Beltway Bacchus 2009 Recap

Even though I have not posted nearly as much as I would have liked towards the end of the year,thank you to everybody who has stopped by Beltway Bacchus during its inaugural year! Actually, this is its half-year mark as I kicked off the blog in June, but as it is now 2010, it is time for the recap of 2009.

I started off the blog with one basic idea in mind: to write about wine and more specifically, the wine culture and wineries in the greater DC area. I strayed early on into the wines of the Finger Lakes and other interesting bottles that Caitlin and I opened.

With that said, and without further adieu, here is a recap of the first year of Beltway Bacchus. I look forward to your comments and hope that everyone has a very healthy, productive, and wine-filled 2010!

• I kicked off Beltway Bacchus on June 13, 2009 with a welcome to readers. Although it has only been six months, it is fun looking back at what my intentions were, and how far off or on the path I strayed or stayed during the course of the first year.
• Very early on, like in my second post ever, I strayed away from the DC theme to discuss a nice white from the Finger Lakes. Truth be told, I also discussed rockfish, a local favorite, and the bucket grill, so I don’t feel all that bad about it.
• I followed-up my bucket-grill love with an open-ended question about why merlot is such a derided varietal.
• Here we are, four posts in, and I am back to a quintessential DC activity: going to Wolf Trap with a picnic. Yes, it was South African wine, but everything else was DC-centric. And the wine was called Wolf Trap, too. So there. It was also the post that got me my first comment!
• Later in the summer, Caitlin and I decided to open a bottle we had been saving from our trip to Napa a couple years ago. It was the rare varietal, Charbono, and it was delicious.
• Following that, Caitlin and I traveled to a relatively new winery in Leesburg, Dry Mill that had better than expected chardonnay and syrah.
• Tarara Winery celebrated its 20^th anniversary this year.
• There was plenty of media attention paid to the controversy over a new winery trying to open in Fairfax County, as well as continuing developments. The latest update is that Paradise Springs is finally set to open, with a grand opening scheduled for January 16. I am looking forward to visiting it in the near future. Congrats!
• Beltway Bacchus paid close attention to Virginia Wine Month, with additional information available here and here.

There you have it. I did have posts other than those listed, but these make up a pretty good retrospective of 2009. Thanks again to everybody who stopped by in 2009. I look forward to hearing from you in 2010!