A Day of Dave Matthews and Tacos

Blenheim Vineyards

Being that I have lived in Charlottesville for only a little over a year now, it is understandable that three newcomers had no idea they had stumbled upon a winery owned by Dave Matthews.  I'm sure if you are reading this post and you don't live in Charlottesville, you may be wondering if I am referring to "the" Dave Matthews... well, YES, I am.  Charlottesville apparently harbors a list of "names".  Probably the most well known name being Sissy Spacek.  I'm still waiting to run into her at Whole Foods Grocery.  I'm told others have seen her shopping there --- I've yet to ogle over shiny locally grown apples with "Dave" or fight over heads of lettuce with "Sissy", but it's fun knowing that may be one day it could happen.

Kluge Farm Shop - "FOR SALE"

Myself and two other Charlottesville semi-newbies headed out Saturday to take advantage of free food and cider at an open house.  We were rather disappointed so decided to venture out to catch the last open weekend for the Kluge Farm Shop Winery.  The famous winery was up on the auction block last week and no one bid on the property (the minimum bid was 19 million).  You could grab a case of Kluge wine at half off.  I'm not much of a wine drinker so we left empty handed.  A tasting was $12.00... may be this is why they are going bust.  That's pretty pricey for a tasting and given they are selling off the last of the lot, one would think a taste would have been free just to unload what was left. The least expensive case of six bottles of Red for $50.00.

After we left Kluge, we noticed a sign for another vineyard and it was only .4 miles up the road, so what the heck.  We ended up at "Dave's Place", Blenheim Vineyards.  A lovely A-frame tasting room nestled in a hill, revealing the most incredible view.  The tasting was very reasonible at $5.00 a person to enjoy sipping eight wines.  We all liked Painted White 2009 the best.  It was a wonderfully snowy bitter day and enjoying a few sips of wine was quite refreshing.  The winery was quite busy on this fridgid day, full of happy tasters chatting among friends.
 

The delicious Cheese Enchilada.

Our last stop on our Saturday outing was to a little Mexican Cantina in downtown Charlottesville. La Michoacana Tortillema y Taqueria is a little whole in the wall mainly "to go" deli.  I had read review online about it some time ago and decided that a taco was just what we needed as a chaser.  La Michoacana on 1138 E. High Street is an authentic Mexican feed eatery.  There is no Americanization of the food -- no huge portions fried in oil covered with shredded lettuce and a glob of sour cream.  I enjoyed the vegetarian "Super Taco" which was a very small soft flour tortilla topped with rice, black beans, guacamole, lettuce, and tomato.  It was delicious but small, costing only $2.00.  Cindy and Susan split a Cheese Enchilada which was more robust and flavorful.  It was spicy and hot but the flavors were deeply melded together so that it was not offensive to ones tastebuds.  If this was not HOT enough for you, there were three large bottles on the counter that would most likely burn up any future wine tasting opportunities if you were to

douse your food.

We had a good day tasting new things!  Do you know of an interesting spot in Charlottesville that we've yet to discover?  Leave a comment. 
- Rebecca