Virginia is for wine!
A few of my favorite wineries are actually right near DC
Hello my friends!
We are in the thick of the summer, and I imagine that many of you are probably on holiday, traveling with family and friends, vacationing at the beach or the mountains maybe? Where are you reading this? I am in Europe with my family, where I am drinking a lot of amazing wines…but when I am home I really love to visit the wine country near my home in Washington, DC.
There are so many to visit on the Monticello Wine Trail—over 40 of them, all inspired by Thomas Jefferson’s vision for Virginia as a great grape growing and winemaking region in the Blue Ridge Mountains.
Down in Virginia they grow many different varieties, some you have probably heard of like Cabernet Franc, Chardonnay, Viognier, and Petit Verdot, and maybe some grapes you have not heard of before like Petit Manseng…which makes a wine that is super expressive.
The most well-known of the wines from Virginia are their Bordeaux-style reds that are beautiful and layered. These are wines you could age, sure, but you could also open then and drink them right now!
The wines from Virginia are wonderful because they are a little higher in acidity, which makes them nice and balanced and easy to drink and enjoy with or without food.
I have a few that I want to share with you today in case you want to plan a summer wine tasting trip. I already told you a few weeks ago about Early Mountain, a beautiful 300 acre vineyard owned by Steve and Jean Case located in Madison, Virginia right at the foot of the Blue Ridge Mountains.
You can start your tasting tour there, and then make your way to RdV Vineyards, where my friend Rutger de Vink, a marine turned corporate executive turned vigneron (what a story he has!), makes really delicious Bordeaux-style blends. It took Rutger more than three years to find the right place for his winery, visiting both the East and West before he found his place on a little hillside near the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia, once surveyed by George Washington, a place with granite soil that he calls The Lost Mountain. His “Lost Mountain” wine, a cabernet sauvignon, is one of my favorites.
Another winery to visit is Linden. Owner and winemaker Jim Law found the land in the late 80s when it was an abandoned apple orchard! He did a lot of work to revitalize the land and today they farm three vineyards and make such good Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, and Bordeaux variety red blends.
These are my three favorite wineries on the trail, but my friends also tell me good things about King Family and Pollak. Of course there are many great places to stop for lunch or dinner and pastries nearby in Charlottesville. Or just come to DC and eat at one of my restaurants! We would love to have you (and I have a lot of these Virginia wines on our lists so you can keep the theme going!)
So my friends tell me, have you been to any of Virginia’s wineries? Which are your favorites?
Our family lived in Ashburn for 22 years before moving in 2022, so we had many years of enjoying the fabulous wines in VA! Top three that were close to Ashburn were RdV, Linden, and Stone Tower. The Lost Mountain wine at RdV is spectacular! Jim Law and his team at Linden have incredible Chardonnay and Hardscrabble Red, as well as Petit Verdot for those wanting something a bit more robust, and Jim is a wealth of knowledge and so giving of his time to teach us about "wine growing". Stone Tower has two reds that never disappoint, Wind Swept Hill and and Hogback Mountain, as well as some very nice Chardonnay and Viognier. Other wineries on our list to visit if we were traveling in the neighborhood were Early Mountain (Rise is a beautiful Merlot dominant blend) and Barboursville (Octagon is another incredible Merlot dominant blend). As time passed, these and many other wineries have worked very hard to adjust to the climate challenges and other factors to keep producing great wine, and with the passing of time, their vines have gotten more age on them, producing fruit that makes better and better wines. I hope everyone gets a chance to visit and support all these great wineries when you have the opportunity. Cheers!
Glen Manor - the vintner there was a student of Jim at Linden and also has some great French style wines with his vineyards on the slopes of the mountains. https://glenmanorvineyards.com/
My favorites there are Cab Franc, their signature Hodder Hill, Sauvignon Blanc, and the perfect summer Rose.