Come and Get Them

It pays to have awesome friends.  My good buddy's boyfriend called us up this week and asked us if we wanted to join them on a jaunt out to Warrenton, VA, to visit a winery and help them use an Amazon Local deal they'd purchased. Into day seven of the government shutdown and eager to see the light of day, I gladly accepted.

Sunday saw us making the great hour-long trek from DC to the wilds of Virginia. Our destination was Molon Lave Vineyards. "Molon lave" is a historic ancient Greek phrase that dates back to the year 480 B.C. at the Battle of Thermopylae. (You may remember this battle from the awesome abs-and-sandals picture 300) During said battle, the opposing army's leader encouraged King Leonidas to surrender and give up his weapons. Leonidas' response? "Molon lave," or "come and get them." Yeah, so that's pretty hardcore. With a name like that, how could you go wrong?

Now for some history - Molon Lave is owned and operated by the Papadopoulos family, of whom patriarch Louis is head winemaker. Louis' experience with winemaking began in 1961, in the Kifissia suburb of Athens, Greece. Surrounded by the centuries-old vineyards, he made his first barrels of traditional red and white Greek wines. He cultivated his first small vineyard on his forty-acre farm in Corinth, alongside lemon, orange, and apricot groves. In 1984, the family relocated to Northern Virginia and opened Mediterranean Cellars in 2003. Molon Lave opened in 2009, though the vines were planted in 2003. Louis' son, Louizos, is the owner of Molon Lave, and many family members work at the vineyard as well.

Upon entering the grounds of Molon Lave, you drive through some of the active vines growing alongside of the driveway. Though Brian and I have been to many wineries, we've never seen actual grapes growing on the vine! These grapes were a deep purple and looked as th
ough they were going to plop off at any minute. Members of the staff assured us that final harvest would be occurring in the next few weekends. (I'll admit that I very naughtily stole a grape off said vines to sample and was instantly punished. There are a lot of seeds in raw grapes, as it turns out. But what I could eat was pretty good!)

The first part of the deal entitled us to an olive oil sampling. I've never seen such a thing before in our travels, so this was a treat. The olive oils for sample did not come from the winery itself, but from Laconiko Olive Oil. Laconiko olive oil is grown and pressed on an olive estate located off the sandy beaches of the Southern Peloponnese, outside of Sparta, Greece. It is then shipped stateside and has a somewhat limited distribution. (Fun fact: this is another family operation! The four Pierrakos siblings all live in Gainesville, Virginia, not too far down the road from Molon Lave.) We were able to try five flavors of oil along with the basic extra virgin olive oil - garlic, basil, lemon, rosemary and blood orange. Spoiler alert: I walked away with a bottle of the lemon, which I've been assured tastes delicious on salads and as a marinade. The oils were all super delicious and nothing like we have here. Which makes sense, because the United States (as we were told) does not have any labeling requirements on what can be called "extra virgin olive oil" unlike the rest of the world.

The second part of the deal was a winery tour. A daughter of the vineyard was our tour guide, and she was exceptionally knowledgeable and entertaining. We viewed the small and large barrel rooms, which held these beautiful 300-year-old tables from a monastery in Greece. They were so heavy that forklifts were needed to bring them into the winery itself! We were then allowed to view the cellar where the wine is actually made. Molon Lave is one of three wineries on the East Coast that makes kosher wines, so there are stringent rules and regulations they must follow when making those varieties. After that we were shown the bottling, labeling and corking stations- all of which are run by hand by members of the family. The last stop on the tour was the press pad, where the grapes are processed before moving into the vats.

After the tour we participated in a wine tasting. We were able to taste six wines, and the seasonal sangria. We started with the 2012 and 2013 chardonnays, which were just okay to me. Truth be told, I am not much of a white wine fan. The tasting then moved to the 2012 merlot, the 2011 cabernet sauvignon, and the 2010 cabernet franc. Of the three, the franc was my favorite. I love dry reds, and this really spoke to me. We finished with the 2012 autumn nectar, which is pretty much exactly what it sounds like- a thick, fruity wine that was very, very sweet. I was not a fan, but again, I'm just not that fond of white wines. We were then treated to a glass of the sangria, which I believe was orange or mango juice with blueberries, ginger ale and one of the chardonnays. A very sippable beverage- I definitely could see drinking a few of these then suddenly standing and finding that there was a problem with the ground not standing still.

As part of the deal my friends were able to get two picnic baskets, which were filled with summer sausage, cheese, crackers and tasty cookies. We gladly picked up a bottle of the cabernet franc and headed up to the pavillion on the property to kick back and relax. With a beautiful view of the lake and the vines, this was truly an enjoyable way to end the afternoon. Though I didn't think any of the wines were truly outstanding, I definitely believe this is a worthwhile stop on any wine tour of the area.