The National Folk Festival and two wineries as we wind our way home

Saturday was a lovely day to check out the National Folk Festival in Richmond. Blue sky, light breeze, beeyootiful. An impressive event, considering there was no cover charge. Lots of decent music on five or six stages and plenty of carny food. Couldn't bring myself to try the deep fried Twinkies. Hey, I'm a purist. I like mine straight up. The vegetarian options were not fabulous but they were okay and I was glad to see and support them. James River had a booth for wine there. They were okay but not as tasty as I remembered. Maybe it was the plastic cup that messed up the flavor.

On the way back we stopped at Hartwood Winery (www.hartwoodwinery.com) and Rogers Ford Farm Winery (www.rogersfordwine.com). Why is it that the second winery always has tastier wine? ;) Both wineries were welcoming, knowledgable, had pleasant atmospheres. We wound up buying more at Rogers Ford, though. Maybe it was the fact that we were in a place called Summerduck. Maybe it was the presence of all those winery dogs. Happy dogs make happy wineries. Or something like that. Speaking of which, there's actually a book about winery dogs out now! Blew me away but it makes a lot of sense. If you get to Rogers Ford, definitely try their variety of whites but also check out that funky Rose thingy they've got. It's not what you would expect.