Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, April 17, 1994                   TAG: 9404170022
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: LAURA WILLIAMSON STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

WINE FESTIVAL OFFERS FRUIT OF THE WINE, BARBECUED SWINE

"It starts out with a sweetness, that's really more of a richness, but as it goes across your mouth, it turns into an essence, and then leaves dry."

What you would also have heard Saturday, if you had braved the blustery April winds and wandered over to Hollins College for the second annual Roanoke Valley Wine Festival:

"This one's $15. Makes a real pretty bud vase when the wine's gone, too."

What you might expect to eat at a wine festival:

Thinly sliced French bread, succulent shrimp and flaky wine crackers.

What people were wolfing down between sips of cabernet sauvignon, chardonnay and dry champagne:

Overstuffed barbecue sandwiches from the Pig Pit, buffalo meat, and Koli's Mexibilly Salsa on corn chips.

Hot peppers and fine wines?

"But they really go great together," insisted Debbie McPeak, formerly Gonzalez, a Mexican woman who married a self-proclaimed hillbilly from Pulaski.

Of course, she puts the salsa she sells on just about anything - including baked potatoes.

"Learn a little something different, something new," she said.

There was a lot of that going on Saturday.

Over at the stand for Chateau Morrisette, Joseph and Roberta Fucci from New Jersey were savoring a little Virginia blush and mulling over the possibility of moving.

She, a chemist, gave high marks to Roanoke Valley shops. He, an optometrist, marveled at the wide-open roads.

"You have everything here, without the congestion," he said.

Not to mention the vineyards.

Eight Virginia winemakers set up tables at Hollins this year, making Roanoke's the westernmost wine festival in the state.

But crowds were decidedly thin early in the day, a problem not so easily explained away by the wind. The festival - sponsored by the Roanoke Jaycees - failed to break even last year, when the weather was much more inviting.

"This is a new event," said Tom Corpora, owner of Afton Mountain Vineyards. "Last year was slow, too."

Still, the Jaycees sold about 300 tickets in advance this year, said festival Chairman Rick Derrico. If there are proceeds, they will go to the Jaycees and to the Roanoke Symphony, which provided volunteers to help run the event.

Wine tasting, Derrico said, isn't for everyone.

"People wouldn't tell you that you should like pizza," he said. "But for some reason, people feel they can tell you that you should like Rothschild. It is definitely a personal taste kind of thing."

Indeed. For some, it was Barboursville Vineyard's award-winning Malvaxia Reserve (the one in the bud vase), made from a grape even Thomas Jefferson adored. Others preferred Chateau Morrisette's Black Dog, a popular local favorite.

And Roanoker Paul Grice?

Well, he's a buffalo man. Burgers, steaks or jerky, he's crazy about the stuff. He ought to be - he sells it. And unlike the fruit of the vine, his products won't give you a hangover.

Or will they?

"The only side effect we've ever noticed," he said, "is that occasionally it makes you want to butt your head up against the wall."