Sirens of the River Country

Although the Tides Inn alone could keep a traveler content, the sirens of the River Country sing songs too lyrical to resist.

Just beyond the gates lies the little town of Irvington, with quaint shops and restaurants, safe, attractive neighborhoods for strolls and bike rides from the Inn, and the Steamboat Era Museum for a glimpse back into the Northern Neck’s past. The Saturday farmers market, on the first Saturday of each month, offers several rows of local produce and crafts. The dill, cilantro, and tomato plants I brought home from my visit made me feel like Jack with the magic bean, as they grew rapidly, beyond my most hopeful expectations.

Barely a mile from the Tides Inn is White Fences Vineyard, one of the wineries on the Chesapeake Bay Wine Trail. In fact, eight of the nine wineries on this Virginia trail are along the Northern Neck peninsula, and seven are within sixty miles of Irvington.

White Fences Vineyard is a small vineyard with big impact. Perhaps it’s the size that makes the big difference. Although the huge corkscrew sculpture at the entrance yells “Big!” the grapes on the six acres of Vinifera and French American hybrid vines are cared for and picked by hand. White Fence wines are Meteor wines, in tribute to the black rural sky that grants expansive views of starry nights and meteor showers.

In lieu of a restaurant, White Fences offers themed food and wine pairings such as Taste of Tuscany, Caribbean Cookin’, and Flavors of France, in addition to the wine lounge, gift shop and self-guided vineyard tour Wednesday through Sunday.

During my visit, I enjoyed a six-course wine pairing dinner that featured six Meteor wines and such scrumptious fare as Chesapeake crab bisque, sweet onion tart topped with gorgonzola cheese, and smoked duck confit atop chevre on a croustade with balsamic fig sauce. The quality of the food paired masterfully with the White Fences fine wines.

The oldest winery in the River Country – indeed, one of Virginia’s oldest and largest wineries – is Ingleside Vineyards in Oak Grove, established in 1980. Ingleside’s handcrafted wines have won numerous awards and top honors in state, national and international wine competitions, including the Virginia Governor’s Cup, San Diego International Wine Competition, and the London International Wine Spirits Competition. Ingleside’s wide variety of wines include Petit Verdot, Syrah, Rosato di Sangiovese, Sweet Virginia Rose, Pinot Grigio, and the Chesapeake Series, designed especially to complement local seafoods.

The Ingleside vineyards are open seven days a week, with occasional special events as well as space for weddings and private events. Tours are free, tastings, from basic to full, range from $3 to $10.

Belle Mount Vineyards, opened in 2004, is known also for recreational amenities, with a campground, cabins, pool, boat ramp, and a rustic banquet facility. The owner, Ray Petrie, is friendly and knowledgeable, available to walk visitors through the vineyards and the wine tastings.

Local Fare

Any time I’m in the River Country, I can practically feel my appetite for seafood rising like the tides in a storm swell.

Dining at the Tides Inn answered my seafood cravings, from the Chesapeake Club sharing plates, to the fine dining dinners in the East Room – and even for the East Room breakfasts.

The Tides Inn’s informal Chesapeake Club extends onto the terrace, overlooking Carters Creek. Besides standard (but nonetheless delectable) seafood, such as jumbo lump crab cakes, New Orleans popcorn shrimp, Rappahannock River oysters on the half shell, and Prince Edward Island mussels, the menu offers nontraditional seafood dishes such as blue crab quesadillas, Ahi tuna tataki, and parmesan calamari fries. There was no shortage of seafood options here!

My introduction to Tides Inn dining at the Chesapeake Club was accompanied by the Inn’s signature cocktail, Lancaster Lemonade: vodka, lemoncello, fresh lemon juice, and ginger ale over ice, garnished with lemon balm (fresh from the property’s herb garden) and a lemon wedge.

In addition to oyster roasts, Tides Inn terrace also hosts one of the nightly sweet treats for guests, with graham crackers, chocolate, marshmallows and toasting forks provided for make-your-own s’mores around the fire pit. Cookies and milk are available in the View Room each evening from 9-10 as well.

During my trip to the Northern Neck, I began to see past the seafood on my plate and into the business behind it. The industry is one of the Commonwealth’s largest, with an estimated annual impact of over half a billion dollars. It’s the fourth largest producer of marine products in the U.S., landing over 354.2 million pounds in 2008. The top three harvest species, in order of economic value, are sea scallops, blue crabs, and striped bass. Virginia watermen-farmers provide consumers with nearly $50 million of aquaculture clams and oysters. Another important local product is menhaden, a rich source of fish oil and protein products.

As part of our tour, the Virginia Marine Products Board passed out several brochures with mouth-watering recipes for fish, shellfish, and crab. We've included a few of these seafood recipes here in MyVMagazine's Life Is Good department.

My tour of the Northern Neck included a visit to Little River Seafood, which processes, distributes, and imports blue crab products, including crabmeat, soft shell crabs, crab cakes, and their Crabmeat Delight blend of crabmeat and spices. After watching the seasoned professionals picking the meat out of the crabs, I gained a new appreciation for the enormity of the task and the worth of the tasty little morsels of Callinectes sapidus.

The Tides Inn locavore dinner was the dining highlight of my trip, with local Virginia seafood, meats, and produce, all expertly prepared by Executive Chef TV Flynn and Chef de Cuisine John Lawrence, paired with wines from Williamsburg Winery. We began our meal on the terrace with a Rappahannock oyster roast and the Samuel Argall Dry Riesling, 2007. We moved inside to the East Dining Room for our first course of scallops, asparagus bisque, and American sturgeon caviar, paired with the Virginia Vintage Reserve Chardonnary, 2006. For our second course, we enjoyed smoked Smithfield pulled pork with a delightful chipotle-blackberry barbecue sauce and an imaginative corn and crabmeat spoonbread, with a Virginia Trianon Cabernet Franc, 2006. The entrée was Wild-T bison, bursting with flavor with local mushrooms, white cheddar grits, and asparagus, accompanied by Adagio, 2007. Dessert was blueberry shortcake, peanut brittle, and cheese with preserves.

The dinner accentuated the spirit of locavore: the Williamsburg Winery winemaker, Matthew Meyer, and Wild-T Bison ranchers, Frederick and Kerry Wildt, were present to tell us about their products.

Earlier in the trip, we had actually visited the Wild-T-Bison Farm, home of 60 bison, raised with respect for their natural predilections using environmentally conscious land management. To create the best quality meat, the Wildts use no steroids, hormones, or antibiotics; their animals are grass fed and grain finished.

Admittedly, the locavore dinner’s bison was prepared by the Tides Inn executive chef TV Flynn, who could perhaps even make my year-old running shoes taste delightful. However, during the tour of Wild-T, Kerry Wildt had served buffalo burgers. Both Kerry’s home grilled bison burgers and TV’s bison entrée were flavorful, like beef with a slightly sweeter flavor (and no, the flavor was not gamey). In addition to having an enjoyable flavor, bison is a healthful choice, more nutritious than beef, with a greater concentration of iron and vitamin B-12, and less fat, calories, and cholesterol. The low fat content does, however, necessitate care in cooking – an overdone buffalo steak can be tough – but careful cooking promises rich taste with the warmth of knowing you’ve made a healthy choice. MyVMagazine offers recipes from the National Bison Association’s brochure, “Why Buffalo.”

The Tides Inn locavore dinner also included preserves from Westmoreland Berry Farm, another stop on our tour of the Northern Neck. Eight hundred acres of land, managed by Chuck and Anne Geyer for the owners, Mr. and Mrs. Alan M. Voorhees, produce strawberries, blackberries, black and red raspberries, cherries, apples, blueberries, peaches, sugar snaps, asparagus, pumpkins, and gourds. The farm products are available for pick-your-own, at the Berry Farm market, and sold to farmers markets and through wholesale outlets.

The Berry Farm is a destination for food and fun. Besides the fresh produce, the market sells dozens of preserves, honeys, syrups, relishes, sauces, and other creative and memorable preparations. I took home a bottle of the hot pepper raspberry chipotle sauce, an unforgettable choice for slow-cooked ribs, baked wings, chicken breasts on the grill, with cream cheese and wheat crackers, or simply as a condiment for sandwiches.

You’ll find a crop report for Westmoreland Berry Farm products on their web site, telling you which crops are available for pick-your-own or ready-picked, as well as which farmers markets carry their products.

Besides the fun of picking your own berries and fruit, Westmoreland presents a rare amusement treat: the goat walk. A system of narrow ramps takes the farm’s nimble-footed goats and their kids up 20 feet to a bridge over the driveway, which they cross in order to gain their reward: tasty grain lifted by farm visitors using a system of pulleys to the eager goat atop the platform.

The Westmoreland Berry Farm property was nearly twice as large until 1994, when the Voorhees family donated land to The Nature Conservancy, adding natural sanctuary to the adjacent Rappahannock River Valley National Wildlife Refuge. Now the land is managed as a nature preserve, boasting four miles of self-guided trails, a bald eagle family, and nearly 100 identified birds, including neotropical and migratory songbirds. Maps of the Voorhees Nature Preserve nature trails are available at the Berry Farm office, and the trailhead is accessed from Berry Farm Road. Be aware that bald eagle nesting area is off limits during nesting season (mid-November through mid-July).

Other local farms that contributed to our Tides Inn locavore meal were

· Blackwell Farms: asparagus

· Dave and Dee’s: mushrooms, in Sedley, VA)

· Byrd Mill: stone ground grits, in Ashland, VA. Check out their web site for some terrific recipes!

· Copper Kettle: peanut brittle

· Everona Dairy: cheese, in Rapidan, VA

In addition to its quarterly locavore dinners, the Tides Inn presents monthly wine dinners.

Playing Off the Carnal Joys: A Note to the Active Woman Traveler

For those who want to enjoy some satisfying physical activity as part of their vacation – or who feel compelled to, after the wining and dining at the Tides Inn – there are several options.

The resort offers unlimited golf at The Tides Inn’s 9-hole Golden Eagle, with championship golf only a couple of miles away at the 18-hole Golden Eagle Golf Club.

The fitness center is open to guests 24/7.

Bikes are available at no extra charge. The peaceful streets of the adjoining Irvington neighborhoods are easy destinations for biking, running, or walking.

Kayaks, canoes, and paddleboats are free, and ready to take guests exploring up Carters Creek or into the Rappahannock.

The Tide’s In, and Awaiting Your Visit

If you need a special excuse to visit the Tides Inn, they have put together vacation packages that sparkle like the waters of Carters Creek, including Spa Tranquility Retreat, Taste of the Northern Neck, Learn to Sail Package, Tides Inn Family Vacation, Suite Romance Getaway. The Inn is also a favorite for destination weddings, and an excellent choice for meetings and conferences.

Hopefully, though, you don’t need any excuse! If you’re looking for an unforgettable resort, for a destination by itself or as a hub for exploring Virginia’s River Country, the Tides Inn in Irvington is an adventure worth treating yourself to.

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About the writer:

Annie Tobey is editor-in-chief & co-publisher of V Magazine for Women and founder of the Active Woman Traveler. You can follow her travel Twitter @ActivWomnTravlr or e-mail her at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

Photos compliments of Gary Heiser.

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Coming in the next issue:

Next month's travel review features the beautiful Haywood County, North Carolina.

June 2010 Digital Edition continued