Sabin Wine Journeys

April 11, 2025.   Old Oakencroft.  Readers of the History page on this blog may recall the name of Oakencroft Vineyard and Winery and its founder Felicia Warburg Rogan.   Oakencroft was one of the earliest Virginia wineries of the modern era.   Felicia Rogan was a New York City socialite who's third marriage was to John Rogan, owner of the Boar’s Head Inn in Charlottesville.   (Her first two marriages were to Robert Sarnoff, President of NBC and to Franklin D. Roosevelt, Jr., the President’s son.)   Familiar with fine wine from her entertaining, Felicia came to Virginia in 1976 when Virginia wine was merely a dream.   She learned field work from Lucie Morton and planted her first vines in the distant past of 1978.   Their first crop in 1981 produced commercially acceptable grapes and encouraged them to open Oakencroft Winery in 1983.   The tasting room was in an old smokehouse on the Rogan farm.   Felicia was also the first chairman of t...

February 23, 2024.   We had one more stop on our Friday travels: a drive through the country about a half an hour from Septenary to Knight’s Gambit Vineyard in a very rural part of Charlottesville.   The name “Knight’s Gambit” comes from a short story by William Faulkner that was well-loved by his daughter Jill Faulkner Summers.   Mr. Faulkner lived nearby the property that Jill and her husband bought in the 1970’s.   Their son, Paul Summers, William Faulkner’s grandson, planted grapes on the property in 2003 and, with partner Maggie Duensing, opened the winery in 2016.                                                                    ...

May 16, 2023.   Our last winery visit on this trip was to Michael Shaps Wineworks, around thirty minutes south of Charlottesville.   Wineworks is one of the most decorated wineries in the Commonwealth and is one of the only international brands in this sphere.   Michael Shaps learned his wine at school in Burgundy, France and moved to Virginia in 1995 to be winemaker at Jefferson Vineyards.   He managed six vintages there before going out on his own.   He was soon in a partnership with a winemaker in Meursault (Burgundy) France and with King Family Vineyards.   When we visited Wineworks in 2018, the tasting room was a small cramped cabin up a steep mountain road, the site of the old Montdomaine Winery.   He has continued to expand operations and influence since then.   He has shed his partners and since around 2014 I believe that his ventures have been sole proprietorships.   In 2018, Michael purchased Shenandoah Vineyards and continues to...

May 15, 2023.   We began the second day of our Charlottesville wine trip by visiting the Gabrielle Rausse Winery, on the Southeast side of Carters Mountain.   The winding Carters Mountain Road passes several wineries including the Trump Winery which announces itself unmistakably.   In contrast, you must be careful not to overshoot the entrance for Gabriele Rausse.   There is no sign on the road telling you where to turn.   Just know the number, 3247 , and look for the large black partially overgrown mailbox with white “3247” on the sides.   Turn in there. Maybe a hundred feet up the gravel driveway across Quarry Creek brings you to the small parking lot for the winery on the left.   The winery building itself reminded me of how glass might be used in the later Usonian homes – to convey a sense of lightness and integration of the building into the forest.   The walls that define the working space are low and accessible.     The dimens...