Castle Glenn Winery

February 18, 2023.  Our plans to visit Castle Glen Winery in Doswell, Hanover County almost went awry when both of our on-board navigation devices failed.  Thanks to the helpful young man who gave us directions out of the Wilderness.  The better approach to get to Castle Glen, with direction signs and everything, is from Interstate 95 using the King’s Dominion exit.  Do that.

Castle Glen is a smallish winery with 4.5 acres of vine at the site.  The management has access to three other vineyards within a 30-mile radius.  However, Castle Glen is wedged between three working farms and a National Park, so their opportunities to expand the Doswell site are minimal.  The winery was incorporated in 2010 by Ed Cowdrey, and had their first sale in 2015. 

The tasting room is small with few food options.  There was a good food truck on site when we visited, but it was good to have brought our traveling food in any case.  The place is friendly to families and pets.  There is a wide front lawn to play on but not much in the way of other amenities.  They appear to feature Karaoke most Friday nights.  The website mentions an inn on the property available for Air BnB and Vrbo rentals.  We did not visit the Inn during our stay.  We had contacted the general manager about our visit.  She did not show up.

 

All wines are made from Virginia fruit with the exception of their Blueberry wine (not on the tasting menu) which uses fruit from Maine.  Here are our impressions from a tasting:

Sundress:  Kim rated this a C-.  She prefers all Chardonnay to this Chardonnay/Traminette blend.  The wine is pale straw in color, a little sweetness and some spice. 

Wedding Dress.  This is Gastle Glen’s Sauvignon Blanc offering.  Kim found it too sweet.  Maybe too floral.  I felt that it had come bite to it.  This wine was priced at $9.99, unlike the other wines on the tasting menu that retailed for $31.00 per bottle each.

Merlot.  The Merlot is plum colored.  Light bodied, low tannin.  Flavor of dark fruit.  Average.

Cabernet Sauvignon.  I found the Cab Sauv to be light bodied with some spice.  Light/low tannin.  The tasting notes say that  that the wine was aged 14 months in French Oak.  Our server told us some story that any winery that claims to have aged wine in French Oak is lying as all French oak is actually American oak reshipped to the U.S. after serving its purpose in France.  Presumably, the server is saying Castle Glen’s own tasting notes are false.  Not sure where in the world this guy was coming from.

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