On Sunday, we attended an annual wine festival in Columbia, MD (our home town) called Wine in the Woods. Both of us had been before and we were very much looking forward to trying some yummy wines and doing some serious people-watching. Several of Erin's law school buddies were there, in addition to the Vaughans, our dear family friends, so we got to drink a bit with them.
Last year, we stumbled across the best sangria we've ever had EVER, so this year we were determined to find the vineyard again and buy many bottles. Of course, our memories were no good to us (a) because it was a year ago and there were so many vineyards present at the festival, and more importantly (b), we were drunk off sangria when we had it last. Cruel fate!
After much searching, we saw a woman drinking a glass of something that looked just like the sangria from last year! We bolted to the stand where she was, had a taste of the sangria, and confirmed it was the right one - mission accomplished! We tried to buy two bottles but alas, they were sold out! Apparently our idea to buy a bunch was not an original one. However, the kind gentleman who served us our samples told us that the recipe was online and we could make it ourselves if we bought the wine, called Sweet Katherine, from them, and that we did. (Sweet Katherine is a lovely, sweet red wine, which is what makes the sangria so good. I find that most sangria recipes start with some crappy red wine, and that scratchy-ness of the crappy wine comes through in the sangria; with Sweet Katherine, this is not a problem.)
The vineyard is called Elk Run and their sangria is so popular, the recipe is located on the homepage. We will be having our own sangria soon, I'm sure! 
Anyway, after our slight defeat with the sangria quest, we decided to get some food since the festival always has a wide variety of delicious treats (for ridiculous prices, of course). We had some trouble deciding where to go, but we ended up getting some West African fare, which included black beans and rice, and some of the best plantains we've ever had. Delicious.
Our friends Bryan and Laura let us sit with them at their blanket, and we had some of Laura's awesome brownies. 
She claims she puts in chocolate, caramel, sweetened condensed milk, and butter, but we think it was crack since they were so good.
Overall, it was another great time at Wine in the Woods, and we will surely be back next year! 
Happy drinking,
E & X
ps. One of the booths there was related to the alcohol laws in Maryland, and Xani having written a piece on the topic, we had to take a picture! Too many lawyers, as usual. 
That is an interesting observation on the sangria. I may have to try that out this weekend. Looks like the weather was fantastic as well.
ReplyDeleteI had no idea there were so many wine makers in Maryland. Did they come from somewhere else as well?
Yummy. I will definitely be trying that sangria recipe.
ReplyDeleteps. I love all the cute pics of you guys on this site!
Wasn't WITW ridiculously awesome in about 25 different ways? I'm a big fan, and will certainly be back next year. Cool to meet you on Monday!
ReplyDeleteWe definitely need better alcohol laws in this state! UGH! Would love to see a link to the piece you wrote.
ReplyDeleteSnacker- unfortunately the piece I wrote is a little outdated (4-5 years old!!). http://www.betterbeerandwinelaws.org/ has some good information, and goes far beyond the focus of my paper, which was only about the restrictions against interstate shipments of beer and wine and the interstate commerce clause. Sounds like a page turner, right??
ReplyDeleteThanks for the link!