Wine In The Vines Elite Soiree

Oops. I’m a bad elite since it’s taken me over 2 months to write my review. Sorry, Morgan & Vicky, since y’all planned an awesome event for us.
The tour was great and I was very appreciative that it was customized to shorten the outdoor bit since it was 80 bajillion degrees. I love the science behind food so the distilling/​nuts & bolts part of the tour was awesome.
Lucky for me that Vicky remembered that I can’t eat goat cheese so I had bonus chocolate and cow cheddar with my wine.
I also have to give a shoutout to my fellow Unilocalers and the Wine folks for treating my 70+ Mom so well. The staff accommodated her limitations beautifully and my fellow Unilocalers treated her as if she was one of their own. So as always, the people are awesome!

I don’t know much about wine except that I like to drink it. Pontchartrain Vineyards was a great place for an event and Morgan along with Vicky rocked this one. It was educational and lots of fun.
Lincoln, one of the owners of the vineyard, was engaging, hysterical and informative. He and his wife went out of their way to make us all feel at home. I enjoyed learning about the wine making process from picking the grapes to bottling and labeling it.
The wines we were able to sample were pretty good and the cheeses were paired perfectly with it.
The thing I love the most about these events, however, aren’t the complimentary drinks or food. It’s the people that I’ve met and become friends with from Unilocal Nola. Hanging out with them is always fun and I feel lucky to have formed relationships with many of them. Even better… I met some new friendly people at this event. Yay for that!

What do you get when you combine wine, cheese and awesome people? You get a fun and informative elite event.
This event was special for several reasons. It was Morgan’s first elite event as our CM, our first North Shore elite event, plus it was attended by some of the coolest Unilocalers in Nola.
Before I go any further I want to thank Morgan and Vicky for all of their hard work planning and putting on this event. I appreciate everything y’all did to make sure we had a good time. On to the review…
The Event
The drive to this event was beautiful. My drive was shorter than others, but the rolling hills and horse farms north of Covington sure made the trek worthwhile. As I pulled into the vineyard, I knew we were in for a treat. The vineyard is set on a 15 acre tract with a large majority of the land being several different varieties of grape vines.
We first began in the tasting room. One of the vineyard owners. Lincoln gave us a brief speech about the winery and how they got their start in 1991. From there we walked to the vineyards and learned all about the varieties of grapes, the varmint fence and the plans for potential expansion. This part of the tour may have been longer, but we all began to melt due to the heat. Luckily the next stop on the tour was the refrigerated room where the grapes become wine. I thoroughly enjoyed this part of the tour because the process they go through is fascinating to me.
The super cool air was also nice. After learning all we could, we headed back to the tasting room to sample their wine.
All along the bar and tables were individual place settings of cheese, a booklet and a wine glass. The booklet and plates were very impressive to me as I cannot imagine the amount of work that went into them. The plates were separated into several sections with a different type of cheese in each section. The booklet detailed which cheese and wine we were sampling and an area for notes. While I did not particularly care for some of the wines they offered, I did enjoy others. I even ended up buying a bottle of their «Da Red» which was not part of the tasting, but was one I tried before the tour.
I was very impressed with the cheese from Rocking R Dairy. The two different chevre varieties were excellent. I cannot wait to buy some at the next farmers market.
The People
As with all events, it’s the people that make it special. I loved getting to see many of my old friends, but I was also glad to meet Algiers Unilocaler Greg and his whole krewe. It was really nice to see Unilocalers who haven’t been to other events coming out and experiencing all of what Unilocal Nola has to offer. There were a few others I didn’t recognize, but I unfortunately didn’t get to meet everyone.
The owners of Pontchartrain Vineyards are great people. They truly made us feel welcome and treated us like old friends. I can’t wait to go back.
I had a really good time at this event. For those of you that missed it, I will see you at the next one.

Wine and cheese. What else could you ask for? Unless it is sharing the experience with Unilocal friends. Pontchartrain Vineyards started the event with a brief tour of the nearest vines, giving us a little history of the vineyards, explaining they were growing Native American grapes and hybrids. Then on to the cellars for more on the art of making wines. Following the tour, the wines and cheeses. We were served six wines, 5 paired with cheeses from Rocking R Dairy, and a port paired with dark chocolate. As with any wine sampling, not all were to my taste. That said, the 2010 Le Trolley is a nice wine for sipping chilled on the patio during the summer. It is made from an American-​French hybrid grown on the estate (the vines we were introduced to). The 2010 Voodoo Zin is a nice soft zinfandel made from sourced grapes out of Mendocino CA. I keep trying their Rouge Militaire as it is made from an American grape grown on the estate. (I keep debating whether to try to grow some in my backyard.) The 2010 is decent, although the flavor profile is something different from most French grapes. Good enough to bring a bottle home. Hats off to Morgan and Vicky (the plates were awesome). And the sponsors, Pontchartrain Vineyards and Rocking R Dairy. It was a great way to start a Saturday afternoon.

Can’t think of a better way to spend a beautiful fall Saturday afternoon! Morgan and Vicky went above & beyond to ensure a good time was had by all!
Lincoln and the crew at Pontchertrain Vineyards were so warm & welcoming. The wines were great & the cheese pairings, compliments of Rocking R Dairy, were perfect!
Thanks again to y’all for an elite outing to remember!!!

The Unilocal events are so much fun, and this one was no different. What a great idea to get out of the city and travel to what is likely the closest vineyard to NOLA. Our hosts, one of the owners and his wife, could not have been more hospitable. We were offered a nice opening taste of a wine of our choice followed by a tour of the vineyard where we were afforded the history of Pontchartrain Vineyards. It was a little warm, so we melting Unilocalers were then shephered into the cellar where our host shared the methods employed by the winemaker from juicing to labeling. Then on to the best part –the tasting.
Our hosts put together a nice lineup of 6 wines which were paired with 6 delicious cheeses from Rockin’ R Dairy. The wines were all interesting. You could definitely taste the German influence on the winemaker who learned his skills in Germany.
It was a great event. Congratulations to Morgan F., our awesome new CM, on her first event. The hard work she and Vicky put in was evident and appreciated by all.