Above As I walked in we were first gredted by Cassie Gonce and then Denise Pearson asked me of I was Tony and she said : " I remember your wine store very fondly - one if the things I miss snout DC ". Thanks Denise, that means a lot to
me.
I got to talk to Kelly the owner soon after. I met her years prior to this visit with her husband Jeff at the Hendry House when they would be there pouring their wines the Downey Selection portfolio of wines. Now Kelly
or Cassie tell
me that they are represented by William's Corner wines and I like both these distributors and recommmend both snd remember winemaker Charles Gendrot presenting many fine wine selections as well as Tamara Wilkerson!
We started by tasting the dry mecoum- bodied firm , solid food-fine dry rose blend of Merlot and Cabernet franc was it?! what a fine wine to pair with many a summer warm-ersther meal!
Winery manager Cassie Gonce did an amazing job presenting these fine Glen Manor vineyards wines to my daughter and wife yesterday on Father's Day Sunday, June 15,2025. It was quiteliterally an amazing experience for us three - we all enjoyed it! Thanks Cassie.
Cassie points out the vineyards to us on their map - snd before grapes were plsnted it was before on tjis hillside to our left and up from the tasting room that we could plainly see out the window - it was once planted with apples and peaches I believe.
Cassie really gave us three time and a great opportunity to both taste and reflect upon and discuss these amazing and complete natural, balanced, bright, fruit-centered snd focused wines with their own refreshing all-our-senses-friendly-Virginia-wines-made-carefully-attractively-with-only-Virginia-grown-grapes-Warren-county ' little masterpieces '! Great work Jeff!
I loved both the 2023 Cabernet Sauvignon and the Cabernet Franc that followed in this tasting.
I was more surprised and smazed by the 2023 100% Cabernet Sauvignon ( the second vintage - the 2022 according to Cassie was lighter and leaner and all sold out as of last November I believe? I would have lovec to have tried it.
I asked Cassie about whether they had a library of their wines and she said that they did. Great news to see how the wines develope.
I liked the Cabernet frznc as well - both fruit-forward-fruit-bright-centered-fresh!
No tasting the alcohol, no tasting additives or foreign alien disturbing tastes - all
natural , allowing the grapes to express themselves.
What was not to like in these two wines?!
My only comment to Cassie was that I would like to taste ' some funk, gunk, spunk - a little more dirt, a touch more raw and untamed! But that is me, that is my palate!
Ghe wines Jeff makes are all Bordeaux- inspired and yet totally Virginia grown, nurtured, loved and offered up as that , not or never trying to be more or less than what they are; and I love that sooooo!
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As I tasted I tried to capture the moment in the whole tasting room, of those tasting and of the three other ladies pouring these fine Glen Manor Vineyards wines - it was pretty amazing, and there were people outside enjoying the wines as well with their dogs being walked and it all just frlt perfectly right, perfectly sublime, and on Father's day and the 250th anniversary of the army!
Making finr wine, the bedt possible starts in the vineyards and here they may plainly be seen - a lush carpet of green rising and falling ever so gracefully over the two slopes, we can see part of them here, the rest are hidden from our view from the tasting room.
I am sorry I did not drive out to visit thrm snd admire them up close and breathe and see so much more clearly the splendor of these verdant vines where I am sure Jeff has made it so they must struggle some and burrough deeper for water and nuttients to enrich all the orbs of liquid grape varieties from Petit Manseng, Sauvignon Blanc, Riesling, Cabernet Franc, Petit Verdot, Cabernet Ssuvignon!
s I dajd I am thrilled sooooo with this 2023 100% Cabernet Sauvignon - it so drlivers all that I want when I want to be pleased, teased and eased into that comfortably numb aura , state-of-being Roger Waters so eliquently induces with sound and vocals, that ' in a Warren county Front Royal irginia stat-of- mind that Billy Joel would also have found if he was on a bus driving through these lush, vibrant , rich foothills to Skyline Drive!
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So expresdive Cassie, heart and soul you put into thus presentation , your ' Ode
to Glen Manor '!
The Big Picture here was Cassie, the bottle and the labrl, and the wine in the glass! yay! These puctures I help tell a larger story, that is my jntension as wine us art, snd tgat art is as much visual as it is taste and dmell, texture, the dound of it being poured!
These are the Beautiful Big Plans in liquid reslizations tgst nourish snd feed snd quench so many of our thirsts in lifBravo to Jeff, Kelly, Cassie snd whiever rlse trnds to vines , cellar, destemming, picking of thr grapes, teaching while tasting, analyzing, respecting and embludhing but not detracting from the putity snd integfity if each picked grape cluster!
Four superb and talented and passionate women poured and talked sbout these fine Glen Manor Vineyards wines yesterday for us all on Fathet's Day as well as the 250th anniversary celebrations of Army and Military forces!
Anthony TONY Quinn 6/16/2025
Happy wet soggy cool refreshing slight breezes today birds singing chipmunks scampering as I peck type here with one fingetpn my iPhone to get teady to send now as I continue to add pictures and videos.
I sm bit done yet, to be continuedwith love, Tony
As I have said, Cassie Gonce has sone a brilluant job taking on a goose chase that is and was and will be these amazing luquid and constantly developing pure and bright, happy and such a delight , welcome expressions of themselves encouraged to be all that they can and nay be . floating and hanging strong in their own containers from barrel to glass bottle to wine glass to mouth, throat, stomach, intestines guts, and there , tes , experienced, but not seen spirit and soul, our pilgrim souls alive and as well as may be! Yay!
This was Father's Day for me and i was enjoying myself thoroughly!
But thus was about celebrating,too my father Harry Alsn Quinn, my father in maw Guy Beard, and my daughter Abigail with me hete along with my wife Lynne, and my son Alan up in Brooklyn, New York.
I love you all snd am thrilled to have you in my life. I am blessed for thst , a very fortunate father and husband and part if a community I rmbrace open arms.
Thus is also about celebrating 250 years of service to our spmebdid country the United States of America, by our Army! Thank you all for your service to keeping ys safe and free in our frmocracy tgat is niw both being sorrly tested and questioned by some Anericans.
This was the weekend,too of our #NoKingsProtests around the country! Ekeven million people gathered together in leaceful unity to resist the threat to our democracy. My daughter and I went to one of the more than two thousand such protests around the country in each of our fifty states.
My daughter and I went to the one in northern Virginia at the intersection just before the bridge crossing over 495 interstate on Braddock Road.
Minutes after we were dropped off by my wife Senator Mark Warner and so we had a chance to greet him and I had an opportunity to tell him that I first met him the home of Carol and Paul Jameson when ge was eunning for governor.
It was wonderful to both watch and capture in pictures Cassie talking to both my wife and my daughter!
Cassie as sern by me while she is talking through my wine glass!
I love seeing people through my wine glass and thus capturing the wine the glass and the people together as one!
Saint Ruth 2022 is only made in exceptional years and this 2022 was as i would expect perfectly balanced and young and needingmore tome for its terciary flavors to rise up a d out and sprout all about! I began to enjoy it more as i lingered a d let the flavors soread lver my tongue and imbue my palate as if I wete oainting a canvas with its inique qualities. what a treat to save for later and dronk either the Cabernet Sauvignon 2023 or the Cabernet Franc drpending on mood, setting, food choices, people's oreferences, whim, fancy, sing or dance, romance or prance, or staying up all night to get lucky!
Such expression as Kelly comes sooooo fully alive as she speaks about her wines ! There is such joy in her expression and she tadiates, so intense so beautiful , so filled with life, energy, passion; like a firefly, her light so right! Joni Mitchell in her song ' The Circle Game ' ' got up , caught a firefly in a jar , ... " Or ' White Bird ' by Its A beautiful Day, ' she must fly! '; wine must gly it must br free , true and pure and soooooo radiantly alive to thrive , arrive, everything but bribe!
My word writing art and expressing my feelings about life going on around me these turbulent days and nights!
Much more to come here!Tony 6/18/2025
Last night at Wolf Teap Ringo Starr and hus All Starr Band sing " With a little help from my friends ", and then finish with " Give Peace a chance "! Amazing shiw, the words still every bit as much alive and oertinent today as they were in 1967 and 1970 was it? Yay!
Wine and music and art, family and community, all soooooooo essential to our well being! Tony
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