Anytime of the Year - Heart of Virginia Wine Trail Passport Ticket Purchase:

January 28th & 29th 2012 – CHILI COOK OFF WINE TRAIL WEEKEND
Tour Central Virginia's Premier Wineries: Cooper, Grayhaven, James River and Lake Anna! Buy a passport ticket (www.HOVAwinetrail.com). You will get a souvenir wineglass, tasting at the four Heart of Virginia Wineries and a chance to win amazing prizes upon completing the trail. During this weekend you will get to sample Chili at each winery, then vote for your favorite one! Please note that Heart of Virginia Wine Trails can be completed anytime during normal hours of operation.

March 17th 2012 – Go Green Event at Cooper Vineyards; Time: 11 to 5pm TBA

March 31st and April 1st 2012 - APRIL FOOLS WINE FESTIVAL
at James River Cellars Join Cooper, Grayhaven, James River Cellars and Lake Anna for a two day wine festival on the grounds of James River Winery in Richmond, VA. Taste wines from 4 Wineries, listen to live music, visit with craft vendors and check out our food vendor. Picnics are always welcome at our events.
Tickets: $15.00/person Time: 11 – 5 p.m.
Note: Rain or shine both Saturday and Sunday Location: James River Cellar Winery (11008 Washington Hwy. Glen Allen, VA 23059)

August 4th - CARIBBEAN WINE FESTIVAL AT LAKE ANNA WINERY
Dance under the starts at the Heart of Virginia's 4th Annual Caribbean Wine Festival - held at Lake Anna Winery! Taste award winning wines from Cooper Vineyards, Grayhaven Winery, Lake Anna Winery and James River Cellars Winery. Kick back with a glass of your favorite wine and listen to live Caribbean music. Enjoy great Caribbean food from the food vendor.
Tickets: $15.00/person Time: 6 p.m. – 10 p.m. Note: Rain or shine Location: Lake Anna Winery (5621 Courthouse Rd. Spotsylvania, VA 22553) www.HOVAwinetrail.com

November 3rd & 4th 2012 - HARVEST WINE TRAIL
Tour Central Virginia's Premier Wineries: Cooper, Grayhaven, James River Cellars and Lake Anna! Buy a passport ticket from (www.HOVAwinetrail.com). You will get a souvenir wineglass, tasting at the four Heart of Virginia Wineries and a chance to win amazing prizes upon completing the trail. During this weekend you will get to graze on munchies at each winery, visit with craft vendors, check out special promotions and possibly squeeze in a Barrel Tasting or two. Please note that Heart of Virginia Wine Trail can be completed anytime during normal hours of operation.

Past Event: Feb 5 and 6th marked the third aniversary of the Heart Of Virginia Chili Cookoff. This year we were blessed with good weather and a great turn out!
Probably our highest attendance to date for this event. GrayHaven winery and James River winery contributed a fine entries and ran out due to public satisfaction. Cooper chili went off the chart with a Chocolate entry that complimented their Noche line. The Grand winner for 2011 and of course all the bragging rights and the official cup holder for the year is Lake Anna Winery. Picture to be added once the cup is received! Recipe is as follows:

6 cans 29 oz All Natural Tomatoe Sauce
6 cans 29 oz All Natural Petite Diced Tomatoes
6 cans 15 oz Frijoles negros (Black Beans)
6 cans 15 oz Frijoles Rojo (Red Beans)
2 cans 15 oz Fresh Canned Chopped Corn (drained)
Chili Powder (5 oz jar)
Hot Sauce (Chile Habanero) (4 oz jar)
6 lbs Ground Chuck cooked drained
Chopped Chives to taste
Secret Ingredient (one cup Spotsylvania Claret) OK half the bottle! But some actually made it to the pan!

Makes enough for 22 quarts and feeds approx 60 people. We made 88 fricken quarts over the weekend! We hope all of your Super Bowl Parties go well and your team wins. Early betting line at Lake Anna is Pittsburg by 5 1/2.
Look for our next event in March where we will introduce the new 'Green Tasting Room" at Cooper Vineyards.

March 19th 2011– Go Green Event at Cooper Vineyards

Wow! This was an exciting event. Heart of Virginia's first GO GREEN WINE FESTIVAL was a great success. Over 150 people came out to Cooper Vineyards to get the very first look of Virginia's First LEED Certified Winery!
We had wine tastings from four wineries, music by The Donnybrooks, some really terrific BBQ from The Barbeque Exchange based out of Gordonsville. And all the plates, forks and cups were completely compostable. Heart of Virginia would like to say a big Thank You for Virginia Green / Greener Results for managing all the recycling. Here is their report... Once we weighed everything, we came up with only 8.5 lbs of trash out of nearly 185 lbs of total materials. So, a 95% recycling rate! Pretty good show!

And the icing on the cake was to sit down with a glass of wine and listen to some facinating seminars. We got to hear about Solar Array from Jeff Hall, concrete and recycling content by Stan and Noel and a great talk about LEED strategies used to build Cooper's new building by Architect, Michael Pellis.

If you missed our 2010 event, then mark your calendar for Next Year - Heart of Virginia's GO GREEN WINE FESTIVAL is expect to take place next year on St. Patrick's Day, March 17th, 2012. Can't wait to see you there!