It was a beautiful day - great weather, delicious beverages and snacks, and even better conversation with the small group. With only three couples in their Corvairs, changing plans became much easier as the mood stuck us.
The lovely Loriann and I met Tommy and Kathy (also from Baltimore/'63 Monza) amongst the apple trees of Distillery Lane Ciderworks (southwest of Frederick, MD). After purchasing our tasting tickets and snagging our complimentary goblets, we wandered the grounds and made the tough choices as to which of their dozen different drinks to imbibe. Finally, we were out of tickets and it was time to move on to our next destination, Creek's Edge Winery.
An enjoyable drive of roughly a half-hour took us across the Potomac into Loudin County, VA and ended at a rustic barn serving as the Winery's stand-in tasting room for the day (a wedding party had taken over their real tasting room). We were pleasantly surprised to find a live band tuning up as we bellied up to the bar and began tasting a flight of really good wines. After finishing our generous portion of the first on, Rory and Rita (Silver Spring/'66 Corsa) walked up and joined us. They shared the details of their morning's adventuresome trip in a rough-running 'vair. They'd recently took delivery of the first Corvair a few weeks ago and Rory, a capable mechanic, has been learning the nuances of the flat six while fixing the few previous owner screw-ups.
As the band started playing, it became necessary to go outside so we could converse without yelling. Six (or was it seven?) generous glasses later, we all wandered down to the meadow-cum-parking lot where the guys made some adjustments to Rory's car and discovered something else the PO had done wrong (distributor installed a couple teeth off, so the spark plug leads were one contact off). We ended up leaving the distributor alone, but thanks to Tommy bringing a timing light (who knows?) we got that and the idle speed set.
We then had to make a decision as to the next winery. One had three miles of gravel road to traverse while the other had just one. The adventurer in all of us won out and we chose more gravel over less. Another thirty minutes of driving deposited us at the pond-side old home housing the tasting room of Corcoran Winery. We selected a picnic table in the sun where we spent at least an hour eating meat, cheese, and bread while drinking two bottles of their delicious Apple Wine.
All of a sudden it was five o'clock and we realized we still had one more winery to visit. The next one on the agenda was at least a half-hour away - too far. We'd passed another one just a few miles before arriving at Corcoran, and, thanks to a quick check on the internet, we knew that Village Winery would be open until 6, so that's where we headed next.
Our server/entertainer for the next hour was the owner/farmer/winemaker. Bottom line: he was a hoot and an effective salesman since that was the only place Loriann and I spent more than the price of the tasting. Especially good were his non-alcoholic drinks made from Elderberry and Chokeberry and a new salad dressing he came up with that will be at your local Panera any day now.
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