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Slater Run Vineyards

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August 14, 2026.    Our wineries seem to have a certain topology.   They sit at the bottom of hills and look up at their vines as an audience may look at the orchestra.   Or they sit at the top of a hill and look down at the vines as a lord surveys the fiefdom.   The commonality between all of these are the hills that Virginia has no shortage of, whether they’re lumps, bumps, mounds, or large enough to be named mountains.   Find a nice soil and a nice exposure and grapes can be grown.   Slater Run Vineyards is reachable by straight climb up one of these hills along a rutted driveway passing the House Vineyard on your left.   Once you reach the winery at the top, this vineyard appears like an apron skirting the hillside.   We are writing from east of the town of Upperville, just off the John Mosby Highway and just inside the Fauquier County line.   The Salter Family has farmed the land near Goose Creek and Plum Run Farm for over 300 years...
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Lost Mountain Vineyards

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July 31, 2026.   When he was a young man, George Washington came out to survey land for Lord Fairfax in the country around what is now Delaplane in Fauquier County.   He came with rudimentary maps of the area and discovered at one point that his map failed to include the mountain he was looking at.   It was a lost mountain.   This yarn is what staff will tell you about how Lost Mountain got its name.   It helps explain why Lost Mountain Vineyards adopted the name for a great wine and then for its whole operation.    I offer some advise so that you yourself don’t get lost visiting Lost Mountain Vineyards: turn on your GPS.   The winery is not listed on the “Attractions” sign for Exit 23 on Interstate 66; there are no grape cluster signs pointing the way through the town of Delaplane, and the entrance and driveway for the winery is totally unmarked.   The recent history of Lost Mountain Vineyards is inextricably twined with its predece...
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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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