Wine Day - Fabbioli Cellars, Leesburg, VA

In addition to my Pizza obsession, my long time readers will know I also actively seek out new and varied experiences with wine.  These pages have a long history of going and finding a winery, which date all the way back to this post in 2010. 

Fabbioli's unique Food Pairings

This weeks visit was to Fabbioli Cellars just outside of Leesburg, VA.

Fabbioli is, out of all of the wineries I've been to in Virginia, one of the most unique; and I mean that in a good way. 

The most surprising part of my visit came very early on.  It was the tasting fee.  Safe to say, this was the highest tasting fee I've encountered in the state of Virginia.  Your $15 does go a very long way.  You get a slate of about 7 wines with a food item specifically picked out for its compatibility with that particular wine.  Safe to say...they NAILED it each time. 

Fabbioli does some very unique wines that you can't really find in the general Loudoun region.  They do fruit wines.  I got to try two, both of which I'd buy if I knew of an occasion they'd be appropriate. 

The two fruit based wines I tried were the Raspberry Merlot and the Aperitif Pear.  The Raspberry Merlot reminded me a lot of Ocean Spray Cranberry Raspberry juice.  As an adult fan of fruit juices (both the kid version and the adult version) I could see how this one could potentially be dangerous.  The winery recommends it with chocolate, personally I'd say it would make a fabulous foundation for a berry compote or even a chocolate torte.

I was taken aback by the Aperitif Pear Wine.  Okay, so confession time, I hate pears.  I don't know why, I've occasionally had really, really good pears I've been talked into buying , but for the most part there's just something off for the majority of pears.  Maybe it's the skin?  Maybe it's the texture of the fruit?  Honestly, I couldn't tell you.  So I had extremely low expectations when it was poured.  When I did my initial swirl the guy doing my pouring commented about my face lighting up and...surprise!  It was really good!

Overall, the $15.00 was well spent.  I need to get back at some point because the wine that (according to the others who were there tasting with me) I'd like the most wasn't being poured.  Unfortunately I took all my notes on the sheet provided by the winery...a sheet which I've completely misplaced.