Travel

Exploring Loudoun County’s Wine Country: A Barrel Tasting Journey

N. Scott Emery, P.E.Leave a comment

This past Saturday, April 5th, we embarked on a barrel tasting adventure through six Loudoun wineries—four new discoveries and two familiar favorites. The experience offered not just delicious wine, but a deeper understanding of how Virginia’s terroir shapes its distinctive vintages and a fascinating education in winemaking.

Throughout the day, we learned how barrels from different origins—American, French, and Hungarian oak—each impart unique flavors to the aging wine. We discovered that older “neutral” barrels have less influence on flavor as they’ve already released much of their oak character in previous uses. Perhaps most interesting was gaining insight into which grape varieties thrive in Virginia’s sometimes challenging climate, with its heat and unpredictable rainfall patterns.

Here are my takeaways from our day away from all the noise.

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German Lesson in the Atrium

N. Scott Emery, P.E.Leave a comment

As I looked up and realized that I was sitting in an atrium behind the Panera Bread in Washington DC’s China Town, I was reminded of another atrium that I sat in many years ago. That atrium was in Bamberg Germany. Bamberg is famous for its Rauchbier (smoked beer) and the group I was with was getting a talk on the history of unusual brew.

The brew master gave his talk in German, which was fine because most of our group was German. I traveled to Germany a good bit and could understand some German, but was really not following this talk. After the presentation had been going for a good twenty minutes, one of the Germans that I was sitting with leaned across the table and asked, “Do you understand what he is saying?” I replied, “Not Really.” To which my colleague responded, “Don’t worry, we cannot understand him either.” It seems that local dialects can be tough to follow just about anywhere you go.