I’ve made huge progress on crossing things off of my annual Fall to-do list, and one more item was the Mount Vernon Fall Sunset & Wine Festival, held annually at Mount Vernon, George Washington’s home on the Potomac River. I’ve been to the beautiful grounds, farm, and home of George Washington at least a dozen times throughout the past five years, but I’d never made it to the infamous wine festival every autumn.

My friend, Mollie, and I managed to snag tickets before they sold out, and we joined thousands of other people for an evening of wine tastings at Mount Vernon. It was a pretty dreary night, weather-wise, so the sunset part of the evening wasn’t quite as stunning, but we enjoyed the pristine views of the Potomac River and the surrounding lands from atop the hill that the beautiful mansion sits on.

About twenty local wineries were present at the wine festival, and each was doing a tasting of its wines. It was an interesting way to do a wine tasting, that’s for sure! Since there were swarms of people, you had to wait in a haphazard line & hope the sommelier filled up your wine glass with a small tasting of each wine. Most of the time, we were able to make it to the front of the table so that we can actually learn about the kind of wine we were tasting. There were so many great wineries (all from Virginia, I believe) represented, and Mollie and I especially loved two wineries, in particular. You know visiting local vineyards is one of my favorite weekend activities! We were able to have a picnic dinner on the lawn, take a tour of George Washington’s home at night, and then venture into the wine cellar, which I had never seen before. It was a lovely evening filled with beautiful views, great wine, and plenty of American history – and we even got to meet George and Martha themselves!