May 2, 2015.  Today, on our 23rd wedding anniversary, we were treated to a special insider’s tour of Foggy Ridge Cider by its owner and my old West Point friend Diane Flynt.   (For privacy reasons, I normally do not use last names in this blog, but she is so famous it’s sort of OK — like letting fly the name “Jefferson” when writing about Monticello.)  Diane and her sister Suzanne were schoolmates of mine growing up in Georgia, but neither were in my exact grade. Nevertheless, West Point is a small universe and our memories are intertwined.  (Suzanne happened to be in Pakistan on business this week so we missed catching up with her, sadly.)

Diane and her husband Chuck (whom we met as we were driving out of his driveway as he was driving in, and probably thinks I am a loon for hugging him as he introduced himself formally) have created the most wondrous farm and apple orchard on a mountaintop near Dugspur VA, about 8 miles off the Blue Ridge Parkway.  Their Foggy Ridge Cider has won more critical accolades than J. Paul Getty put together (as Emory would say) — including articles and commendations in The New York Times, Wine Enthusiast, Martha Stewart Living, Food & Wine, Esquire, Garden & Gun and about 100 other food and lifestyle publications.  Diane herself received a James Beard Foundation Award nomination for Best Wine, Beer or Spirits Professional and has been interviewed on CBS Sunday Morning for her creations at Foggy Ridge.

On the drive over there from Hungry Mother, I entertained myself for an hour just poking around the Foggy Ridge website and found, to my delight, a series of Diane’s audio essays aired on WVTF Public Radio in Roanoke.  Several were about her childhood memories  — my favorite of which was about driving aimlessly on country roads.  I am addicted to that myself!  That’s what I do with Daddy even now — the two of us get in my car (he quit diving at 101), crank up the Glenn Miller and get happily lost for hours in the web of country roads in our neck of Georgia and Alabama.  He thinks I’m a genius to find my way home (I haven’t told him about GPS yet).

At Foggy Ridge we reveled in a tasting of the four sparkling ciders and two dessert apple ports.  We opted for a case of the sparkling Serious Cider (most like dry champagne) and the sparkling First Fruit (made with early season American heirloom apples) and several bottles of the reserve Pippin Black (a dessert port cider made only when they have Arkansas Black and Black Twig apples, which is oakey, rich and heavenly).  We have only one apple tree at our Applewood Farm and it happens to be an Arkansas Black!

After the tasting, we visited with Diane who gave us a tour of the orchard closest to her house and we sat on her beautiful patio overlooking the Blue Ridge Mountains and swapped stories about home and old friends — especially you, Mardi!  (Jenny and Alyson, you won’t believe this, but Diane knew Coulter!  We were talking about our honeymoon on his farm and she said — are you talking about Coulter Huyler?  We all fell over backwards.)

What a glorious day it was.  Tomorrow we head for Asheville and then to see Susan and Bill in Hendersonville!