Sabin Wine Journeys

September 23, 2025.   Imagine you are on a curvy country road.   Forest all around.   You are ascending.   You know you are ascending by the push of your body into the back of your seat, by the strain of the car engine on the hillside, and eventually by the pop in your ears from the altitude.   You are in west Fauquier County near the town of Linden.   Soon you emerge from the forest and immediately recognize the regimented rows of a vineyard.   You are at Fox Meadow Vineyard and Winery.   Park your car above the tasting room, and you may see all different shades of blue and mist as you look back across a range from the top of Blue Mountain.   There is teal in the foreground, azure for the far mountains, and haint blue for the sky. Fox Meadow began in 2003 with Dan and Cheryl Mortland as owners and Tom Payette as the esteemed consulting winemaker.   Fox Meadow had great success in the early 2010’s, winning best red wine at the 2011 V...

September 4, 2025.   Interstate 64 runs the spine of the newest of Virginia’s   American Viticultural Areas (AVA), Virginia Peninsula.   A short distance from the Interstate, you can find several wineries to relieve the monotonous drive between Richmond and Newport News.   We have profiled all of these wineries before, with the exception of Gauthier Vineyard in Barhamsville, New Kent County.   Time to rectify that gap in coverage! We approached the winery passing a large barrel head boldly announcing the place.   Opposite this sign, three acres of Norton grapes sloped coyly under white gauze netting, installed to keep the birds away.   It was a sign that the harvest was close at hand.   A gravel drive takes you past a quiet lake and fountain, up a grade to the front of the tasting room. The tasting room building, built in 2012-13, has a wide wrap-around porch that you can follow around to a view across the lake and the vineyard.     In...