Northern Virginia Wineries (Norton: wedding, live, club)

[normie]

Originally Posted by HereinVA

How much were the tasting fees at Sunset Hills?

Sunset Hills charges $7 for 7 wines. A little bit steep compared to the other wineries, but still a cheap place to take a date and have a lot of fun.

[Bigfoot424]

Wife and I finally made it out to La Grange in Haymarket, Va and we really enjoyed it. Very good wines in a beautiful setting. The manor home was built sometime in the 1700's and restored in 2006. They are showing movies for adults only which you can check out on their web site.

Virginia Winery, Vineyard @ Winery at La Grange in Haymarket, VA

[ScranBarre]

We really enjoyed Marterella Winery just to the northwest of Warrenton. It is a small family-operated venture with a home whose first floor was converted into a tasting room. They made us some pizza when we came, and we all sat outside admiring the scenery to some music.

Barrel Oak Winery in Delaplane is still by far my favorite though. Gorgeous property and dogs galore!

[GoHokiesGo]

Sunset Hills is gorgeous, I love their whole tasting room. They're the one with the big, amish-built barn correct?

Hillsborough Vineyards has a beautiful view as well. They have a patio that overlooks the vineyards and valleys. The owners have a massive home up on the hill behind the tasting room/building, I can't imagine how nice the view is from there.

Notaviva has a very cool tasting room, it's built without using any nails. They have these wooden pegs that support their whole building, and it has a couple of lofts that are pretty high up.

There are several really good vineyards in the area, and they have a decent wine trail so that you can hit a few of them on a weekend trip out to western loudoun:
Loudoun Winegrowers Association

My family has been visiting tons of the wineries throughout virginia for the past few years, and I think we've been to 40-50 of them now actually! I'll see if I can think of some of others that stand out that people havent already mentioned.
VirginiaWine.org - Your Guide to Everything Virginia Wine lists most of the virginia ones as well.

One of my favorites in the Northern VA area is a little down 66w in Marshall, VA. The vineyard is Vintage Ridge Winery. Their tasting fee is a little higher than most $9-12 I think, but they have a full food pairing with your tasting. You get a nice size plate of meats, cheeses, and chutneys to sample with the wine, then they bring you out a dessert plate with their sweeter wines. Their tasting itself lasts a good bit longer, and you sit down at small tables instead of standing at a bar.

If you're on the eastern side of NoVa, Potomac Point is down near quantico. They have a beautiful property with gorgeous murals on the ceiling inside their tasting room. They've only been around for a few years now, but I think they're scaling up to be one of the larger wineries in the state.

If you ever have a weekend to spend in Charlottesville as well, they have tons and tons of wineries down there. My family usually goes camping during the fall down here and visits many of these wineries surrounding the area.

[DoneWithDC]

My wife and I absolutely love the wineries in Virginia. I just wish the rest of the U.S. and the world even would give VA a bit of credit for the great wines they are putting out. Plus, you will have trouble finding wines made from Norton - the only native grape used for wine native to the U.S. I love Norton wines, so good.

We love Chrysalis in Middleburg. I have come to love wines made using the Norton grape thanks to Chrysalis. It is so unique compared to many other varieties out there. Another nice thing about Chrysalis is that they have a rather large variety of wines compared to other Northern VA wineries.

Barrel Oak was okay. We did not like that it was soooo packed when we were there. It felt more like a bar than a winery. We also did not like that they mix wines from other non-US, non-VA wineries into their tasting. I go to wineries to taste the wines from that particular winery. We did love the fact that they were so dog friendly though; if only our dogs were better behaved in public. They did have a few of their own wines though that were pretty good.

The Winery at Lagrange in Haymarket was quite good and have a terrific Cabernet Franc and a great Chardonnay, as well as their version of a port called Snort that was surprisingly good. The only thing I didn't like about the Winery at Lagrange was that when we were there, most of their wines were not made from their own grapes because it is a fairly new winery.

Pearmund Cellars in Broad Run is also very good, but I do not remember what we liked most there since it's been a year or two since we were last there.

Overall though, Virginia wine is truly something I will miss when we move out of Northern Virginia. It is a dream of mine to one day come back and open a winery of my own though.

[GoHokiesGo]

Originally Posted by DoneWithDC

My wife and I absolutely love the wineries in Virginia. I just wish the rest of the U.S. and the world even would give VA a bit of credit for the great wines they are putting out. Plus, you will have trouble finding wines made from Norton - the only native grape used for wine native to the U.S. I love Norton wines, so good.

We love Chrysalis in Middleburg. I have come to love wines made using the Norton grape thanks to Chrysalis. It is so unique compared to many other varieties out there. Another nice thing about Chrysalis is that they have a rather large variety of wines compared to other Northern VA wineries.

Barrel Oak was okay. We did not like that it was soooo packed when we were there. It felt more like a bar than a winery. We also did not like that they mix wines from other non-US, non-VA wineries into their tasting. I go to wineries to taste the wines from that particular winery. We did love the fact that they were so dog friendly though; if only our dogs were better behaved in public. They did have a few of their own wines though that were pretty good.

The Winery at Lagrange in Haymarket was quite good and have a terrific Cabernet Franc and a great Chardonnay, as well as their version of a port called Snort that was surprisingly good. The only thing I didn't like about the Winery at Lagrange was that when we were there, most of their wines were not made from their own grapes because it is a fairly new winery.

Pearmund Cellars in Broad Run is also very good, but I do not remember what we liked most there since it's been a year or two since we were last there.

Overall though, Virginia wine is truly something I will miss when we move out of Northern Virginia. It is a dream of mine to one day come back and open a winery of my own though.

My family and I always say that if we win the lotto or something, we'll all open a winery together

I also agree that it's a shame virginia wines don't get more recognition on the larger scale. The first vineyards in the US were from Virginia near Thomas Jefferson's monticello (although Brotherhood in NY state is the oldest continuously running vineyard in the US). Virginia wines don't get the mass marketing that a lot of the west coast and NY wines get; VA wines seems to be a bit pricier than their equivalent quality west coast counterparts as well due to that.

It's funny that you mention Pearmund, but don't remember their actual wines. It's been a few years since I was there as well, but if you ask around at a lot of the newer wineries, I swear that they all say Pearmund was the winery that helped them get their wine started. Somehow they've managed to take part in a lot of the new up-and-coming VA wineries and help out a lot of the new winemakers. I thought that was pretty neat for them.

In addition to Norton being a unique grape in the VA area, it should also be noted that Cab Franc is an extremely hearty vine in the Virginia area as well. The VA climate is perfect for this grape, so it's generally one of the better reds from Virginia AVA's.

Edit: P.S. - Keswick Vineyards is for sale for a mere $12.5mil
VineSmart - Virginia Winery, Vineyard, Estate Home, and Land For Sale - Charlottesville, Virginia - Wine Real Estate

[g3org3]

Stumbled upon Chester Gap Cellars Virginia a few months ago. Small operation; has a nice deck with a good view. The reds were ok (for Va. wines), but the whites were really interesting: petite menseng anyone?

[kevinm]

I like Piedmont Winery in Middleburg. You can purchase a bottle and sit on their terrace and look at the pond. Very quiet and nice.

[Denton56]

I'm with Normie, we love Doukenie and since it's so close to my house, we go there often. Their wine maker, Sebastian, is making some excellent wines.

I drive past Sunset Hills everyday and go there frequently. Did you know that their owner, Mike Canney, races race cars? Horsepower Ranch - Racing Team Mike and his wife Diane are the two nicest people. Be sure to check out Diane's diamond. It's gorgeous. Mike sold his last tech company in Fairfax county for a cool $44 million. Now he can indulge his hobbies, wine and cars. They spend the winter at their home in Florida and they also travel a good deal. Diane gives a heck of a tour of their vineyard. Last weekend we got to watch them make wine and got to taste the wine grapes. They were surprisingly good, very sweet.

For a great view try Hillsborough. I've seen children there every time we've visited. Breaux has a nice view too, and excellent wine.

[Mrs. 14th & You]

For a comprehensive list of wineries, go to VirginiaWine.org - Your Guide to Everything Virginia Wine. If you want to spend a day touring and tasting, the website is a great planning aid.

I'm a fan of the wineries close to the Panorama entrance to Skyline Drive. I recommend Pearmund, Grey Ghost, Linden, Sharp Rock, and Rappahannock Cellars. Naked Mountain, near Front Royal, is good for those who love oaky chards. The wineries near Charlottesville are also strong, Kluge and Barboursville being some of the highest producing and better quality ones. A Barboursville red was recently rated favorably against a French wine in a Washington Post taste test.

Touristy places to avoid (IMO): Oasis, Horton, Unicorn.

Overall, the wine tourism industry has really improved the overall quality of the VA product. Wineries are working together to share knowlege and to bring traffic to their regions. Most wineries have at least one really strong varietal. Some do several quite well. I am, however, always wary of those that pour more than seven wines in their tasting rooms; not all grapes grow well in our hot, humid climate, and quantity does not quality make. Wines that VA generally does well are chardonnay, vidal blanc (mostly late harvest dessert wines), viognier, and Meritage (Bordeaux-style blends).