Fox Meadow Vineyard and Winery

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 Virginia Governor’s Cup for the Fox Meadow 2008 Le Renard Rouge.  In 2022, the Mortland’s sold the winery and vineyards to Whiticar and Amanda Darvill, a couple from Northern Virginia who returned to farming after working in government finances and communications.  They were looking for a business they could both participate in equally.  You could say that wine was at the very start of their relationship since their first date was at the Virginia Wine Festival.  We were grateful to speak at length with Amanda, a chic and stylish woman with bobbed hair who has trained as a pastry chef at Le Cordon Bleu.  It’s from Amanda that we have some of these details.

Fox Meadow draws its grapes from 21 acres of vines between two vineyards – one, situated on the hilltop surrounding the tasting room and the second smaller vineyard of 6 acres about five miles away in Hume.  The main vineyard on Blue Mountain is at 1,800 feet of elevation, making it one of the highest vineyards in Virginia and probably THE highest in Northern Virginia.  That elevation is friendly to cooler weather grapes like Pinot Noir, Riesling and Grüner Veltliner.  Whiticar runs the vineyard and cellar at Fox Meadow.  He has a test acre of Pinot Noir growing and the test planting of Grüner from last year did well over the winter.  Much as the Darvill’s like Riesling, however, they have elected to move toward a recently released hybrid of Riesling and Cayuga White called “Aravelle.”  Aravelle is designed to be more resistant to mildew and rot than Riesling and it ripens earlier than Riesling.  They (and us) are waiting for Whiticar’s four acres of Aravelle to come to wine some years hence.  Next Spring (2026) expect to see the release of a Sparkling Chardonay made on-site using the traditional method. 

Fox Meadow produces between 2,000 and 2,500 cases of wine annually across 18 different products.  Estate-grown grapes dominate the wines they produce.  Tom Payette is still the consulting winemaker although Whiticar is doing most of the heavy lifting.  He is a bespeckled man with close-cropped hair and a taciturn manner.  He lets Amada do most of the talking.  He was busy transferring wine between tanks when we visited.  Fox Meadow also leases some of its production space to Theo Smith of Capstone Vintners.  (Theo makes wine for Capstone and Reitano Vineyards downstairs at Fox Meadow).  The Davill's have decided for the moment not to enter their wines in the Governor's Cup in spite of the success the wines had under the prior ownership.  According to Amanda, the requirement to reserve 50 cases of each wine entered is an onerous one for small producers like them.

 

The tasting room faces the mountains and opens onto a wide deck with a nice gazebo area on one end.  There are picnic tables downstairs and across the gravel drive from the production area.  Unfortunately, when we visited, Fox Meadow was enduring an unpleasant swarm of Spotted Lantern Flies to the extent that some guests came inside to avoid them. 

Families with teenage children are welcome in the tasting room; younger children are welcome in the picnic area.  The winery also has a 21+ room called “the Library,” which is adjacent to the Tasting Room bar. 

Fox Meadow enforces a no-outside-food rule for the tasting room or on the deck or gazebo.  The winey has limited lite fare available for those areas.  I don’t recall any indoor fireplace, but there are a couple of firepits on the deck for the cooler months.  Groups of six or more are subject to a minimum $20.00 fee per person.  The winery hasn't much room for large events although they have been known to host small weddings in the Library.  The winery hosts monthly food and wine pairing events.

I elected to try the Autumn Tasting Menu.  Fox Meadow changes their tasting menus with the seasons while usually having a two-white/two-red balance of wines. 

2024 Pinot Grigio.  Fox Meadow’s Pinot Grigio is crisp and clean, light-bodied with a nice floral finish.  Great acidity.  I gave it a B.

Amanda let me try two Chardonnays.  The Fiery Run Chardonnay from the Hume vineyard was harvested a day apart from the Trail Blaze Chardonnay that grew on Blue Mountain.  The two grapes were processed exactly the same, both as unoaked stainless-steel wines.  But what came out were two distinctly different wines.  If you ever want proof of the old notion of “terroir,” I highly suggest you try these two wines back-to-back.

2024 Fiery Run Chardonnay.  From Fox Meadow’s Hume vineyard.  Nice complexity, light and higher acid and nice minerality.  Green apple notes.  I rated it a B+ and bought a bottle. 

2024 Trail Blaze Chardonnay.  From Fox Meadow’s Blue Mountain vineyard, Trail Blaze is more floral and honeysuckle and lower acid than the Fiery Run Chardonnay.  I rated this thicker, California-style Chardonnay a B as it was less racy than the Fiery Run version.   

Interestingly, Fox Meadow’s on-line tasting notes for the two wines are identical.  Clearly, they are not identical.

Situationally Dependent (NV).  This table wine is non-vintage because it blends grapes from both vineyards and different harvest years.  It is light- to medium-bodied with low tannins – not suitable for long aging.  Some smokiness.  Situationally Dependent has always been mostly Chambourcin.  This version includes 12.5% of Crimson Cabernet, a hybrid of Cabernet Sauvignon and Norton.  It is sold as a mild, everyday wine, but at $40.00 a bottle, you could do better.  I had a glass over lunch and by the end of the glass, I’d say the thrill was gone.  I give it a B-

2023 Reserve Cabernet Franc.  Walking from the parking lot to the tasting room, you will pass some of the vines that produce this good Cab Franc.  I got some raspberry/dark fruit and some spice.  Aged in French and American Oak.  Quite agreeable and deserving of a B+. 

2022 Le Renard Rouge.  When we visited Fox Meadow in 2019, we noted the high quality of the Meritage.  Instead of Meritage, which the Darvill’s are not producing, they are continuing to produce Fox Meadow’s signature Bourdeaux-style red blend, Le Renard Rouge.  The 2022 vintage is comprised of 44% Petit Verdot, 19% Cabernet Sauvignon, 19% Merlot, 18% Cabernet Franc.  This is a robust, opulent red with balanced tannins and some black pepper.  Full-bodied and dark fruit.  Fox Meadow only makes this wine in years of quality harvests.  I rated it a B factoring in the $50+ per bottle price. 

 Go for the wine and stay for a view that will feed your soul.