Sabin Wine Journeys

September 28, 2024.   The odds were that the sun would eventually return.   We are happy to report that after two weeks of rain and overcast skies, on this Saturday, she did reappear with glory.   We were able to get back on the road and drive north from Charlottesville on beautiful Route 20.   The sun dappled the road strewn with tree debris and wetness rising from the pavement.   A few minutes south of the intersection with Route 33, we came to the driveway for Chestnut Oak Vineyard, Barboursville, Albemarle County. Chestnut Oak is a small winery facility surrounded by six acres of vines.   We were able to speak with the tasting room manager Sarah Leake.   Owner Jan Bolla was away at the time.   Jan and her husband are another couple who started a winery to keep busy in retirement.   I wonder if they are busier now than ever.   Most of Chestnut Oak’s wines are estate grown.   With the exception of their Chardonnay from Honah Lee...

February 24, 2024.   Barboursville Vineyards, near the little crossroads of Barboursville in Orange County, is unquestionably, one of the most recognized and applauded wine operations in Virginia.   They have won the Virginia Governor’s Cup five times, the last in 2021.   When Queen Elizabeth visited Virginia to commemorate the founding of Jamestown, it was Barboursville wine that was served at the reception.   Barboursville, consistently appears on lists of Virginia’s best wineries.*   We last visited Barboursville in 2021 and wrote somewhat disparagingly of the tiny antiseptic "Discovery" tasting room where visitors received tasting samples in automated amounts from dispensing machines.   Those machines are still in place, a remnant of COVID, but we understand are being phased out in favor of humans.   Today, we drove to the winery almost by accident.   I misread the opening time of a winery we planned to visit, and with time on our hands de...

October 27, 2023.   We began the last day of our current trip by driving up Route 20 again and stopping at Burnley Vineyards in Barboursville.   This is one of the oldest Virginia vineyards.   Founded by C.J. Reeder in 1976 as a part-time operation with three acres of vinifera grapes, Burnley initially sold its grapes to other Virginia wineries.   In 1984, the Reeder Family – C.J. and his wife Pat, son Lee, the winemaker, and Lee’s wife, Dawn – shifted to making their own wines.   The vineyard has grown from the first three acres to 26 acres under vine today.   The approach to Burnley is up a shady gravel drive.   Oak and field maple leaves blanketed the property with a light Autumn tan as wine production and tastings happen in a dark brown mansard-roofed building dug into a small wooded hillside.     (Note: parking for handicapped is up that hillside between the trees.   The ramp is in the back of the facility.)   Reading the...

October 26, 2023.   Near where Route 20 jogs briefly on Route 33 in Barboursville, you will find the Barn at 678 Vineyard, a new winery located on Route 678 a few yards from the turn for the famous Barboursville Vineyard.   Opened in June 2022, the Barn is the work of Rick and Lorrie Bryant.   The tasting room is cozy and unfinished and may feel a bit cramped in the winter.     The side porch is better -   more relaxed with the vines standing just a few steps away beginning to turn a deep Autumn red.   Outside food is welcome.   Check their website for the food truck schedule.   We spoke with Rick Bryant who comes to this enterprise from his work in landscaping (according to the Barn website).   Interestingly, Rick didn’t say anything about landscaping. He told us that he is also a pathologist and medical examiner.   Talk about work that cries out for a change of pace to be outside in the vines and managing a wine business!  ...

  Barboursville Vineyard and Winery.    July 6, 2021 Barboursville Vineyard and Winery is one of the oldest operating wineries in the Commonwealth, having been established in 1979 as the U.S branch of the Italian wine company Zonin.   Francesco Zonin is still the president.   Gabriele Rausse, formerly the winemaker, is also secretary.   The winery overlooks the vineyards and the ruins of Governor James Barbour’s estate, designed by Thomas Jefferson and completed in 1821.   The property includes a gourmet restaurant, Palladio, and lodging in the 1804 Inn and Cottages.   Barboursville is one of the most highly awarded wineries in the Commonwealth and a large producer as well.   I rate the wines highly but the atmosphere of the tasting room marginal.    First, the tasting room experience.   The tasting room was small and cramped.   We visited on a weekday, and even then the space was crowded.   I can only imagine t...

  In early July, 2021, Kim and I took a wine trip into the Monticello American Viticultural Area (AVA).   We planned our route with several criteria: (1) we would avoid going to wineries we have visited before; (2) we would use the Monticello Wine Trail as geographic organizing tool; and (3) we would select wineries that won a Gold Medal in the 2020 Virginia Governor’s Cup competition.   Putting these criteria together we made an initial list of five wineries.   Unfortunately, our visits also had to conform to when wineries were actually open and so the list had to be revised.   Many wineries are not open Monday, Tuesday, or Wednesday.   Traveling the AVA from North to South and East to West took longer than we anticipated. That and the 95+ degrees and humidity led us to alter our plans again on the fly.   We finally visited nine wineries on this trip, six of which we had never visited before.   The nine wineries are (in order of our visit): ...