named for any great explorer but rather for the first (and possibly the last) endurance race runner to try to run up it. It is said that you can see his grave ten feet from the top, especially if you are one of the masses trying to do this part of the course in the dark."

Monument Marking Start of Sherman Gap Trail

About halfway up, we climbed through the clouds and into some vicious sun. You can see that Ann is down to a T-shirt and shorts.

Hot Climb Above the Clouds

Old Dominion 100-Miler Blaze

After the bitchy climb, we crested the ridgeline at Sherman Gap where the Sherman Gap trail we were following intersects the Tuscarora Trail (blue blazes) and the Massanutten Trail (orange blazes).

One Tree, Four Blazes

We headed south on the ridge trail to climb Little Crease Mountain and to go see if we could see the Shenandoah River (doubtful with all the cloud cover). The trail up Little Crease is fairly rocky as you see in the photo below and as you can see from Ann's rain jacket, it had started raining again. All along the creek and at various places, we would see entire hillsides of lichen-covered rocks such as the ones that Ann is traversing below.

Climbing Little Crease

Lichen Detail

Once up at the summit of Little Crease, we could look north back along the ridgeline on which we were hiking. Because we were above the clouds, we could see High Peak and Buzzard Rocks well to our north. Later in the afternoon, we would be walking the ridgeline to the gap (Shawl Gap) between the two peaks before dropping left and west down the mountain and back to the car.

High Peak and Buzzard Rocks above the Clouds

At Little Crease, the trail heads due east along the ridge line before turning once again south. After about a half a mile hike, we came to a set of rocks adjacent to a large camp site, the halfway and turn-around point for our hike. These rocks overlook the Page Valley and the Shenandoah River below. Alas, the valley was all fogged in, but the views of the Blue Ridge and Shenandoah National Park across the Valley were all the more stunning for poking up through the clouds.

Lunch Spot Overlooking Page Valley

The Shenandoah River, Not So Visible

While we were getting breakfast at Steamy's, we asked Lenny to make us a couple of bagels for lunch because with all the preparation for the huge Valentine's Day weekend, I simply did not have any time at work on Saturday to make us anything for lunch. These bagels had smoky ham, cheese, avocado, and red onion and were quite possibly the finest lunch I had all day! It is amazing how much better any food tastes after a long haul up a mountain!

Bagel in Paradise

By the time we finished lunch, it was already 3:15 in the afternoon and with about three hours left to get back to the car, I was starting to worry about daylight, not to mention that we had planned to meet Jeff and Kelly at PaveMint in Front Royal at 6:00. We started hoofing it back as quickly as the rocks would let us, but there were long stretches along the ridge where we just couldn't make any time for all the extremely slippery rocks.

The closer we got to the northern end of our ridge hike, the more the rocks started encroaching on the trail and the more and more it reminded me of walking a little further north near Buzzard Rocks. Beautiful, but hard to make time on a trail like this. Ultimately, we skirted around the eastern flank of High Peak on the combined Massanutten/Tuscarora trail and reached the gap or saddle at Shawl Gap where a white-blazed trail continues north on up to Buzzard Rocks, while the combined trail dives down the hillside back to Elizabeth Furnace where we left our car.

The large rocks and the endless switchbacks coming down the hill were a pain in the ass. We stuck to the orange-blue trail but I think if I were to do it again, rather than making huge and seemingly pointless switchbacks on that trail, I would take the old and unmaintained jeep trail straight down to the picnic ground at Elizabeth Furnace to save at least a half an hour of frustration.

This being our first trip to the Elizabeth Furnace day-use area, we did not know that there was an actual furnace here, a large stone furnace for smelting pig iron. Apparently, the Union did not take too kindly to the Rebs making ordnance here during the Civil War and trashed it. I would have liked to have spent a minute or two looking about, but it was dark and we had a dinner date for which we were already late.

There is a Pig-Iron Furnace at Elizabeth Furnace

Taken in Near Darkness

It was nearly 5pm when we hit Shawl Gap and we texted Kelly to let her know that we were going to be late to dinner, there still being a two-mile hike down the mountain to go. As it turns out, she texted us back that the winery got slammed and she and Jeff were running equally late. Coming down, most of our walk was in twilight with sunset officially at 5:47, though the sun had long been behind the western ridges. We arrived at the car at 6:07 and started off on the 20-minute drive in to Front Royal. We and Jeff and Kelly would arrive within minutes of each other about 6:30.

Ahh! Schlafly Grapefruit IPA

Goofballs!

It wasn't too much of a party at PaveMint. We were all very happy to see each other, but Jeff was clearly exhausted and Kelly was done after a long week at the winery. I was whipped after a huge Saturday night at the restaurant and hiking all afternoon. And Ann and I were both beat and beat up after our hike, our legs and joints aching despite our best effort at anesthetizing them with beer. We left at 8:30 to get home just at hiker midnight, 9pm, and after a quick shower and a little light reading, were passed out by 10pm. A good day, but neither of us are in a hurry to tackle Sherman Gap again in the near future.