Fall

Fall is coming. I woke up this morning to the -thunk- of my 4:45 AM newspaper (thanks Max- you’re a real doll). When I stepped outside I took a deep breath and there it was: the unmistakable crisp scent of fall. Sadly, just 4 hours later the air once again smelled of the low-tide marsh at the end of my street. Oh well. By late August, I take what I can get, even if its a 4:45 sniff.

My three favorite things about fall:

- changing leaves
- hooded sweatshirts
- wine

Not necessarily in that order.

A few years back I found myself living in the District (again), missing the coast of Northern California. From Berkeley, I was only about an hour south of Sonoma. Sonoma's landscape never failed to take my breath away. But in D.C. ...not so much. So ewhah and I headed west for a little more than an hour and ran into this surprisingly amazing Virginia winery.

Ok, the wine sucked. But the land was gorgeous, the town was cute and hell- we we’re drunk. All was well.

I’m going to try to do the same thing again- check out some of Virginia's wineries. After all, Thomas Jefferson was a wine aficionado and convinced that the plains southeast of the Appalachian Mountains near Charlottesville were perfect for growing grapes.

Being Virginian, I must bow to the damn near omnipotence of Thomas Jefferson. I’m going lookin’ for booze.

ClipArtCredit Dan Berger appellationamerica.com