I want one!!!

Friends in VA...

In February 2010 I spent 2 fab weeks with my best friend in Virginia, USA. She had done an amazing job planning and arranging various activities for my visit which made my holiday totally amazing and a really special experience.One of our first activities was a visit to a picturesque winery called Barrel Oak Winery, situated amongst some amazing countryside – a great deal more of which we got to see because we got lost and ended up driving past some decidedly quaint country residence! I developed a love of American style barns that day – all snow capped and country – lovely!

The family run Barrel Oak Winery, situated in Northern Virginia, has a uniquely welcoming, friendly, and relaxed family atmosphere. It’s comfortable and unpretentious environment can be enjoyed by guests and man’s best friend alike as the premises are dog as well as people-friendly and the owners like to call it BOW as in BOW WOW!

The estate-grown varieties include Traminette, Seyval Blanc, Merlot, Chambourcin, Vidal Blanc, Petit Verdot, Petit Manseng, Merlot, Viognier and Chardonnay. They also have Virginia grapes from some of the finest surrounding vineyards from which they make a variety of refreshing and lovely wines.

The winery has some of the most breathtaking views in the region, situated just below the Piedmont Blue Ridge across from Little Cobbler Mountain and surrounded by cattle and horse ranches. BOW has a huge stone patio where guests can watch the sunsets over the mountains and look over the historic and lovely John Marshall house and barns. During the winter friends and families huddle around the fire pits to stay warm, share a glass or two of wine and enjoy good conversation. Everywhere you turn there is beauty and calm and guests can step off the patio directly into the vineyard.

The entire winery is hand-built with underground production facilities where guests take a guided or self-guided tour and see the wine being made in the barrel room, crush pad, and steel tank room. The massive hand-hewn timbers, extensive stonework, enormous cedar doors, and huge stone fireplace attest to the care given to every detail and are truly breathtaking. The structure also takes the environment into consideration, built with a new geothermal heating and cooling system, low energy lighting and engineered insulating panels throughout!

From the moment we entered BOW's tasting room we found friendly, accessible and knowledgeable staff ready to help with our exploration of quality wine tasting. Our dedicated server told us the story behind each wine and totally bamboozled me with talk of woody undertones, fruity bodies and balsamic gestures... As a person who has never liked wine and therefore knows nothing about wine, being a vino virgin proved to be a bit of a puzzlement to our server. I felt like a Little Britain character – every wine we tasted received the response “I don’t like it”! I could obviously tell that each wine tasted different and some were less objectionable than others, but at the end of the day, I’m not a drinker and the wine just didn’t taste nice to me!

At this point I would like to point out that those who do ordinarily drink wine absolutely loved the wines on offer – I quite obviously am not one of those refined wine drinking connoisseurs who can appreciate the squashed grape!

Even though I don’t like wine, we still had a great time and my I’m sure my facial expressions kept the staff and clientele amused... Our feedback was obviously invaluable to BOW – comments like “ok”, “nice”, “not as nice as the last one” and “not sure about this one” probably went down a treat... To any wine connoisseurs, the official consensus is that BOW’s wines are very good, revealing the distinctive style and tasteful complexity of Northern Virginia's unique terroir. From the non-connoisseur viewpoint, we had a giggle, caused our server some pain at my total lack of vino knowledge, ate some grapes and cheese whilst listening to a man with a beard sing and play guitar (rather well I might add) and had a lovely evening socialising in an amazing environment with lovely people! Highly recommended!!!

And so to end this instalment of my little adventures with a joke and a few superb wine tasting one-liners that made me giggle...

An edgy, nervous wine that dithered in the glass...

An austere, unforgiving wine...

The wine seems to be very closed-in and seems to have entered a dumb stage...

An aristocratic Englishman went into a pub and boasted that he could tell the origin and vintage of any wine. People in the pub put him to the test. He was given 2 glasses of wine for tasting and he was correct on both counts. An old French man sitting in the corner was aghast and went up to the Englishman with his glass in hand. “Jolly good. Now, can you tell me the origin and vintage of this wine?” The arrogant Englishman took one sip. Before he could gargle, slosh it around in his mouth or whatever you call it, the Englishman spat it out and yelled, “This taste like piss..........”  The delighted French man exclaimed, “Now that you are correct on the origin, tell me how old I am.”

Butchers Restaurant - great place to dine!

One of my friends has dubbed me a bit of a foodie - not sure the tag totally suits me, but I do love finding nice restaurants where the food not only tantalises the taste buds, but is also served with a smile and doesn't pull on the purse strings too much.

The Gambia's tourist industry is gradually progressing, providing some excellent restaurants and wonderful experiences. During my time there one restaurant in particular became my favourite - The Butchers Shop Restaurant.

This restaurant actually started life as a butchers shop and although it still operates a wonderful delicatessen, the restaurant is now the main focus of the business. The service is impeccable – perhaps less Gambian and more European – but the waiters take pride in their service and ensure your needs are well provided for.

The Butchers Shop Restaurant has a wonderful menu and caters for breakfast, lunch and dinner. For breakfast, the farmhouse omelette with beef is delicious and became our family favourite. Both breakfast and lunch are available at very reasonable prices – the evening menu is more pricey but well worth it! The most memorable evening meal I had was the lamb shank – the meat was so tender it literally fell off the bone and the complimentary tastes of herbs and fresh vegetables made my mouth water. I have never tasted anything so divine!

They also have a great selection of wine and local drinks such as Bissap (Jus de Bissap is a traditional non-alcoholic Senegalese drink that's been called 'Senegal's National tea' and is made from an infusion of the flowers of the hibiscus plant. Served with ice it is absolutely delicious and quickly became my favourite beverage!) and baobab juice (another traditional Senegalese fruit juice drink made of rehydrated baobab fruit pulp).

If you visit The Gambia, you simply MUST visit The Butchers Shop Restaurant – impeccable service, one of the most stylish restaurants in The Gambia, world class food and music, fresh produce and excellent service.

The Butchers Shop Restaurant
130 Kairaba Avenue

Fajara

P.O Box 216

Banjul

The Gambia

Tel: (220) 4495069

Website: www.thebutchersshopgambia.com