A: Well, Eubie, first thing Ace wants to say is vitners are farmers, too! Moreover, according to the website www.mountaincovevineyards.com, Weed’s an old hand at the business. He and his wife Emily founded Mountain Cove Vineyards in 1973, and they claim it’s the "oldest continuously operating winery" in the State.
But you’re not wondering about legacy, Eubie, you’re asking about the vino, Willing to drive almost any distance for a bottle of good wine and hopeful, Ace jumped in the Acemobile and gunned the 30 miles down Route 29S to Lovingston to uncover our congressional canidate’s take on "that sweet and bitter fruit."
Who Ace found there was salesman extraordinaire, Michael Sipple, he of Wild Rose heritage (seriously, he previously worked for the company that supplied grapes for that, er, wine). Sipple kindy helped Ace purchase all Mountain Cove has to offer – Tinto, Chardonnay, Skyline White, and Rose, and apple, peach, and blackberry fruit wines.
Seven bottles of wine packed in the back seat, Ace zipped back to the ‘ville for a tasting session with wine connoisseur Robert Harllee, who just happens to own Market Street Wineshop and Grocery. Harllee hadn’t put Weed’s stuff to his lips for more than 10 years, but he offered a memory that he "didn’t care for the wine" followed by the quick qualification: "Al’s a great guy!"
After having swirled, sniffed, sipped, swished, then spat out each wine, Harllee offered his diplomatic comments. "It’s not to my taste," he said about the Rose. "There’s a lot of different Virginia chardonnays and I have a certain number of slots for chardonnay…and they’re already full," he remarked about the chardonnay. You get the picture.
Harllee enjoyed the strong apple flavor of the apple wine, but was less kind to the peach wine, likening it to canned peaches. Ace deduced that Harlee was not a fan of public school lunches.
Figuring a blunt assessment was in order, Ace returned to the office where seldom is heard an encouraging word. The resulting verdicts ran from "I’m experiencing bar mitzvah flashbacks" (the Tinto) to "This tastes like wine-flavored Starbursts" (Skyline White). In all fairness, Ace must report that the C-Ville staff quickly added, "Al’s a great guy!"
As the tasting came to a close, one budding vitner in the group mixed the Blackberry wine with the Tinto to more favorable reviews. " The wines are more mixers that wines," was the group conclusion, which, we hasten to add, was not a political statement.
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