Category — virginia wine country

This month, the Southern Virginia Wine Trail (SoVa) will host its first annual indoor winter wine festival. 12 local wineries will participate, including Moneta’s own Hickory Hill Vinyard.

All advanced tickets are SOLD OUT! The festival kicks off at noon on February 18, so get there early to get your ticket!

For more directions and more information about the participating wineries and vendors, visit the festival website.

Wrap up the summer at Chateau Morrisette with their Friday Night Live, Cinema on the Lawn and Labor Day Monday events coming up on September 2, 3rd and 5th, respectively. Chateau Morisette is located in nearby Floyd and is convenient to all Smith Mountain Lake Residents, offering spectacular mountain views and regular fun-filled events for all tastes.

If you’re in the mood for a more rambunctious good time, live entertainment and fun, upbeat music, Friday Night Live features Southern Remedy from 6-9 p.m. Southern Remedy is a returning band that performs classic rock music, and while you listen you can dine from the outdoor grill, drink wine and dance with friends. Tickets cost only $8 apiece and you must bring your own seating. This event will continue rain or shine.

Next on the agenda for the weekend is the Cinema on the Lawn event. This is a more relaxing event for those who would like to curl up in a lawn chair and watch the sun set and have some delightful cinematic entertainment to round out their weekend. The Hitchcock classic “Dial M for Murder” will be shown and wine and food will be sold separately at the event. You must bring your own seating and blankets and picnics, coolers or outside food and drinks are not permitted. Tickets are $5, much less expensive than your average movie and with scenic sights surrounding you as the movie lights up the silver screen.

Finally, come celebrate your Labor Day Monday at the winery and join them for lunch followed by a tasting and tour. The restaurant will be open on Monday from 11 am to 2 pm and the winery hours are from 10 am to 5 pm. Take this opportunity to relax and enjoy some delicious beverages and food and pamper yourself a bit on your day off!

Chateau Morrisette would like to offer you a wonderfully relaxing weekend with their 3-day lineup of exciting events so close by to Smith Mountain Lake. If you haven’t visited the winery before, take your chance now in the midst of so many wonderful activities!

Whether you’re a wine connoisseur or want to broaden your tastes, the Sedalia Center’s 4th Annual Jazz & Wine Festival has something to offer everyone. Come out for a classic evening of wine tasting and jazz music featuring talented artists and a rare chance to sample the tastes of some of the region’s best vintners. The smooth voices and musicianship of Jane L. Powell, Nat Reeves, and the Vince Lewis Trio will provide the perfect backdrop to your wine-tasting experience while you sample wines from Blue Ridge Vineyard, Century Beverage Distributor, Chateau Z Vineyard, and Fincastle Winery, among many others.

The event takes place in the Sedalia Center’s shaded, atmospheric open-air pavilion. The artists are local legends, with Jane Powell beginning her singing career in Roanoke, Virginia and Nat Reeves being born in nearby Lynchburg. Powell has been described as having a soulful style and a five-octave range, performing throughout the US, Canada and the Caribbean and has been featured in a national McDonalds commercial, a Dino DeLaurentis film Marie and in the 1999 New Line comedy, The Bachelor. Nat Reeves and The Vince Lewis Trio have also received national acclaim and airplay. These artists are divine jazz musicians who will put on a performance you won’t want to miss out on at the Sedalia Center!

Bring your friends and family out for a night of refined relaxation and all sorts of live entertainment with music, dancing, and drinks from 4:00-10:00 pm on August 27th at the Sedalia Center located at 1108 Sedalia School Road in Bedford, VA. It is convenient to Smith Mountain Lake and only costs $15 for an advance ticket and $20 at the gate for a night of music, wine, vendors, festival food and beverages. Advance tickets may be purchased here.

For more information, call (434) 299-5080 or visit www.sedaliacenter.org

For more live musicians and entertainment as well as an opportunity to enjoy some great local wine, consider stopping by Hickory Hill Vineyards and Winery located in the beautiful Smith Mountain Lake area on Saturdays this summer.

Each event will be held on Saturdays through September 3rd and will run from 7:00-10:00 pm.

The lineup of local musicians is as follows:

July 2nd: Kevin Marshall-a songwriter from Charlotte, NC who previously played in the Sutton Ain’t Right band. He is the cousin of local musician Scott Sutton.
July 16th: Square Peg-a jazz duo performing live
July 23rd: Kat Mills-an acoustic singer/songwriter based out of Blacksburg, VA
July 30th: Sparks Will Fly-A blues/rock/acoustic group based out of Roanoke, with Brittany Sparks on vocals, Billy McCray on guitar, and Scott Sutton on bass.
Hear some of their music at ReverbNation
September 3rd: Larry, Mike & Chip-a group of songwriters who will be performing as “songwriters in the round.”

The cost is $10 including glass and tasting. Kids & DDs get in free.

Bring lawn chairs and a picnic spread and sample Hickory Hill’s fine wines, available for purchase by the glass or bottle, all while enjoying live local musicians!

Offering fine wine and delicious gourmet cuisine, Chateau Morisette is the perfect place to spend your Sunday listening to free live music and enjoying grilled foods, soft drinks and wine available to be purchased beginning at noon. You can even bring your own picnic and just enjoy the atmosphere and free entertainment.

Chateau Morrisette holds these events every Sunday through October. On Sunday, June 26^th, the live music and entertainment begins at 1:00 pm and ends at 4:00. They are located at:
287 Winery Road SW in Floyd, Virginia.

This Sunday’s entertainment is Crusher Run, who has been playing bluegrass, traditional folk country, and folk music since the fall of 2000. They describe themselves as a “Goodtime Band”. You can hear their music at http://www.myspace.com/crusherrun

Come out for free entertainment and purchase some food from the grill. Be sure to bring your own seating.

If you’d rather do something earlier in the morning, a Sunday Brunch Buffet is held every Sunday June-October from 11:00 am until 3:00 pm.

The buffet is $23.95 per adult and $12 for children under 12.

A limited a la carte menu is also available.

Take advantage of Chateau Morrisette’s special summer events!

For more information visit http://www.thedogs.com, email info@chateaumorrisette.com, or call (540) 593-2865

If you have been looking for a reason to come check out the area, there is no better time than this weekend! September 26 and 27 is the Smith Mountain Lake Wine Festival at LakeWatch Plantation! It is still not too late to buy advance tickets at a discount! You can even buy them online, but hurry, advance tickets are available until September 23rd!

The SML Wine Festival is a favorite event and one of the most popular with visitors! Wineries from across the state come to offer samples of their top wines. Add to that wonderful food and live music and you have a great weekend ahead of you! With so many wines and so little time, how do you know what wines to sample first?

Well, first off, if you are going to be sampling a lot of wines: bring a designated driver! Law Enforcement will be present to make sure everyone stays safe. Secondly, bring your ID! You would hate to miss out on sampling award winning wines. This may sound simple, but they are very important tips!

When it comes to sampling, you may want to check out the different vendors BEFORE you start. Taking a stroll around the Festival will give you an idea of what wines are available to try. With such a large variety of wines, some people even have a little notebook to make notes in so they know which wines they want to go back and sample. They can also make note of what they liked the best! This may sound serious, but with such diverse wines to choose from, it really helps!

Just as an example, let’s take a look at a Peaks of Otter Wine; Chili Dawg. This is an apple wine with chili pepper wine blended in. This is one HOT DAWG! Of course it isn’t as hot as their Kiss the Devil wine. That one is made from 30 varieties of peppers! The name says it all! Then if you take a look at some of the Hickory Hill wines, you will see how broad the difference in wines can be! Smith Mountain Lake Redbud is a sweet dark rose wine made from Cabernet Sauvignon, Chardonnay and Vidal Blanc. There is also a wonderful “breakfast wine”, Smith Mountain Lake Sunset, it is a great dessert or brunch wine (and the 2007 Virginia Governor’s Cup Winner).

There is almost no better time to visit Smith Mountain Lake than during the SML Wine Festival! With over 20 wineries participating, you can truly see and taste the best of Virginia! So come for a visit, if you like it, then move here! Vicki Millehan can help you find the perfect waterfront home! She can even tell you more about the Savoy Lee. An award winning winery for sale now in the Smith Mountain Lake area! Who knows, maybe next year YOU could be a vendor at the wine festival!!

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.