Elite Event: Vino & Vinyl at Vino Volo

Mad props to Quiet Storm for the very pretty wine label. Close Enough appreciates the honorable mention for blend ratio. Vino Volo’s polite staff were very generous in giving us a sample of their menu, which is great since I’d walked by so many times without knowing what a neat spot this was. I slogged through my hangover long enough to gently sample all the tasting wines, and enjoyed chatting with the Boxwood Winery rep and seeing pictures of their setup. The photobooth backdrop was a cute touch! DJ Mike B, I salute you.

Started. Started from the bottles now we here. Started from the bottles now my whole team’s here.
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Now this is my kind of event. Maryland ‘Burbs. Sunday. Plenty of wine. Discount on said wines. Plenty of snacks. Educational. Photo Booth. Fake vineyard backdrop. Wine mixing competition. Wow was this a great event.
Not to mention I was on the team with the winning wine. (…wry grin…) Yes, I was part of the now famous, award winning, barrel masters with our budding winery already named «.Five» and the point is a little grape. For our effort, we won a fabulous ribbon, plaque, and bottle of wine.
I mean I have not been to an event like this in a long time. It was awesome! Super fun times. Thank you Mike B!!!

Maryland suburban life is not all stale living. Unilocal’s CM MikeB set us up with a very enjoyable outing at wine purveyor Vino Volo in the posh Bethesda Row. The wine blending competition was a great way to expose folks to the local vitner and oenology. Also many thanks to Vino Volo for the wines and food!

A few years back, while perusing the store of wonders (aka Unique Value Village) I ran across a small trove of records and began purchasing them with the thought that I’ll eventually pick up a equally as funky and functional record player to play them all on. Some time and a stack of vinyl later, I’m still working on that record player part. But thanks to Mike’s event that blended the theme of vino and vinyl seamlessly I have a newfound inspiration to getting that record player even if it means me being a bit of a sellout and get a modern one from Amazon.
This was also my first MD surbubs elite event and everything was fantastic! The staff at Vino Volo were courteous, friendly, knowledgeable and most importantly, fun! And bringing in a representative from Boxwood Wines to facilitate and guide the wine blending sessions was a pleasant surprise and a nice touch. The venue itself is intimate, charming and instantly makes you feel comfortable and warm, like going into a friend’s home. A friend with an awesome basement that is.
I found two wines that I fell in love with: A rose from New Zealand and a rich, brooding red wine from Chile. I proudly carried out my purchase in the nifty Unilocal reusable bags that was a part of the endless swag offerings left throughout the venue.
Gentleman from a nearby restaurant to me and my plus 1 after we left the event: «Ladies…have you been Unilocaling?»
Me (while putting on the red Unilocal glasses): Why yes. Yes we have.

Fabulous event! Kuddos Mike B.
First off, Vino Volo is a super cute spot — I loved the space, décor, ambiance, etc.
The ability to taste several different wines and learn a little about each of them was great. And all were from wineries I had never tried before.
And it was great fun working with a team of fellow Unilocalers to put together our own unique blend of wine. And in the process, we got to taste a couple of local wines and learn more about Boxwood Winery. Which was perfect since I’m planning a VA winery trip in a couple of weeks. Guess which winery just got added to the list…
The food was delicious and totally yum! The pizza and dessert, in particular, were fabulous.
Vino Volo is definitely a spot I will be coming back to. I just loved the whole feel of the place. And it seems like a great spot for sharing a flatbread and indulging in a flight of wines. Plus, I love finding great local spots for purchasing my wine.
So yep, it was a «Woohoo!» event.

Wonderful time! Thank you to everyone who put so much time and effort into an awesome Sunday afternoon for a Unilocal Elites.
I felt like I was at an intimate party at the home of a wine aficionado who made sure that the food, music (thanks Mike), company and ambiance were ALL perfectly blended and paired! ;)
The wine blending team challenge was GENIUS (Congratulations .5 and Quiet Storm). The Photo Booth was FUN.
Vino Volo was a fun flight on a Sunday afternoon. Anyone should consider it for an intimate place to go and learn something about some great wines and good noshes.
«May friendships, like wine, improve, as time advances. And may we always have old wine, old friends, and young cares.» — Author unknown

You should not miss out on any of these events!
This on was awsome, met some cool folks and had a great time trying different wines. Ironically, I frequent this area and never seen this location. Shout out to my team «Quiet Storm» for having the best design for a label. Also, I feel we had the best wine, but that’s maybe becuase I’m bias. Hope to see MD-​Burbs again!

Score another fabulous job for Mike B-​zzy & MD ‘burbs. I didn’t even know this place existed so thanks for the into to Vino Volo– my new Friday night friend.
Wine is a food group for me so of course I was ecstatic that this month’s Elite event was at a wine bar! Really enjoyed the different wine flights (1 flight red, white & rose). Hands up for New Zealand— they had the best Rose (purchased a bottle for the beach this week w/​the 20% discount) and the best white… and I am not a white wine drinker at all so that’s saying a lot.
Loved the chance to make my own blend of wine with a team. I mean really you can’t even do that at the vineyards on tour (go Mike… go Mike… go Mike). Thankfully I gave it a try before I hit up three wine stations so I could give it my best shot. Congrats to .5 & Quiet Storm for winning!!!
As usual the Unilocal Elites were great company & left me excited about seeing them all at the next event.

Based off past experience where my food to wine ratio at wine tastings is never as it should be, my +1 and I decided to eat at Cava Mezze Grill before the event. Even though we arrived to the event full, we helped ourselves to all the bites at Vino Volo, because they were damn delicious. How is it possible that Vino Volo would be serving two of my favorite things?! I live for tacos and avocados. Yum.
I enjoyed tasting all the different types of wines, and the wine blending class was fun. It was just like school-​when I would sit back and let everybody else do all the work ;)
Last but not least, the photo booth was of course my favorite thing ever. By some weird coincidence, some of the props available at this Unilocal event were very similar to props available at Wine Riot last year, so my +1 and I replicated a photo we took last year. So fun!

Thanks to Mike for setting this event up!
First MD elite event I’ve been to and it couldn’t have gone better. The timing for the event was perfect too.
I had a photoshoot in the city at 4, so my friend and I figured we might as well hit the elite event beforehand and I’m glad we did! First off, the food selection. Everything was delicious from the chicken avocado lettuce wraps, charcuterie, flat bread pizza, and pork tacos. Vino Volo was also continually sending food out so there was more than enough.
The wine tastings were great too. I’m not really a fan of rose’s or whites but they were pretty good. The red wine tastings were great too.
It was also fun to try out wine blending. Obviously team Close Enough was the best.
Great times, looking forward to the next event!

Let’s start with a toast to Mike B., for a wine-​spectacular event!
One thing that made it so special was the intimate feel of the venue. A wine shop/​winebar with tastings just for a relatively small batch of Unilocalers. Add to that a wine making competition. Add to that an impressive array of food samplings that included various cheeses, charcuterie, marcona almonds (my favorite), and pizzetta slices topped w/​shaved Parmesan and arugula… to name a few of the selections. The lemon tart wedges at the end of the event were a pleasant treat.
It would be sinful to not mention the highlight of the event… the tastings! Vino Volo selected a great variety of reds, whites, and roses for us to sample. All were good, but surprisingly my favorite was a Sauvignon Blanc from New Zealand w/​gooseberry and grapefruit undertones. Thanks, Vino Volo for being so generous with the pours and introducing me to wines outside my usual Merlot.
It’s great to have this new shop in the neighborhood. I’ll be back for sure.

Amazing job, Mike!!! My first MD ‘burbs event and I absolutely loved it.
1) Learningness: the educational three-​booth wine tastings: white, rose, red. Got to learn a little about wines and taste a lot of them. 20% discount on bottles for the event.
2) Noms: great appetizers: chicken avocado lettuce wraps, caramelized roasted nuts (? Not sure the official name but they were awesome), flat bread pizza with arugula, olive oil, cheese, an assortment of cheeses and charcuterie … and as if that wasn’t enough, an amazing lemon custard dessert. Yum.
3) Unilocaler-​collaborating: Wine blending class and competition which allowed us Unilocalers to join forces and blend our own composition of a Merlot and cab franc to perfection. We created labels, perfected the taste, and were judged on both. I loved this portion because I don’t interact as much as I want to at Unilocal events, but this definitely led us to interact and communicate and work together. The ‘Quiet Storm’ group had an AWESOME wine label, and each got a bottle of wine. And then the group I was in (Point 5) won the tasting/​blending part of the contest! We each got a bottle of wine from Boxwood Estate, our wine blending teachers (signed by the wine maker herself!), a FIRST PLACE RIBBON (which I will wear everywhere), and an awesome certificate with the wolf (see photo).
4) Photo booth! We got to take plenty of pictures with plenty of props at the photo booth to capture the memories in two photo strip print outs.
5) For the wins: Raffle! A couple of lucky ticket holders got to take home framed old records to complement and complete the «vino & vinyl» theme! Pretty cool.
Mike! Thanks for an awesome event, you sure how know how to make the magic happen! Thanks to Vino Volo– I will DEFINITELY be back for food and wine! And thanks to Boxwood and their blend-​ucation and taking time out of their day to teach us Unilocalers a lil somethin’ somethin’ (they definitely popped my wine-​blending cherry today!)

If I knew how to stay fabulous in Italian, I would. Since I don’t know how to and don’t want to look it up – I will simply say: FABULOUS EVENT! Loved the wine tasting, the space, and the appetizers.
My favorite part of the event was the blending competition. I felt it was very imformative and I learned quite a bit about the wine they were making! Boxwood, I need to pay you a visit. My team won for best label which was great because we all received a free bottle of wine. The Debbie Downer of my experience with my wine that I got was it landed in the floor when I opened my refrigerator door last night. It landed on my floor and is now completely compute so I won’t have the privilege of enjoying my bottle of wine. At least I got to have it for a little while, right? *Sigh*
The vinyl collection was cool. Mike, it looks like you have a pretty solid collection of records! Thanks for spinning the tunes for us. Minus the free wine, I think this was definitely my sort of event. Low key, social, of course free wine on Sunday funday.
I hope everyone enjoyed themselves as much as I did.

This was my first Unilocal Elite event ever! I brought the beau and had a wonderful time. Unlimited wine tastings, wine mixing events and a nice selection of tasty treats, how could I ask for more? I totally enjoyed the event. I wish Unilocal would have more weekend events. This was a so fun!!! I probably drank too much but whatever. The photo booth was a great touch, too. I also digged the tunes. Thanks Mike! Thanks Unilocal!Thanks Vino Volo! Much love!

omg. This might be my 2^nd FTR!
This would be a wine-​lovers dream event! You get a chance to actually blend different wines to create your own and a few red, white and rose samples offered at each table. Food was paired very well with all wine.
I passed by Vino Volo but never had a chance to try so it was a great event for me to learn this new place.
Thanks for organizing a great event, Mike!

This was my very first Elite event, as I’m a freshly-​minted Elite myself!
I enjoyed it, even though I was feeling pretty shy and mostly clung to my +1. (Sorry if I seemed standoffish to anyone, I was just very intimidated by everyone!)
Even though I am very new to wine, I did enjoy tasting the flights at the different stations — 3 rosé, 3 white, and 3 reds to choose from. I liked that the flights were described by country of origin and the flavor notes.
The food was good, although, like Tiffany Y., I haven’t mastered the art of wine paring just yet. (Although I did do a lot of research on what goes well with white zin for my roommate’s 21^st birthday a while back… that was all concept. XD) I liked the pork tacos and the lettuce wraps, and the charcuterie was good too. ALSO the lemon tart that came out at the end right as I was getting ready to head out was AH-​MAZING and I’m so glad I didn’t leave any sooner or I would’ve totally missed it.
Also, I am so glad we had Mike from Photo in a Box there because the props were ON POINT and I had a lot of fun with that little photoshoot.
I hope I am brave enough to do some more mingling next time, but I definitely had a positive experience and am looking forward to the next Elite event. Thanks Mike!

This was my first MD burbs Elite event since moving back to the area. Great venue with lots of wines to try (3 rosee, 3 white, 3 red). The food pairings were delicious as well, although for someone who didn’t know much about how to pair foods with wines, the food was just good, period.
Event was complete with a wine blending team challenge, photo booth, and raffle. And some great fellow Unilocalers to chat with. Mike did a great job!