Sabin Wine Journeys - the Virginia Wine Journeys Blog

June 20, 2026.   If you are looking for a relaxed wine stop that can satisfy the beer drinkers in your crowd, then Great Valley Farm Brewery and Winery could be your home away from home.   Close to the town of Natural Bridge and its namesake that spawned a swarm of tourist traps, Great Valley is easy to access off of Interstate 81 in Rockbridge County.   And it’s only six minutes from Dinosaur Kingdom! The tasting room which opened in 2016 looks like a converted warehouse with surprisingly little air conditioned indoor seating; no comfy chairs or fireplaces here.    With such limited space inside, Great Valley can only host small private events and most of those will be outside.     Most of the seating at Great Valley is on their shaded patio or across the driveway under a few tents on a wide sloping lawn from which the vines seem to fall off the side of the hill.   My impression is that even out-of-doors, special events will be limited in size....

June 19, 2026.   With our trip overseas in May, it’s been nearly two months since we’ve been out to write about a Virginia winery.   We decided to get back in the saddle with a 480-mile trip around the Commonwealth where we visited seven wineries in four days.   Our first stop was Cave Ridge Vineyard in Mt. Jackson, Shenandoah County.   It’s a nice little winery that seems far from the beaten path because of the winding mountain road you drive to get up to the 1,300- foot elevation.   Most seating is outside on a patio or beneath a large rectangular roofed pavilion off to the side.       Most of the patio seating has bright red umbrellas and tables.   There are some sofas and easy chairs in the shade under the eaves of the winery.   If you want one of the very few indoor tables, it’s best to reserve in advance of your visit.   Upstairs from the patio there is a wide deck that has marginally better views above the forest.   Ow...

May 6-17, 2026.   We began our latest overseas adventure in Paris where one can see beer ordered occasionally at lunch but wine is more commonly on the tables.   There is no doubt that France is wine country.   Even the stained-glass windows in the cathedral at Reims depict happy workers making wine.           Reims Detail with Grape Stomping                                                                    Reims Detail with a Monk Riddling But we were about to embark on a river that took the wine culture to a new level for us.   The river is the Mosel between Trier and Koblenz, Germany, where wine and wine culture dominates over beer.   To be here is to understand why the English word “wine” derives from the German “wein” and not the Romance languages ( vinum , le vi...

April 17, 2026.   The bumblebees and wasps buzzed lazily around the porch of Sharp Rock Vineyards where it was 90 degrees in the shade.   It felt like summer except for the lack of good old Virginia humidity.   Yet on a day of clear skies at the tail end of a heat wave owner Jimm East could fear for his crops because not four days from that afternoon, weather was predicted to bring a strong frost against his vines.*   Such is the weather in Virginia. Jimm East, a native of Cleveland and an an athlete at Chapel Hill, opened Sharp Rock Vineyards, or Sharp Rock Vineyards and Cottages as it’s now called, in the western edge of Rappahannock Country near the town of Sperryville.   He and wife Kathy renovated the 1790’s farm house and the 1850’s carriage house for their residence and for the wine tasting room and production plant.   That was 1998.   Since then, children have been born and raised, and the next generation is here, but neither children nor gra...

April 16, 2026.   From the name and from the offerings, it should be clear that Southern Revere is a brewery first and a winery second.   It is one of the first Virginia farm breweries to serve wine; and other fermented products.   But the focus seems to be on the suds. Southern Revere is another establishment close to Interstate 64 corridor, in Louisa about 25 minutes east of Charlottesville.   It is part of Louisa County’s Fermentation Farm Trail that covers the county’s wineries, breweries and cideries.   The Grime Family (Jason and Sheridan) and the Spencer Family (Dave and Paula) first started planting their three acres of vines in 2018 and opened for business in 2021.   Paula and Sheridan kept their day jobs for the insurance while Jason and Dave retired from their jobs to work the winery-brewery business.   The winery is located on Jack Jouett Road, named after the man who rode to warn Thomas Jefferson, Patrick Henry, and the rest of the...