For the next few days, I’ll be on a trip for a travel story to Virginia and DC’s wine country. I flew out this morning.

I came prepared with my flying essentials: Great book (in this case, it was Go Set A Watchman), caffeine in the form of tea, and a sweater. Because planes are freezing.

For the first time, I was entrusted with a rental car on a press trip. Surprisingly this area of Virginia doesn’t have terrible traffic. My first stop after landing in Dulles was Lost Rhino Brewing, where I had a flight plus a few extra, and took a tour of the premises and yeast lab.

Great beer that focuses on being true to style. And the gose was on point. There really isn’t a better way to start a trip than landing and immediately drinking beer. From there we ventured to Stone Tower Winery which just added an amazing event venue. This is possibly the prettiest vineyard I’ve been to.

Not only is this an awesome event venue, but the wine is killer. My preference is the estate Chardonnay. Surprisingly the winery was packed for midday on a Thursday. For a pretty new winery, they’re doing a great job. Finally I arrived at my accommodations for my stay, Salamander Resort in Middleburg. I was welcomed with this display that made me feel much more important than I actually am:

This is truly a first class experience. I had dinner onsite at Harrimans which was delicious. I got so sidetracked by checking out my suite that I was a tad late for dinner. This place even offers yoga on horseback. i barely mastered paddleboarding so I doubt I’ll be trying that out. With that said, I find it pretty cool that most of the amenities offered here are completely open to the public. If I lived anywhere near here, I would take advantage of that in a heartbeat. So far Virginia and Loudoun County has exceeded expectations.