I drove home today from Columbia South Carolina. Sorry I didn’t post anything Saturday (I did do boobage) but after a day of wine tasting and dinner at the Lafayette Inn it was time for football. Clemson finally got to play someone good.

Saturday was a beautiful day in Virginia. One of the wineries we visited had an upstairs tasting room so we sat outside and the owner brought the wine to us. He told us a story about how someone from Missouri who visited his winery called Norton wine the Ozark Cabernet. Norton is the state grape of Missouri. It originally came from Virginia. For the record, it tastes more like a Syrah than it does a Cabernet Sauvignon. Also, Hermann, where most of it is produced, is not really in the Ozarks. Anyhoo, later he told someone else from Missouri that someone had called it the Ozark Cabernet and that Missourian left in a huff. Obviously that person did not have a sense of humor. I’m from Missouri and I love that name for Norton.

More wine facts. During Prohibition many vines were uprooted. In Hermann Missouri, the crafty Germans planted corn around the vines to hide them. After Prohibition, wine production was ready to rock in Hermann. Many Missouri vines were shipped to Virginia. So, Norton started in Virginia, was taken to Missouri, and then went back to Virginia.

I’m not a big fan of Virginia reds. I do like some of the whites, which is what I buy on these trips. I normally buy six bottles, usually Vidal Blanc and Sauvignon Blanc. They’re overpriced but I’m helping out the local economy. I hope some of the counties we visited were 2nd Amendment sanctuary counties.

As I said, we ate dinner at the Lafayette Inn. One of my readers, who lives nearby, recommended it and we’ve eaten there the last two trips. It is the site of an historic event and has a marker to commemorate it.