15th Annual Virginia Wine Expo Experience Extravaganza!

380 wines • 150 distilled spirits • 11 countries & states • 28 events • 10 days

This year’s @VirginiaWineExpo regions of emphasis (beyond VA) were Italy and Oregon. We did a BYOP ‘build your own bundle’ package that included: Oyster Eat, Smoked!, and VIP Walk-Around Grand Tasting, plus a Masterclass on Barolos – we now have a new list of wines to buy and places to explore!

First event: Oyster Eat - Bubbly & Bivalves are a perfect pairing!!

Favorite pairings were @tjwinery sparkling with @steamboatwharfoyster raw oysters, @argiolaswinery Vermentino with everything from @mosaicrva but particularly the smoked oyster spread on cucs and lobster rolls plus everything from @egourmetrva but their oyster Rockefeller Spoonbread w/bacon jam and Aquachile scallop on half shell were amazing – best dessert pairing was the @mswineworks Cab Franc with the @redtruckbakery chocolate cake – that is if you don’t count the beverage desserts, which were some great Scotch and Rum tastings and the “mudslide” from @chesapeakebaydistillery

Overall great night and big thanks to @arubatourism for sponsoring and supplying all the flamingos!

Hope to see this merged with a Champagne forward event next year!!

Second event: Big Barolos Masterclass Seminar - Educational and entertaining!

Master Sommelier Ron Edwards gave us a great tour of 8 different Barolos – also known as the “King of Wines” and “Wines for the Decades” for their boldness and cellaring time. His tasting notes, descriptions of the unique terroir of Italy’s Piedmont region, and of course the generous sips have set us on the hunt for more Barolo and Nebbiolo. Our favorites of the lineup were Boroli Villere MGA (Castiglione Falletto 2019) and Damilano Cannubi MGA (Barolo 2019). Of course we now will also be searching for recipes to pair beyond Pizzoccheri, perhaps smoky barbeque, venison, or anything with parmesan. Will also be checking out the podcasts @winebow (see QR codes in pics)

Third event: we got - Smoked! (as if we weren’t already after tasting 8+ Barolos – these events were back-to-back)

We were not looking for pairings at this point so went straight to the food and there was plenty of it! Great array of smoky savoriness – loved the @mosaicrva duck reuben, the @egourmetrva Moroccan smoked leg of lamb, the @rvawoodfiredpizza ChurchHill pizza - @thesmokymug did an interesting smoky ube cheesecake and @redtruckbakery brought the best boozy cakes 🔥❤️‍🔥 Now with full bellies, we put in a great effort to cover all the local distilleries for bourbon and rum tastings. Shout out to Ironclad Distillery Co., Copper Fox Distillery, Sagamore Spirit, and @a.smithbowman for the spirit samplings! Worked our way through the ~25 sips at the Scotch bar – oh yea, and there was wine too! Cote de Bourg, Tenuta Regaleali Lamuri, and Shenandoah Riesling are worth searching for more than a taste.

Thanks to sponsor @Dukes_mayonnaise for the cool koozies!

Good thing we know how to #makegoodchoices and stayed at a hotel downtown within walking distance. (with free breakfast bonus prepping for next day’s event!)

Fourth event: Saturday VIP Walk-Around Grand Tasting – 5 hours of wine wandering!

We took advantage of our VIP hour to start our Walk-Around Grand Tasting and went straight to the top tastings on our list - @barboursvillevineyards for the Nebbiolo plus anything else they’re pouring (Cab Franc is always a fav), @windvineyards for their Gold Medal Sangiovese, but also loved their Pearl and Tidewater (that logo rocks!) @7LadyVineyards for the Gold Medal Albarino, but found us liking so many in their line up we had to get a case. ❤️ @VAWines We then chose to do more international wine exploration from Sicily, Sardinia, Italy and France – full taste at the @BroadbentSelections table, tons of options for Oregon wines, and took pics of all the too many to mention note worthies of the day! (see RichPairings on Facebook for full load of pics) - whew!

Can’t wait for next year - in the mean time - we’ll be heading to local shops and regional tasting rooms for some deeper dives into some of these wines!

Watch for reviews on @RichPairings Intstagram and Facebook pages