Just before Thanksgiving we had an opportunity to take a week-end off and decided to make a quick trip to Charlottesville, VA. Located at the foot of the beautiful Blue Ridge mountain range, it’s only about a three and a half hour drive from the Eastern Shore of Virginia and it’s a drive through some of Virginia’s prettiest countryside, ever gorgeous in the fall. We started out by heading south over the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel, deep blue waters of the Bay glistening in the sun, picking up Rt 64 west to Williamsburg, which is a lovely tree lined drive through slightly hilly terain, a quick stop at the Williamsburg Outlet Mall for a pair of boaters at Bass Shoes, lunch at the Cheese Shop in Merchant’s Square in the Colonial historic area, one of their delicious Virginia country ham sandwiches accompanied by a little glass of chilled white wine. Back on the road again, by-passing Richmond, heading into even more rolling terrain until suddenly, from the top of a hill, the peaks in the distance now reveal themselves in varying shades of blue, the Blue Ridge Mountains, a lovely sight, and then we’re quickly in Charlottesville.
Charlottesville, C-ville, as residents call her, is best known for three things. 1.) It is the home of UVA, the University of Virginia, which in 2011 once again maintained its top rating, tied with UCLA as the 2nd best public university in the entire nation. 2.) It is the location of Monticello, the exquisute mountain-top estate of the 3rd president of the United States, Thomas Jefferson, and a named UNESCO World Heritage site and 3.) It is home to Ash Lawn, home of James Monroe, 5th president of the Uunited States. And as if that were not enough, among others, it is also the home of author John Grisham and Dave Matthews of the Dave Matthews Band !
A word, or 2, about UVA. Its gorgeous campass, with mostly classically styled buildings nestled into a rolling terrain, is sited on 800 acres of land which had been part of a 3000 acre parcel owed by James Monroe. The original concept of the University came from Thomas Jefferson, who rated his work in designing and establishing it as the primary achievement of his life, more important even than his presidency. The most revered building at UVA is its first building, the Rotunda, designed by Thomas Jefferson himself, a beautiful classical design modeled after Rome’s Pantheon. Fully completed only after Jefferson’s death, the Rotunda became the academic village that Jefferson had envisioned, containing the library, classrooms, faculty offices and student rooms. Now, of course, the University is a huge affair, with an enrollment of over 21,000 students and a faculty of nearly 1400– I’m sure that Jefferson would be tremendously proud of all that has been accomplished by his successors in the last nearly 200 years.
Sunday morning, after a relaxing brunch at Maya’s on Main Street in the C-ville’s quaint little downtown ( highly recommend the potato cakes with smoked salmon ), we set off for a day of exploration and wine tasting. As it turned out, there was more exploration and less wine tasting. Having driven by Ash Lawn, the home of president James Monroe, many times we decided that the time had finally come to stop and take the tour– and so we did. ( A little trivia on US presidents– 8 were born in the state of Virginia and 7 are buried in Virginia including both Jefferson and Monroe.) Monroe purchased an estate of over 3500 acres ( including the 800 that went to UVA) adjacent to Monticello where his close friend Jefferson lived. Jefferson helped Monroe select the exact location to site his future home which Monroe named Ash Lawn-Highland when it was completed about 1800. Although Monticello is a very grand home, Monroe went in the opposite direction and built a very tasteful but much smaller home which he referred to as his “cabin castle” in the country.
The property is a now a museum owned and operated by the College of William and Mary, with house and grounds very much as they were in Monroe’s day– formal flower gardens, a large working veggie and herb garden, numerous out buildings including the barn, icehouse, smokehouse, etc., pastures with cattle grazing, all overlooking the beautiful mountains. It was a most interesting tour with a few bits of great trivia: back in the day wallpaper was extremely expensive and so was not actually glued to the wall as it would be today but rather attached by tacks so that if the owner moved the wallpaper could be packed up along with the other household furnishings. Also, Monroe was the very first president to commission his own presidential china for use during his term in the White House- prior to that presidents were expected to bring their own china Washington with them. And of course since that time ever subsequent president has commissioned his own china pattern for official White House use. But the most interesting couple bits of Monroe triva offered by the tour guide were that in the very famous painting of General George Washington crossing the Delaware, then Lieutenant Monroe is shown in the boat standing just behind Washington, holding the flag. However, at the time Monroe had actually already reached the New Jersey shore in an entirely different boat from Washington. And talk about making a fashion statement, a replica of the deep rose colored wedding gown worn by Monroe’s glamourous wife, Elizebeth, stands in the drawing room, made notable by the fact that has no buttons, snaps or fasteners of any kind whatsoever — she was literally sewen into the dress for the ceremony after which the dress was taken off by re-opening the seams !
From Ash Lawn we were off to the new winery acquisition by “The Donald”. The former Kluge Estates Vineyard is now called Trump Winery, no surprise there although the primary wines for sale are ’07, ’08, ’09 and ’10 bottlings which still carry the Kluge label. The tasting room is very much the same, still attractive warm woods but an additional large outdoor seating area has been added in the back and a large screen TV in the main room offers a beautiful slideshow of the vineyard through the seasons. Sparkling wines were very much the signature wines of Kluge and I’m sure will be of Trump as well. We ordered a small cheese plate and tastings of all 3 of the sparklings, a Blanc de Blanc, Blanc de Noir and the Rose’, favorite hands down being the elegant and beautifully colored Blanc de Noir.
From Trump it was on to the only other vineyard we had time for, Jefferson Vineyard, just a few minutes away from Monticello. It is well-known that Jefferson became a great connoisseur of wine from the substantial amount of time he spent in France when he succeded Franklin as the American ambassador.
Jefferson was eager to establish vineyards on this side of the Atlantic and the land on which Jefferson Vineyards stands was at one time owned by by an Italian viticulturist who was prompted by Jefferson to try his luck in Virginia.
(Posted by Marlene Cree, licensed Virginia agent with Blue Heron Realty Co., 7134 Wilsonia Neck Dr., Machipongo, VA)
