Local Virginia Winery Shoots Self in Foot, While One Wins New Customers for Life

This past weekend, we decided to take my husband's visiting parents for a drive out to the beautiful, bountiful, and increasingly visible (on a regional level, anyway) Virginia wine country. We set out for Middleburg. First stop: Chrysalis Winery. Second stop: Piedmont Vineyard and Winery.

First, the good. Piedmont was everything a winery should be. It was off a country road at the end of a short, dirt driveway. Old barn to the left, tasting room to the right. Huge patio with an arbor, small pond complete with lily pads, picnic tables in the sun and under trees. In 3 words: picturesque, rustic, quiet.

When we entered the tasting room, the (young) snobs at the counter took one look at our two kids (ages 6 1/2 and 3), turned their backs, and refused to make room for us . I later told my husband he should have kicked one particularly territorial guy out of the way. Even when his tasting was finished, he did not budge from the counter. (For the record, our children sat on a couch and played together. They did not bother a soul. If they had, one of us would have dragged them outside immediately.)

However, a few rude idiots cannot ruin a lovely afternoon. The couple pouring wines that afternoon were friendly, happy to answer questions and discuss wine, and eager to recommend a friend's winery another 20 minutes away. Alas, we did not make it to that winery, but we fully intend to go soon.

Overall, the wines were lovely. Whites, of course, beat out the reds, but that's to be expected in lower altitudes in Virginia. My favorites were the first two we tasted. Both were Chardonnays, but they had entirely different taste profiles. The 2008 was aged in stainless steel and combined tropical fruit notes with a steely, minerally underpinning. The 2007 was aged 9 months in French oak, lending it a buttery, creamy, vanilla-y, but not overwhelming, profile.

Their dessert wine, Felicita, is made of a Vidal Blanc/Muscat blend, and, unlike many dessert wines, it was well balanced between sugar and acid and did not coat your mouth with sweetness. It tasted of apricots and honey and was really, really lovely.

After our tasting, we enjoyed a nice picnic on the patio and then spent 1 1/2 hours playing on the lawn with a family of 6 who were total strangers until our kids, halfway through lunch, decided to join them.

Now for the bad: Don't go to Chrysalis unless you enjoy unfriendliness and rules upon rules upon more rules with your wine. We have been to wineries on Long Island, NY and in Napa and Sonoma Valleys in California. All three, especially the latter two, are very busy, very popular destinations ,but nowhere did we encounter such bizarre rules as at Chrysalis.

Here's why we're not going back:

1. No kids allowed in the tasting area, which is fine, but if you have kids with you, your party will have to split up for the tasting.

2. Kids are only allowed in the family picnic area. Again, this is fine, but it means you are eating on a big hill that contains one level picnic table and lots of sloped picnic tables. Not exactly comfortable.

3. Tastings are timed. Yes, you read that right! They are timed. Even though it wasn't busy, we couldn't taste when we were ready. We had to taste when they were ready. This is a new policy, and we were not informed of this when we purchased our tasting. When I complained about it, I was told it was implemented for crowd control. By no stretch of the imagination could you have characterized Chrysalis as crowded when we were there.

4. The tasting area where we were sent was not ready. My husband and father-in-law had to wait 15-20 minutes for it to be set up before they could begin their tasting. There were already two other tasting areas set up and ready to go, but they were sent to the one that was not. Why, we don't know. But we don't care. We're never going back.

So, here's a rule of thumb when trying out wineries in Virginia: go to the ones that are a little out of the way. Go to the new ones, the small ones, the ones without rules, and enjoy a lovely outing in the stunningly beautiful countryside.