Sabin Wine Journeys

March 29, 2024.   Throughout the day on this Good Friday, the wind continued to grow shaking the blossoms down like snow.   The temperatures leveled in the 50’s in spite of a friendly sun.   While we were in Amissville, Rappahannock County, we decided to take an unplanned visit to Magnolia Vineyards which is on the road to Viewtown south from Route 211. Magnolia sits on the crest of a hill so that it captured all of the wind that was blowing that day.   It almost blew us off out feet.   We were fortunate to find owners Glenn and Tina Marchione at the winery along with their rescue dogs who welcomed us in from the gusts.   Glenn is the winemaker and vineyard manager, a tall man with a close-cropped grey hair and reticent smile.   Tina is petite with dark eyes.   They met while working on an IT project for two different government contractors and discovered they were both grandchildren of Italian immigrants.   On a trip to the Old Country, they discovered a love of wine and first

March 29, 2024.   About five minutes west of Amissville on Route 211, you will find the driveway for Narmada Winery, a unique outpost of India in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains.   Dr. Pandit Patil, a mechanical engineer, and his wife Sudh, an endodontist, both natives of western India, purchased the land in 1999.   They named their vineyard “Narmada” after Pandit’s mother, Narmadabai Patil, who sold her jewelry to pay for her son’s airline ticket to the United States.   Unfortunately, Dr. Patil passed away in 2018.   The tasting room, built in 2009, sits high overlooking vines and a small lake.   They have a fine wood burning fireplace for the colder months and mostly table seating.       Outdoors, their wide balcony was still sheathed in heavy protective plastic.   A strong wind flapped the plastic angrily.   Still, people were enjoying the sun on the deck amid the wind gusts.   Children and pets are welcome at Narmada.   Outside food is not allowed in the tasting room.

March 29, 2024.   After a week of dreary rain in Northern Virginia, the last Friday in March was predicted to be sunny and beckoned us to the wineries for a Good Friday.   We drove west from Warrenton on Route 211 leaving both Fauquier and Culpeper counties before coming to Rappahannock County.   About halfway between Warrenton and the hamlet of Washington, Virginia, you will find a clutch of wineries around the small crossroads of Amissville.   The oldest of these, and in fact the first winery in Rappahannock County, is Gray Ghost Vineyard and Winery where Al and Cheryl Kellert opened shop 1994.   One turn off of Route 211 into their driveway is all it takes.   Gray Ghost sits on land that was the former campground for the 7 th Virginia Calvary (“Ashby’s Calvary”) after Gettysburg.   It is not uncommon in farming their 14 acres of vines to turn up a Civil War artifact or two.   Many are on display in the tasting room.   The Gray Ghost name is in honor of one of Al Kellert’s rel