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Rebec Vineyards

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June 22, 2026.   Driving south on that four-lane divided highway called Route 29, you can easily miss the turn for Rebec Vineyards in Amherst County.   Route 29 is a 55 mile-per-hour road where most folks treat the speed limit as a mere suggestion.   Rebec is a sharp right turn from the right lane of Route 29 across the narrow shoulder directly into the dirt road driveway for the winery.   Start slowing down and working your turn signals early to avoid being run over. Rebec is one of the older Virginia wineries still operating.   Richard Hanson and his wife Ella first planted vines in 1980 and opened Rebec in 1987 on the tobacco farm that had been in Ella’s family for 150 years.   Mr. Hanson and his son-in-law designed and built the tasting room and production building using trees felled on the property and boards taken from some of the old tobacco barns they had.   The first big event in Rebec’s future came in 1992 when a Bulgarian named Svetlozar Kan...
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Reserve Tasting Room and Lounge

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June 21, 2026.   The Reserve Tasting Room and Lounge marks the first time we have visited a tasting room that began life as a computer app.   In 2014, Mike Barefoot and Mike Lawler started the VinoWineApp as a place where you can buy wines on-line, scan labels for ratings and do other things.   The funds from the app allowed them to start a farm winery in 2018 and open the Reserve Tasting Room and Lounge six years ago in downtown Lynchburg.   The Reserve Tasting Room is framed on three sides by the old brick walls of an former store or factory in the Central Business District between Diamond Hill and Daniels Hill.   The fourth wall is a window looking out at the new Riverfront Park across the street and the James River beyond the park.   Kids were beating the heat kicking back in the park’s Splash Pad.   The Lounge has soft leather sofas and unique wine barrel lamps hanging from the ceiling.   Even with the windows, the lounge is cool and dark ...
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Burnbrae Vineyards

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June 21, 2026.   In one of our travels last year, we were sampling some wine in Nelson County south of Charlottesville when we encountered a couple who gave us a business card for Burnbrae Vineyards.   It’s unusual, to say the least, that people would think enough of a winery to hand out business cards even while visiting a different winery.   But it made such an impression on me that we added Burnbrae to our travel plans for this trip.   Heading north and east from Roanoke there is a little gap in the Blue Ridge where Route 460 squeezes between the mountains.   That is how we left the Shenandoah Valley and drove on to Bedford County and the town of Forest where we found Burnbrae Vineyards.   Forest is a close-in suburb to Lynchburg.   This old cattle farm had been in the Gerhardt family since the 1930’s before brothers Ed and Paul Gerhardt bought-out “the old people” and re-purposed it as a vineyard.     The tasting room and public area fo...
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Stoney Brook Vineyards

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June 20, 2026.   The Showalter family have had a plot of land near the town of Troutville in Botetourt County since the mid 19 th Century but it is only since 2010 that the family shifted from a specialty in tomatoes to growing grapes for wine.   We are along Interstate 81 about 20 minutes north of Roanoke.  Stoney Brook is one of only three wineries on the Botetourt County Wine Trail. My impression is that founders Jim and Judy Showalter are passing on operation to their daughter, Carrie Vernon, and her husband Kevin Vernon.   They opened a small basic tasting room in 2012.   I mean small - with space for 3 tables and a short bar inside.   There are no comfy chairs and no fireplace.     Most of the seating is outside where there are groupings of shaded chairs that seat around 30 altogether and a shaded patio.   There is also a wide unshaded lawn.   With this openness, dogs and kids are welcome, and feel free to bring your picnic....
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Ecco Adesso Vineyards

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June 19, 2026.  Ecco Adesso Vineyards near the towns of Fairfield and Lexington in Rockbridge County is a pretty boutique winery housed inside a stone cottage on the bluff of a hill.  You park at some distance from the cottage and must navigate up a loose rocky drive to the tasting room.    This is a scenic approach.   But for people with mobility issues park in the area marked for additional parking or drive through the tunnel and drop-off folks at the tasting room door.     Once in the tasting room, you can relax in the comfortable living room or the cozy library to sample the wine they have.    This used to be the private residence of the former owner.   The living room has the better view of the twenty acres under vine, but I would love to have the Library for myself.  The gas fireplace would be a good place to station yourself in the winter months.  In the summer, Adirondack chairs fan across the slope of the hill facing t...
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Great Valley Farm Brewery and Winery

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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....
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