Entries by Stephanie Pence

No Corkscrew? No Problem!

Last month my mom left me for over 2 weeks!  Can you imagine that? 14 long days without her to follow around and wait for her to give me the best ear rubs anyone can give?  I was morose. I did nothing but mope while my dad tried to love me back to my normal […]

2019 Governor’s Cup Gala

In the Virginia wine world, February means something very exciting. No, it is not my birthday month.  That is August, just in case you are wondering, and I wear a size yummy in treats. What February is known for is that it is the month when the Virginia Governor’s Cup announces all of the award […]

The Making of Dessert Wines

It’s hard to believe that our vineyard finally has something on the menu that is as sweet as I am.  When we released our dessert style Petit Manseng, Lil Em, last week, I have to admit that I didn’t know a lot about dessert style wines.  Over the past week, I have undergone an investigation, […]

A Perfect Wine Glass?

Boy, oh boy- I have missed this keyboard.  Before I talk to you about the importance of using a wine glass when drinking wine, I wanted to catch you up on my last month.  Several weeks ago, I had a sore toe. I licked it until it felt better, but all of a sudden my […]

Winston’s Gratitude Post

I was sitting down in front of the fire with my mom and her laptop the other night, and as we were scrolling through Facebook, I noticed some of the gratitude posts that other folks were posting.  That got me thinking that I have so much to be thankful for: I have two amazing parents, […]

Harvest Time!

I know at least some of you saw the harvesting fun that we had over the past few weeks. For us folks in the wine industry, the harvest is the culmination of a year’s worth of hard work pruning and training vines, examining and treating any pests, wrapping rows in netting to protect the grapes […]

Wine Tasting 101

Boy, oh boy, have we been busy here at Brix & Columns.  Hurricane Florence was scheduled to bring a deluge of water to the Shenandoah Valley, and Jeanette didn’t want to risk letting the grapes stay on the vines.  Mom, Gene, and everyone they recruited to help them worked all day for many days to […]

Field Trip Day!!!

Oh boy, oh boy, yesterday was an exciting day here at the vineyard.  All of the staff came over after closing hours for a bit of on-site training.  The field trip started with a reminder to all staff that, due to recent treatments, they may not to eat directly from any vines except Chambourcin.  This […]

Shocking News About Wine!

When Mom and Dad brought home a load of Cabernet Franc last month, I kept hearing them talk about bottle shock…  What in the world?! The only thing I want to be shocking about the wine coming from Brix & Columns is how delicious it is! Apparently this “bottle shock” can manifest in a couple […]

Traveling with Wine

You may have seen that one of our wines is taking a trip this week. I would love to vacation, but for some reason I always seem to get stuck at home instead. “You’re too big, Winston,” they say, or “Why don’t you stay home and guard the house?” I guess it never occurred to […]