The Bier Garden– A Portsmouth Virginia Tradition

Today I thought I would move back toward beer. I am not going to concentrate on a specific brewery though, but on a landmark and institution– the Bier Garden in Portsmouth, Virginia. Portsmouth has a beautiful old town area that dates back to the earliest days of America. The port here is very deep and it became an important shipyard early on in our nation’s history. Unfortunately, Portsmouth’s heyday is well in the past. Businesses have a very hard time surviving in this beautiful location. The City has a reputation for crime, poverty, and mismanagement– all of which have contributed to the lack of business. However one business has survived for years because of its unique and charming atmosphere– The Bier Garden.

The Bier Garden sits right on the main street (High Street) in the old town of Portsmouth. Although it doesn’t look like much, it is a haven for local beer drinkers. They offer a large selection of beer in bottles and on draft. Beers hale from all over the world but concentrate on Germany, Belgium, and England. If you are looking for a beer from one of these countries, this is the place to find it. The beer menu is actually larger than the food menu.

The owners are German and, in addition to the large selection of beer, the restaurant is excellent. I am a vegetarian, so I love the lensen kase spatzle (lentils with spatzle,which is kind of a German macaroni and cheese). I love to start my meal with a nice authentic German pretzel as an appetizer. Friends have never told me that they have had a bad dish here. The prices are quite reasonable too which makes this place a great place for lunch or dinner.

Because The Bier Garden is very popular with locals and visitors, it can get quite crowded, especially on the weekends. The dining area is rather small and the bar (which sits at the back of the building) can become elbow to elbow. During the summer, part of the dining area becomes al fresco and, during the winter, this area is covered and heated with propane heaters which except on the coldest days keeps it quite comfortable. During the summers, there is additional outside seating but the crowds are also bigger.

I would highly recommend, if you like beer and find yourself in the Hampton Roads area of Virginia, that you make your way to The Bier Garden for a good meal and a brew or too.

My husband and father-in-law enjoying a beer at The Bier Garden

The small bar area at The Bier Garden can be quite crowded on a busy night.

The Bier Garden

Stafford Area Wineries– Mattaponi, Hartwood, and Potomac Point

Mattaponi Winery

Potomac Point tasting room

Potomac Point

Hartwood Winery tasting room

: Hartwood Winery

Today’s blog takes us farther north along I-95 toward Washington, DC. This area used to only have a few wineries in the Fredericksburg, VA area. However, today there are several. We stopped at three of these wineries: Hartwood, Mattaponi, and Potomac Point.

Mattaponi Winery is a throwback to the previous Virginia winery. The winemaker/owner runs a small tasting room out of the back of her home. She is Native American and the winery itself is named after the tribe, Mattaponi, that used to live in the area. The tasting room is homey and decorated in Native American art. The owner even offered free chili for anyone stopping by on the day we visited. The big wine here is a strawberry wine made 100% from strawberries, the majority of which are grown on the property. This wine is very sweet but very good. It would go well with any dessert, especially chocolate or cheesecake. The owner recommended mixing it about half and half with champagne or sparkling wine to create a strawberry sparkling. I imagine this would be excellent. We bought a bottle back for a friend who always liked a strawberry sparkling wine. I made the suggest to her so we will have to find out from her if she tried it.

Hartwood is also has a very cozy tasting room. Our pourer was actually a local artist who was selling some of her paintings at the winery. The winery offered a good variety of wines. The Hartwood Station White was mostly Viognier (the state grape of Virginia) but combined with a Rkatsiteli grape which hails from Georgia in the former Soviet Union. The Rappahannock Rose is primarily Chambourcin but combined with Seyval Blanc. The Rappahannock White is a very good semisweet wine with 1% residual sugar made from Seyval Blanc and Vidal Blanc. The Merlot and 2010 Cabernet Franc are very good reds. Here we had our first taste of the Tannat which is a varietal of grape that dates back to Roman times. It is a wine that needs time to age. Although good young, I am told that if I wait 40-60 years, it will be fantastic. I don’t think a wine can last that long in my home though.

Potomac Point is a bit more of a pretentious winery. The winery has the feel of a Napa Valley tasting room and is built in a Mediterranean style. The winery is dog friendly and there were several dogs enjoying the day in the enclosed courtyard. This winery had a large selection. We liked their Norton best of all the wines available. The service was not very friendly and I wish I could have had a better experience here because the building is quite beautiful. However, I think this one is so close to DC that it has lost its friendly feel.

James River Cellars– A Richmond Area Winery

James River Cellars is another winery that is very easy to find. It sits just off Route 1 in Ashland, VA, a few miles north of Richmond. This is not one of my favorite area vineyards– not because of the wines but because of the atmosphere. The tasting room is very popular with a very young crowd and gives it a feeling that you are on a college campus instead of at a serious winery. Because of the age of the typical consumer here, the wines tend to be less developed and on the sweeter side.

The chardonnays from James River are very traditional. They also have a gewurztraminer, which used to be much more common at Virginia wineries. There’s is a bit on the sour side for a traditional German-style gewurztraminer. The vidal blanc is slightly sweet with a residual sugar at 1.5%. The 2011 chardonel is supposedly a gold medal winner but not much to my taste. The 2011 Rad Red was the best of the wines here. A blend of several reds like merlot, petite verdot, and cab franc, this wine was very good with an off dry taste. The 2010 merlot, also touted as a medal winner, had a very musty nose, reminiscent of many French wines. The meritage was also very good and full bodied. The remaining reds, the 2011 Hanover, the 2011 chambourcin, and the 2011 Real Santa Red, were all too sweet for my taste.

I would only recommend this winery if you want to make a quick stop near Richmond and are looking for something different to do. Otherwise, keep heading either north to the Stafford area where several great new wineries have opened, east toward New Kent County, or west toward Charlottesville, where some of Virginia’s best known wineries reside.

James River Cellars

New Kent County Wineries– Saude Creek and New Kent

New Kent County is located between Hampton Roads and Richmond, VA and lies right along Interstate 64, the main thoroughfare between these two metropolitan areas. New Kent is relatively new to the wine business, with New Kent Winery opening a few years ago. Saude Creek Vineyards is just a couple of years old.

I had been to New Kent Winery a few times in the past. The easy-to-get-to location makes it a great place to stop on the short trip between Richmond and Hampton Roads. New Kent has a very unique White Norton which is made from the previously mentioned (see my blog Have Virginia Wines Gone Red (Neck)) norton grape. As I said in my previous post, I think the norton grape is a great grape for a traditional style red. New Kent, like many other Virginia wineries, has decided to take this grape in the direction of sweet. I personally think this is a shame. I used to enjoy the White Norton produced at this winery as it was mildly sweet and went well with spicy foods. Now, it seems to me that this wine, has crossed into the land of too sweet for anything but a dessert. Many of the wines here are on the sweeter side, including their White Merlot and Vidal Blanc. They have 2 chardonnays that are ok, but then again I am not a chardonnay fan. The best two wines were the Meritage and Merlot– neither of which was outstanding. The Meritage had a very berry nose that did not match the taste and the Merlot was a bit on the sour side.

In addition to the wines being marginal, I also find the concept of New Kent Winery a bit off-putting. The winery is actually located within a planned community. Obviously, the houses located in and around the vineyards will only be available to wealthier individuals. For me this seems to perpetrate the idea that wine is the drink of the rich. I find the whole concept a bit pretentious.

Located only a few miles from New Kent is Saude Creek Vineyards. Saude Creek is a little farther off the main road and requires a bit of driving through back roads to find. However, of the 2 vineyards, Saude Creek has a much better selection of wines. The Merlot here is a medal winner and is very good. If you are not a Merlot fan, then their Saude Creek Red and Meritage (both red blends) are also worth the trip. They make an interesting white, Saude Creek White, which is 100% apple– not to my liking but interesting none the less. The Cabernet Franc is also good here. Once again, however, this winery has taken a great grape, chambourcin, and turned it into a sweet wine. According to their tasting notes, their Chambourcin has 4.0% sugar. My usual cut off is around 2.0%. My husband, who likes the sweeter wines, thought it was quite good.

The atmosphere at Saude Creek is also an improvement over New Kent. Saude Creek sits out in the country, surrounded by hills. You can see the Pamunkey River from their large deck, which would be a great place to have a glass during the summer months. In the winter a huge fireplace is burning, giving the tasting room a homey feel. The winery even has a resident black cat who will greet you near the fire.

A beautiful new tasting room with great views.

View of the vineyards

Another view of the vineyards.

Saude Creek Vineyards, a lovely winery in New Kent County, VA

New Kent Winery tasting room.

Layton’s Chance– A Winery on Maryland’s Eastern Shore

As I discussed in my previous post, we will be focusing on wine for a while. I had the pleasure of visiting Layton’s Chance, a winery on Maryland’s Eastern Shore. Maryland has quite a few wineries but most are located north of Baltimore or out toward Western Maryland. Therefore, it was quite a treat to find one on the Eastern Shore. We found the winery quite by accident, thanks to a large white sign with black lettering posted on the side of the road. Although an afternoon midweek, the winery was open for business.

I would highly suggest a stop when traveling through the Eastern Shore or to the beaches along the Maryland shore. The great wine here was their chambourcin which was dry, hearty, and quite good. Apparently, this winery also makes a watermelon wine, which was sold out by the time we visited. We spoke with the owner/winemaker while visiting who told us the story of the how the watermelon wine came to be (it was the result of a large amount of unpurchased watermelons that were given to him). He also said that from his research, he might be making the only watermelon wine. So if you know of someone else making it, contact him and let him know. Apparently, the watermelon wine is white not pink, as would be expected. In addition, the flavor is not like that of a watermelon and, it must be good, because it sells out every year.

So if you are traveling out to the beach, stop and have a sample and buy a bottle of a good Maryland wine!

The vineyard at Layton’s Chance

Layton’s Chance has a comfortable patio that would probably be quite inviting for a stop on a trip to the beach

The tasting room at Layton’s Chance

Layton’s Chance

Have Virginia Wines Gone Red (Neck)?

Just got back from an exciting trip to Virginia– the fifth largest wine producing state. Although this blog is primarily about beer, over the next few weeks, I will be giving you some information about some great and some not so great Virginia wineries that I was lucky enough to visit on this last trip. As some of you may know from reading this blog, I lived in Northern Virginia and DC for many years. I had the pleasure of seeing the Virginia wine industry really take off over that period of time. I learned to appreciate some unique grapes that grow well in that area and are often hard to find on a national level. I was overall greatly disappointed in the direction of Virginia wine on this last trip. Previously, with some exceptions, I felt that Virginia wineries were trying to produce high quality wines that could compete on an international level. Although the grape varieties were not necessarily common, the wines produced were classical reds and whites that would be appreciated by even the most selective wine connoisseurs. However, on this recent trip I saw that many wineries seemed to be catering to a less developed palate with wines that catered to the masses. Now this is not necessarily a bad thing, but even I had to take notice that the quality was not what it had been. For example, two grapes that grow quite well in Virginia are the chambourcin and norton. These are robust reds that can produce very good wines along the lines of the classic cabernets. However, I found that many wineries were now using these grapes to produce less than stellar sweet to semisweet wines. Although not a fan of sweet wines myself, even my sweet wine drinking friends remarked that the previously produce dry reds seemed to be a better use of these grapes. I made a comment about this at one winery and was told quite simply that dry reds take a long time to produce and sweet ones don’t so we make sweet ones so that we can sell them fast. Wow, was all I could think. I am not sure that sacrificing quality for quick production is a good overall strategy if you want the rest of the world to not laugh when you say you are drinking Virginia wine.

Real Beer in Naples, FL!

I am so glad to see that Naples is finally catching up to the rest of the world and now has good, locally brewed beer available. The Naples Beach Brewery is a breath of fresh air to an area that has been a virtual desert of local beer. Last week, the Naples Beach Brewery had its inaugural tasting event and the beers were quite a treat. I had tasted some of their local brews a few months back at a local establishment, South Street Bar and Grill. However, although better than anything Naples had to offer, some of the brews were a bit underdeveloped. Now, the beers really have come a long way and have a lot to offer.

Most improved has to be the Mango Ginger Tripel– a few months ago it had an odd aftertaste which was sort of sweet yet sour. Today’s brew has a totally different taste that hints of mango and ginger but in no way overpowers the palate. If you have read my previous blogs, you know that I am a fan of the hops– you can’t go wrong with hops! The Pale Ale has a nice hoppy flavor but not quite as strong as an IPA. For me, this was their best beer of the night. The Weizen was also quite good and very true to the style. I am generally not a fan of the darker beers but both the Black IPA and the Stout were quite good– even for a pale ale and traditional IPA drinker. The Rojo Especial, a red ale, was my least favorite; however, many others seemed to enjoy it. It was an attempt to do a red ale in an English style and so was a bit on the bitter end for my taste.

The cost of the tasting was quite reasonable–$15 for 6 tastes and 2 pints (well almost pints). I highly recommend if you can make the next one that you do so. Support our only real local brewery and have some great beer. Oh and the staff is very friendly too– you get to learn about how the beer is made and have the option to watch a video series on the making of beer while sitting on a comfy garden chair. The brewery is located at 4110 Enterprise Ave., Suite 217, Naples, FL 34104 and it can be a bit difficult to find as it sits in a warehouse area– my hint look for the Cuban deli and the brewery is in the next big building about 3/4 of the way to the end. The scenery could be better but the beer is great!

Looking for a Brewery in Ybor City

For those of you who don’t know, Ybor City is the kind of hip, happening area of Tampa. The area used to be where cigars were made but now it is filled with trendy restaurants, clubs, and shops. The draw, of course, are these trendy attractions but the area also has a small microbrewery, The Tampa Bay Brewing Company. Although there are better restaurants in the area, it is worth a stop to sample the brews. Although none are especially exceptional, they are good enough to stand on their own. If you are in the area, stop buy and try a sampler!

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Vermont– Land of the Microbrew

Vermonters will tell you that their state has more per capita than any other state. From my experience, that is probably true. If you want good beer, go to Vermont!

Vermont’s “star” brewery has to be Magic Hat. The Magic Hat brewery sits a few miles outside of downtown Burlington in a pretty unimpressive strip mall area. You would miss it, except that Vermont is really into great signage for their attractions. The brewery is very ecclectically decorated, just like the bottle labels for their brews. The “tour” consists of walking up a ramp and looking over the brewery floor. However, once you are done with the tour, you get to the tasting bar. There is a real bar with several groups of taps where really friendly staff serve you as many samples as you want at no cost (they do encourage tips for the staff). I went back a couple of times while in Vermont.

There are also dozens of smaller breweries throughout the area. Downtown Burlington hosts the Vermont Pub and Brewery. This brewery has a great local following and pretty good food. It is a great place to go for a bite and brew while downtown. Middlebury, VT, about an hour from Burlington, hosts Otter Creek Brewery. Otter Creek is also a bit hard to find as it sits in a kind of industrial area slightly off the main road. Long Trail Brewery sits in Bridgewater Cors, VT. This place has a great outdoor patio right next to the river which is a great location to sit on a warm day. We were in Vermont right after Hurricane Irene and were impressed that this brewery was doing a lot in the community to help relief efforts, including developing a special beer, Goodnight Irene. The beers here are great and a good selection to suit every palate.

I can’t forget to mention that Harpoon Brewery now has a satellite facility in Windsor, VT. You can’t go wrong with Harpoon and their signature IPA. This has to be one of my favorite beers of all times. Harpoon’s UFO series is also a good bet. The Windsor brewery has a great brew pub with excellent food. I would highly recommend a stop here!

Finally, I have to mention the other great places to visit in Vermont. I was shocked at the number of wineries in Vermont. I would highly recommend stopping at as many as you can. The staff in each one we visited was very friendly and the wines were quite good. I really would have never imagined good wine could come from Vermont. Vermont is of course known for its maple syrup and there are lots of great places to stop and get a sample. Cabot cheese is also a Vermont favorite. There are several places around the state that have cheese tasting bars and the Cabot facility is a great place to stop. Of course I can’t forget the other Vermont staple, Ben and Jerry’s. The tour of the factory is a bit crowded and touristy but they do give you a free ice cream at the end.

I highly recommend getting a car and just driving around the state while stopping at everything that interests you. You can’t go wrong in Vermont, unless you do what I did and eat cheese, maple syrup, and ice cream while washing it down with wine and beer. This has a tendency to make your stomach hurt!

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Stick to Duval Street in Key West and Skip the Brewery

Yes, believe it or not, there is a brewery in Key West. It is a couple of blocks off Duval Street and owned by actress, Kelly McGillis of Top Gun fame. However, if you are thinking about going by Kelly’s Caribbean Bar, Grill and Brewery— DON’T! The beer is okay, but the service is beyond awful. We went at the end of season, late May, so restaurants and bars weren’t packed. Business was slow when we got to Kelly’s. There were probably less than 20 people in the place. However, we waited forever to get served at the bar. The bartenders went about their business talking to other customers and doing everything, it appeared, to avoid waiting on us. When we finally got service, I asked for a sampler of their local brews. The bartender seemed really put out by having to pour a sampler. Our intent was to have a couple of drinks there before moving on to another place. Yet, we ended up leaving some money on the bar, after getting tired of waiting to get a check, and walked out. Back to Duval Street we went and got great service at Sloppy Joe’s, which unlike Kelly’s was packed! Guess there is no need to wonder why.

I do have to say that not everything about Kelly’s is awful. The building itself is lovely– an older style Florida home with a wrap around veranda. The bar is open to the outside and has a lovely, tropical feel. If you can stomach the bad service and mediocre beer, then go for a quick drink just because it is pretty.

End of Sampler at Kelly’s Caribbean Bar, Grill and Brewery.

: Sampler at Kelly’s Caribbean Bar, Grill and Brewery

The Beer Bloggette

A blog for women who like beer (and the men who love both)