Sabin Wine Journeys - the Virginia Wine Journeys Blog

October 30, 2026.   When you arrive at Veritas Vineyard and Winery in Afton, expansive lawns and a tree-shaded courtyard roll out in front of the tasting room, Saddleback Hall, with its wide wrap-around porch.   Andrew and Patricia Hodson bought the Saddleback Farm property in Nelson County in 1999 and evolved it from a horse and cattle farm to a vineyard and winery.   After much success over the years as consistently one of the shining stars of Virginia wineries, the Hodson’s transferred ownership just a month or two ago to two family groups led by Kurt Wassenaar and Eric Trebour.   The new owners have already made a very wise decision to retain one of the most accomplished winemakers in the Commonwealth, Emily Hodson, daughter of the founders.   Emily has won many awards as a winemaker while also founding the Winemaker’s Research Exchange and co-founding USDA’s project to develop resistant grape varieties for the Virginia climate, among other things.   Em...

October 17, 2026.   Petit Domaine Winery near Hillsboro in Loudoun County is a new winery that occupies two realities.   The first reality is the present.   Petit Domaine sits on the Charles Town Pike (Route 9) on the site formerly held by Crushed Cellars.   Not long after our visit there in July 2024, Bob Kalok, the hippie owner, sold his winery to J. Bradley Snyder, who renovated the building and grounds and opened Petit Domaine in 2025.   While Mr. Kalok sold wine, eggs, jams, and other farm items to a peripatetic clientele of plain folk, Mr Snyder’s business model is to be the purveyor of exclusively sparkling wine made in the traditional method to well-heeled patrons.     The present Petit Domaine is a storefront to sell wines made in France by the premier cru house of Saint-Sauvenur of Vertus in the Marne.   Petit Domaine is not selling Virginia wine made with Virginia grapes.   Instead, they offer three nonvintage French sparkli...

October 17, 2026.   Hari Moosani is a software architect during the week and on weekends a grape farmer – a real vigneron.    He sports thick sideburns and a bushy moustache that he may have started when studying at Bangalore University before the wife and kids.   The grower proudly farms his acre and a quarter of vines for his Farm de Vine Vineyard situated on the side of Short Hill near Hillsboro.   Farm de Vine is a small place in the less-frequented part of Western Loudoun.  His acreage yields only around 100 cases a year on a normal year, but his experience has been that “normal” in Virginia is not always a good thing.   Since starting the vineyard in 2021, he’s experienced his first harvest (2022) – an emotional event for him, when the guidance of neighbors and people like Extension Agent Beth Sastre led him to plant small and grow slowly.   Then he endured a season of ruinous rains in 2024, and he completely lost this year’s Cabernet Sauv...

September 8, 2026.   New Kent Winery in New Kent County began life as one of the anchors of a large planned community of homes and commercial space off Interstate 64 near the town of Talleysville.   The real estate partners sited the community (and the winery) along a major development corridor between Hampton Roads, Williamsburg, and Richmond.   Colonial Downs racing track is just across the highway.   They bet on expanded developments and tourist traffic and opened the winery in 2008 after investing heavily in the tasting room, the production facilities and just over 20 acres of vines.* I assume that the expansion did not happen on schedule because in 2014 the partners sold the winery and the vineyard to Joe and Jo Anna Dombroski.   The Dombroski’s have taken loving care of the place since then.   In fact, Joe told us that they were celebrating the winery’s twentieth anniversary this year.   And they remain active with the community with special ev...