by GO Agency
If you are in the Holiday Spirit, or if you are looking for some holiday spirits, then head on over to the Savoy-Lee Winery. Starting at noon and ending at 5pm every Friday and Saturday all the way through Christmas, you can enjoy the holiday open house in the winery’s tasting room! You may even find a gift for the wine lover on your Christmas List.
Each open house they will feature their Holiday Sangria. Get a group of friends together and enjoy a glass of wine around the fireplace. Oh… there will be fudge and other goodies too! In the spirit of giving the Savoy-Lee is making the recipe for their fudge available so you can share it with other family and friends! If you are looking for a last minute place to hold your holiday get together, whether it is a family affair or an after work get together, ask about availability of the tasting room.
Be careful though, you may just fall in love with the place! And if a small country winery is on your loved ones Christmas list you are in luck! The Savoy-Lee is currently available for purchase. This turn-key winery is already producing award winning wines! The winery grows both red and white European and French American hybrid grapevines. With the “season” not starting until March, there is still plenty of time to get all moved in and settled before jumping into the thick of things!
Bedford County has a growing reputation for great wines! Take some time and explore Virginia wine country along the Bedford Wine Trail! Come for a visit and if you like it, then move here! When you are ready to relocate to Virginia, call Vicki Millehan! She is your local real estate expert and long time resident of Smith Mountain Lake!
by GO Agency
“I find friendship to be like wine, raw when new, ripened with
old age, the true old man’s milk and restorative cordial.”
Thomas Jefferson to Dr. Benjamin Rush
Poplar Forest, 1811
According to an old Italian proverb, good wine makes for good cheer, and this will be the case November 21st at the first ever Thomas Jefferson Wine Festival. The festival will take place at Poplar Forest, Jefferson’s Virginia retreat. Thomas Jefferson was a big advocate of the benefits of wine. He was pivotal in the import of wines from such countries as Italy and France.
At the festival you can enjoy, food, wine, crafts and live music! You must be 21 years old to enjoy the wine tastings, so be sure and bring your ID! You can enjoy wines from around the region! All of the wineries of the Bedford Wine trail will be there with some of their award winning wines to sample! Some of the wineries in the area, like the Savoy-Lee, actually use both red and white European and French American grapevines. It is these lovingly tended vines that produce the quality wine Virginia is becoming known for.
Located in Huddleston, the Savoy-Lee is a family run winery located at the foot of the Blue Ridge Mountains. If you have considered the life of a wine maker, you may want to check out this vineyard that is currently for sale! The beautiful surrounding area includes Smith Mountain Lake, Bedford and Roanoke! This is a turnkey operation that is already producing award winning wines. Many of the wines produced here are lovingly barrel fermented before being moved to the more modern stainless steel vats. This allows the wines to have a complexity that may be missing in some other wines.
You can sample the wines from this and other vineyards along the Bedford wine trail at the Festival. Come for a visit and if you like it then move here!! From wineries to luxury waterfront homes, call Vicki Millehan for all your real estate needs in the Smith Mountain Lake area!
by GO Agency
Summer is winding down and soon we will be blessed by nature’s colorful palette of fall leaves. No matter the season, there is a place where you can enjoy the beauty of Virginia with your family:
Smith Mountain Lake State Park! From swimming to hayrides, there is fun for the whole family!
You can enjoy any of the 13 trails that wind through the park. Trails range from half a mile to three miles long, so there are trails for beginners and more experienced hikers! You can hike through hardwood forests, pine forests, beautiful vistas, and quiet coves of Smith Mountain Lake. You will quickly see why they call the area “Jewel of the Blue Ridge Mountains”!! Trails are open during daylight hours all year round.
If you are looking for swimming, you have found the spot! The park’s 500 foot beach can accommodate 1,000 people. There are some
swimming fees, but in the summer, overnight guests can swim for free! Of course, there is also fishing and boating available; this is after all
Smith Mountain Lake!! This weekend you can even enjoy a free Hayride by the
Friends of Smith Mountain Lake Park!
At the Beach Pavilion this Saturday, August 22, you can enjoy
Music in the Park! Starting at 8pm you can hear the music rendering of Linwood White and the Blue Grass Travelers. The Old Dominion Cloggers will also be there to entertain. The admission fees are $5 and kids 12 and under are free. So bring your family and your lawn chair and enjoy the music!!
This area has so much to offer! How many places can you go where you can visit a local winery one day and take the family to the Lake for Blue Grass Music the next? It is this kind of diversity that makes Smith Mountain Lake so unique! Come for a visit, if you like it, move here!! There are also diverse kinds of real estate in the area! From
waterfront luxury Homes to
a family winery for sale,
Vicki Millehan can help you find your place in Franklin or Bedford County!
by GO Agency
Fall is spectacular at Smith Mountain Lake! The beautiful color of the leaves, fall crush in full swing, and crisp air are all welcome signs that fall is here! As much as we love fall, there is some part of us that doesn’t want to quite let go of summer. So how can we resolve this conflict of emotion? Well, an End of Summer Party should do the trick!!
The
Bedford Chamber of Commerce is hosting the
2009 Beach Bash at
Parkway Marina in Huddleston! On August 22 from 4 pm to 9pm, you can enjoy local wines and microbrewed beers! There will not be any shortage of summer time fun!! Tickets can be bought
online or from many local businesses. Advance tickets are $15 and are $20 at the gate. Don’t forget to bring your ID so you can enjoy all the local wines and beers!
Only one thing is missing…music!! But have no fear, the Bedford Chamber of Commerce has it covered! Part Time Party Band will provide music for the evening. There will also be various food vendors at the Party too! Looks like everything is covered for friends, music, wine and fun!!
So don’t miss the 2009 Beach Bash at Parkway Marina this weekend! Don’t forget that the
Savoy-Lee, another fine SML winery that happens to be for sale, is always open for tastings too. Come visit us here at Smith Mountain Lake, and if you like it then move here! If you are thinking you don’t want to miss any of the spectacular seasons at Smith Mountain Lake, call
Vicki Millehan, you local real estate expert! She can help you find a
Lakeside Home where you can enjoy all the beauty of the area from your own back deck!!
by GO Agency
Virginia is for lovers as they say – but it’s also for people who love good wine. No visit to Smith Mountain Lake or anywhere else in Virginia would be complete without a trip to “wine country” – actually nine regions throughout the state. With over 140 wineries, Virginia is finally reaching its promise as the wine producing center that early settlers had hoped it would be. Only California, New York, Oregon, and Washington currently have more wineries, and the fine and varied output of local vintners has found it way to the White House during the events surrounding President Barack Obama’s inauguration and has won praise from Bon Apetit magazine and Martha Stewart.
The founding fathers of Virginia saw wine as key to the state’s economy and made it a law that every male settler had to plant 10 vines and tend them. Disease killed off the vines which were supposed to produce enough wine to supply the British Empire. Tobacco became the new hope for Virginia, but many people tried to cultivate European vines, including Thomas Jefferson and George Washington. All attempts were unsuccessful but native American grapes produced award-winning wines by the late 1820′s. At the Vienna World’s Fair in 1873 a Virginia Norton wine was named “best red wine of all nations”; the same wine also won a gold medal at the Paris World’s Fair of 1889 when the Eiffel tower was constructed. When vintners later found that American and European vines could be grafted, the industry saw steady growth – which was derailed by Prohibition. In the late 1950′s, local vintners began experimenting with the hybrids again – with great success. This time, industry growth has been skyrocketing as the number of wineries have increased. There is a serious marketing efforts underway to promote the wine industry.
The state has nine wine regions, which makes a trip to wine country a must for vacationers and a popular destination for locals as well. Tucked in the Central Virginia Region (CVA), the area is set along the eastern slopes of the Blue Ridge Mountains. It includes a small ridge known as Southwest Mountain, the site of Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello home, where he tried for years to grow European grape varieties that would make good wine. When local vintners started using native and hybrid grapes, they found that the area yields wonderful variety of wines that include: Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon, Chambourcin, Chardonnay, Gewurztraminer, Malbec, Muscat Canelli, Muscat of Alexandria, Norton, Orange Muscat, Petit Manseng, Petit Verdot, Pinot Gris, Pinot Noir, Riesling, Rkatiteli, Sauvignon Blanc, Seyval Blanc, Syrah, Tannat, Touriga Traminette, Vidal Blanc, Viognier, and Zinfandel.
Among the 33 wineries in the CVA, there is the
Savoy-Lee Winery in Huddleston, VA, 30 minutes from Roanoke, Lynchburg, Bedford, and Faith Mountain Lake. Small and family owned like many in the area, the Savoy-Lee Winery was built to produce high quality wine. The first grapes (both American and hybrid) were planted in 2001; within a year a variety called Woodstock Merlot won a bronze metal in local competition. The first crush occurred in 2004. Currently, the winery produces Cabernet Sauvignon, Sangiovese, Merlot, Cabernet Franc, Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, Traminette, Chardonel, and Viognier -plus prize-winning local varieties of red, white, and blush in the Johnson Mountain Picnic Series.
Carefully planned since 1998, the winery is positioned for growth. Due to family circumstance, the winery is now up for sale. (See the listing at
http://activerain.com/blogsview/1074688/savoy-lee-winery.) Fully outfitted with a vineyard,
winery, tasting room, and private home, the winery sits on 117 acres which include a lake. With a planned production of 5,000 – 6,000 cases per year, Saxon-Lee was also laid out to accommodate tourists and local events such as weddings – three strong income streams for a potential owner.
The property offers a prospective owner a unique business opportunity in a beautiful area of Virginia. For information, please contact
Vickie Millehan at (540) 520-2401 or by
emailing her for more details. You can also see more information about the winery at
http://www.savoy-lee.com/.
Virginia is for lovers as they say – but it’s also for people who love good wine. No visit to Smith Mountain Lake or anywhere else in Virginia would be complete without a trip to “wine country” – actually nine regions throughout the state. With over 140 wineries, Virginia is finally reaching its promise as the wine producing center that early settlers had hoped it would be. Only California, New York, Oregon, and Washington currently have more wineries, and the fine and varied output of local vintners has found it way to the White House during the events surrounding President Barack Obama’s inauguration and has won praise from Bon Apetit magazine and Martha Stewart.
