• winery review: molon lave;

    March 16, 2018bestwithchocolate@gmail.com

    Sister to one of our favorite wineries Mediterranean Cellars, Molon Lave has a much larger and commercial feel, with the perks of a small lake, rolling grounds and event space. The wines are different but still fall in the range of Greek-style offerings. – – Here’s part two of our getaway weekend (read part 1 here)! I shared the first post this past weekend because we had such a good time I couldn’t keep it in! And so many people have asked us details on the place I thought it a good idea to elaborate and share the link! Head…

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  • Wines at Potomac Point Winery @ bestwithchocolate.com

    brunch review: potomac point winery;

    March 31, 2017bestwithchocolate@gmail.com

    Potomac Point Winery is down south of NoVA, rather than west like a lot of other wineries we frequent. We were actually looking at it as a possible wedding venue, though jury’s out if it’ll make the cut!  It’s a gorgeous property, and not too bad to find. We’ll kick off the review with brunch: the food was delicious!  Tyler and I were both starving after our wedding venue tour, so that probably added a few points in their favor. But the food we had was delicious!  I went with a grilled chicken, pesto, and sweet pepper flatbread. It was…

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  • Big Cork Winery, read the review @ bestwithchocolate.com

    winery review: big cork

    March 17, 2017bestwithchocolate@gmail.com

    I wasn’t sure what I was going to think of Big Cork when we went.  A friend highly recommended the place to us, so we were excited, but upon pulling up to the property my first thought was: name don’t lie, this place is BIG.  I don’t have a huge bias against big or corporate wineries, just simply that some of our favorites are smaller wineries like Mediterranean Cellars (review).  It was starting to get dark, on a slightly cloudy day, so the pictures aren’t quite what I’d like.  But this place was cool!  Very spacious and open, but also a little quirky…

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  • Orchid Cellars Tasting Room, Read the Review @ bestwithchocolate.com

    winery review: orchid cellars;

    January 27, 2017bestwithchocolate@gmail.com

    Orchid Cellars is actually a meadery and winery!  In the interest of not having a bajillion categories, I file this under winery with Ciderworks, even though they’re a little less traditionally “winery”.  They’re both perfect stops to make on the Antietam wine trail to add a little something different to your outing!  This little baby here (actually not so little anymore) is actually one of the first reasons we ventured up to the Antietam Wine Trail at all. A friend grew up in the area and frequented Orchid Cellars with his mom, and he used to bring back all varying…

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  • Ciderworks tasting glasses, read the review @ bestwithchocolate.com

    winery review: ciderworks cidery

    January 13, 2017bestwithchocolate@gmail.com

    While most of the wineries we typically go to are out toward western Virginia, occasionally we’ll make the trek up to Maryland!  There’s some nice places up there too, and specifically some unique places. The Orchid Cellar Meadery is one (post to come!) and Ciderworks is another!  It makes the Antietam Wine Trail perfect to do a little tasting of all your favorite alcoholic beverages!  I’ll save the mead and wine for other times, but Ciderworks is one of my favorites because it’s so unique.  It reminds me a little of Great Shoals actually (read the review), because it’s not made…

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  • My family at Chrysalis Vineyards, read the review @ bestwithchocolate.com

    winery review: chrysalis

    October 14, 2016bestwithchocolate@gmail.com

    I don’t know if anyone’s noticed, but around here in Virginia, we’ve finally entered real fall weather!  I personally wish there was a little bit more of a transition since I’m prone to being cold, but T just loves the sweater weather that’s going on.  This past weekend was a long weekend for both T and me (Columbus Day), and we packed it full of stuff as we’re ought to do.  We hit up the Renaissance Fair again with some friends who had never been (check out my original review), and also hit up a few wineries with my parents who came to visit!…

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  • Wines at Cooper's Hawk Winery, read about it @ tipsychocochip.com

    winery review: cooper’s hawk winery;

    September 24, 2016bestwithchocolate@gmail.com

    This is part two of the Cooper’s Hawk Winery and Restaurant review, focusing on the winery!  Read part one here. There was just too much to throw into one post so I wanted to separate out the two to do them each justice. When you first walk into the Ashburn, VA location, you walk into the winery. There’s some cute novelty wine items in the front, including some entertaining wine pourers featuring a variety of animals, and also some zombies. All of the stoppers pour from the subjects mouths are are quite festive. They use their pourers at the bar,…

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  • Mexican Drunken Shrimp appetizer at Cooper's Hawk Winery, read about it @ tipsychocochip.com

    lunch review: cooper’s hawk restaurant;

    September 23, 2016bestwithchocolate@gmail.com

    So these past few weeks have been crazy, as I’ve mentioned!  With the wedding, aka Bucknell reunion since like half the guests were college friends, it was an awesome but completely packed wedding weekend!  A whole bunch of the Bucknell crew ended up going to brunch at Cooper’s Hawk Winery & Restaurant. I’m actually going to dedicate two posts to this, one for the restaurant now, and a future one to the winery!  That way I can give both aspects their due. So onto the lunch!  We had originally wanted brunch, and I thought they had a brunch menu, but…

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  • Mediterranean Cellars Review @ tispychocochip.com

    winery review: mediterranean cellars;

    August 26, 2016bestwithchocolate@gmail.com

    Here it is!  I know I’ve been promising this post forever, back from when T’s parents came to visit and we stopped by quattro goomba winery (read the review), and america eats tavern (read the review).  Mediterranean Cellars is really one of our favorite wineries.  I’ve discovered a love of wineries through a friend that I went to college with, R.  He works at The Winery at La Grange out in Haymarket where he grew up, and he’s taken us around to some of his favorite other wineries in the area over the three years I’ve been in Virginia.  Mediterranean Cellars is definitely a…

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  • Sicilian-style pizza at Quattro Goomba's Winery Review @ tipsychocochip.com

    winery review: quattro goomba winery;

    August 5, 2016bestwithchocolate@gmail.com

    Quattro Goomba’s Winery was the second stop on our day out with T’s parents a few weekends ago.  The first being Mediterranean Cellars-tune in next friday for my review of it!  T and I had visited Quattro Goomba’s another time earlier, for DC SIR’s anniversary party.  It was a nice winery, made especially nice by all the shiba inus roaming around!  But this time it was so hot, I was sweating through my clothes! Quattro Goomba’s actually has both a winery and a brewery, although I have yet to actually try the brewery.  As if that wasn’t enough, they even have a restaurant!…

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  • Review of Great Shoals Winery @ bestwithchocolate.com

    winery review: great shoals winery;

    July 10, 2016bestwithchocolate@gmail.com

    Yesterday was an amazing summer day!  Beautiful outside, and definitely hot, but not so horrible in the shade.  Definitely would have needed some sunscreen if we didn’t camp out at some nice picnic benches at great shoals winery!  I’ve wanted to try out this winery for a while since it’s pretty much smack between where I live and Baltimore, where we have a number of friends!  However today was so gorgeous and we were in the area anyway shopping for fabric for my bridesmaid dress (J’s wedding is only 3 months away!!!  It’s so close!), so groupon in hand, we trekked…

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