Drinking and Dining at District Winery

I'm a huge fan of wine tasting and the Virginia vineyard scene. What I am NOT such a huge fan of is the hour drive to get to most of our local vineyards (if you live inside the Beltway) and the hour drive home.

The newly opened District Winery makes a phenomenal tasting and dinner just a Lyft away.

D.C.'s first winery opened over Labor Day weekend at its beautiful Navy Yard location and you can bet I was one of the first through its doors. When we arrived on the Saturday before Labor Day, there was already an hour wait for tastings of its Brooklyn-made wines. Its incredible location in the heart of the Navy Yard made that effortless -- we strolled the boardwalk and then got a rosé cocktail at Whaley’s just across the plaza while we waited.

District Winery is the second winery opened by co-owners Brian Leventhal and John Stires, who opened the Brooklyn Winery in 2010 with head winemaker Conor McCormack. On the day we visited, Brian Leventhal was greeting guests, shaking hands, and sweeping up a dropped wineglass. When we stopped to compliment him on the awesomeness of the place, he invited us back to the winery, where Conor McCormack was punching down Pinot Noir. For now, D.C. guests will be enjoying the wines produced from California and Finger Lakes grapes in the Brooklyn winery. But soon, we'll be quaffing wine made right here in the District.

I'm helping. Punch down of Pinot Noir.

Tasting is a loud but low-pressure experience. The two-story glass walls -- offering views of the Anacostia, the boardwalk and the pretty plaza -- made it a little hard to hear our tasting room host talk about the wines. It fortunately did not affect the flavor. The wines, ranging from a Finger Lakes Reisling to a Sonoma Valley Cabernet Sauvignon, were delicious and effortlessly drinkable in a way you can’t always guarantee in some further-away Virginia wineries where sometimes the focus seems to be more on the tourism experience than the quality of the wines. The District Winery definitely led with quality first. Two particular favorites were the Suison Valley, CA Pinot Reserve and the Malbec, also from Suison Valley, CA . The skin-contact Chardonnay was also really unique, with a glowy, honey-orange color.

We returned two weeks later to try the restaurant, Ana at District Winery, and -- I'm not kidding -- when you eat there, you will think I buried the lead. Ana offers seasonal American fare that compliments the District Winery wines  -- and it's fricking delicious. We started with the Heirloom Tomatoes and the Crab Beignets, which actually complimented each other really well, and we fought over who got to wipe up the beignets' romesco sauce with the last bit of whatever. The tomatoes were served with a goat cheese spread between triangles of sourdough; they were like fancy grilled-cheese sandwiches. My husband got the buttery Amish Chicken -- he always hates it when I out him for ordering the chicken -- but I definitely won with the Pan Roasted Atlantic Cod. The skin-crisped fish was served in a bowl with an outstanding dashi at the bottom and two chanterelle ravioli. The filling of the ravioli was sweet and creamy and a perfect compliment for the salty broth and fish. I got obnoxious with my yummy sounds.

The glass windows don't seem to create the same noise issues in the dining room -- hubby and I had no problem hearing each other and we had a fabulous view of the lit-up South Capital Street bridge and the riverwalk along the Anacostia River. Pedestrians outside stopped to take in the painted portraits of American presidents lined up on the dining room wall -- painted by a Brooklyn Winery bartender, they literally supplied 30 minutes of conversation for us and also sparked chatter with the next table -- and its fun to look at the people passing by while they look at you while you look at them...

I forgot to mention -- when we entered the dining room that night, co-owner Brian Leventhal was also there, holding the door for us and shaking the hands of entering dinner guests. One thing I've always enjoyed about Virginia wine tasting is the welcoming atmosphere. District Winery is making sure you get that same experience in the bustle of D.C.

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District Winery

Tasting Bar Hours: There is a substantial wait on the weekends. Come prepared to stroll...

• Mon to Thurs, 1pm - 9pm
• Fri to Sat, 12pm - 11pm
• Sun, 12pm - 9pm

Ana at District Winery:

• Mon to Thurs, 5pm - 10pm
• Fri to Sat, 5pm - 11pm
• Sun, 5pm - 9pm

Want to discover more fun to-dos in the Navy Yard? Check out my blog An Awesome Anacostia Riverwalk Walk.

Exploring Virginia Wine Country

Fabbioli Cellars in March

We’ve gotten grumpy as we’ve gotten older. That dense elbow-to-elbow city-ness that my husband and I used to love about being inside the Beltway when we were younger is something we look to escape every so often these days. So we’re blessed that, in under an hour, we can be driving past stately wooden fences, rolling hills and stone buildings that signify one thing: We’re in Virginia wine country.

It took us too long to visit it. Our little kids (don't take them to a winery; just don't), and the extreme good fortune of spending bits of every summer visiting my parents’ vineyard in Sonoma County kept us away. But finally, this March, we pawned our now older kids off on some friends and headed west for a weekend.

Virginia wine country is unique from Sonoma or Napa because of its history. The ancient stone inns and horse fences stretching over pastoral hills and two-lane brick roads taking you through downtown Burgs (Middleburg, Leesburg) are beautiful in their longevity and sense of place. I’m not a Horse & Hound kind of woman, but I definitely see the appeal.

Wine is produced in every nook and cranny of Virginia – it’s the fifth-largest wine-producing state – but we stayed north of I-66 and east of the Blue Ridge Mountains, where we had almost 40 wineries to choose from.

Wineries We Visited

Hidden Brook Winery – We began our tasting north of Leesburg at Hidden Brook Winery, a cabin in the woods in an area that’s becoming a crossroads for wineries, with Hidden Brook, Fabbioli Cellars, The Vineyards and Winery at Lost Creek, and Tarara Winery all in a couple of miles of each other. If you follow my rule of no more than four wineries in a day, you could hit this quadrant and be done. Hidden Brook was a lovely place to visit.

The award-winning wines of Fabbioli Cellars

Fabbioli Cellars – This family home with the tasting room in the cellar knocked me out! The tasting was an event, a seven-course, food-and-wine pairing with a host all to ourselves. And any West Coast snottiness was wiped away by the appeal of these Fabbioli Wines. We walked away with several bottles of the Tre Sorelle, a Table Red, and a Tannat for a special occasion.

Barrel Oak Winery – The two times we’ve been to Barrel Oak (once for a friend’s birthday party), we found the crowds we were trying to escape. Just off I-66, the winery is perched at the top of a big hill filled with picnic tables and fire pits and 20-somethings in their aviator glasses admiring the view. Which is great for this obviously popular winery. But not so great for us grumps. We snuck into the besieged tasting room, bought a bottle, drank a bit of it at a picnic table, and escaped.

Three Fox Vineyards

Three Fox Vineyards – Three Fox Vineyards has a small and cozy tasting room on the south side of I-66, and a large, beautiful meadow rolling down to benches facing a creek. This is where we walked with our last glass of the day to enjoy the late afternoon light. Three Fox focuses on producing Italian-style wines, and we took home a couple bottles of the Piemontese Nebbiolo.

Bluemont Vineyard – Bluemont Vineyard was our last stop before we headed back home Sunday. What a way to go out! The drive alone was awesome – we took a “shortcut” north along the spine of a mountain-top road with incredible views of the Blue Ridge Mountains to the west, and then up a steep, sweat-inducing road to get to the winery. On a clear day, you can see Tysons from the ski chalet-like second story deck. The tasting room staffers are loads of fun and as many locals seemed to be filling the tasting room as non-locals. Oh, the wine? We couldn’t leave without a few bottles of their Cabernet Franc.

The March view at Bluemont Vineyard

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Visiting Virginia Wine Country

For everything you could ever want to know about visiting Virginia wineries, check out VirginiaWine.org. 

Where to Stay: We stayed at the Red Fox Inn, a fieldstone building and collection of cottages in the quaint downtown strip of Middleburg. It is thought to be the oldest continually operating inn in the United States, and it has been visited by President John F. Kennedy, Elizabeth Taylor and was a regular destination during fox hunting season for Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. 

The incredible brunch at The Ashby Inn

Where to Eat: We had some outstanding meals in Virginia wine country.

• The Wine Kitchen
• Tuscarora Mill
• The Ashby Inn in Paris, Va. - I have to give a special recommendation to The Ashby Inn's Sunday brunch. Paris, Va., is a two-block town in a valley with the Ashby Inn at the top of its main (only) street. And the three-course meal and accompanying brunch cocktails were some of the most innovative and beautifully presented food and drinks I've had in my life.