Williamsburg Winery Two Shilling Red 2007

Ah, Williamsburg. I fondly remember going to Colonial Williamsburg one January in the freezing cold with Joy and our daughter Sofi, hoping to get a little mini-vacation in during a couple days we had off work. We drove several hours to get there only to discover it would cost us $35 apiece for a ticket. Having already spent our last shillings on a room at the inn, we were left to wander the streets in the freezing cold, trying to see as much of the town as we could get away with while avoiding the accusing eyes of the surly, colonial-bedecked college students smoking in the restored village doorways. Eventually we gave up, had lunch, and went back to the hotel, content that seeing people in funny costumes talk with affected patois is, truly, in no way worth that kind of money.

This past Sunday Joy and I attended the Great Grapes Wine Festival in Reston, VA. We really hadn't planned to attend, but being in the area, anyway, and having nothing better to do, we decided to stop in. Little did I know that admission, with the right to drink, would cost $25. That's not, perhaps, an unreasonable price for the chance to sample dozens of wines from a number of the best wineries in Virginia, but let's look at this mathematically, please. I review $10 bottles of wine for a living. For $25, therefore, I can enjoy 2 1/2 bottles of wine, or more. So to make this particular $25 cost-effective, I would have to drink the equivalent of 2 1/2 bottles of wine while standing in the middle of a parking lot on a hot Sunday afternoon. Granted, at one point in my life I might have considered that fun. But only if Metallica were playing that night.

I can tell you what I did find a lot of fun: Listening to the residents of Fairfax County straining to wax intelligent on the intricacies of wine manufacture to professionals trained in the field. I'm not sure why being knowledgeable about wine is somehow equated with class but the more status-conscious in this, one of the richest counties in the U.S., almost could not contain themselves. That they were all drunk made it that much funnier.

"Oh, I see. Mmm. I smell raspberry. Made from raspberries? I see. Very clever. What? You mean they didn't use grapes, at all? What?"

"I'll bet this white would pair very well with . . . uh . . . fish?"

"They used Cabernet with the Chambourcin? How whimsical!"

Anyway, of all the wines I sampled in the short window of time allotted to me before I succumbed to sun-stroke, the Williamsburg Winery stood out. As a result, that night at Wegmans I decided to purchase a bottle of their Two Shilling Red for review. As a moniker, I feel "Two Shilling Red" aligns with this blog's mission quite nicely.

It's a nice medium-bodied red with a lot of fruit. I get a taste of cherries and perhaps blackberry. It's an easy-drinking wine that I think would pair well with anything, but mostly with good company.

Just drink it and enjoy it.

7.5 out of 10.

Wegmans, $6.99