Sabin Wine Journeys - the Virginia Wine Journeys Blog

April 15, 2026.   Well, ladies and gentlemen, we now come to a review of our visit to the Trump Winery southeast of Charlottesville in Albemarle County.   A number of our friends asked why we’d visit here considering the recent activities of the winery’s namesake.   The short answer is that we have a goal of visiting every Virginia winery.   The longer answer is that wine should not be a divisive thing separating us into tribal camps; it should bring people together in happy society.   Let’s take off our tribal hats and enjoy the vine. Trump Winery announces itself in symbols even before you arrive.   About a quarter mile from the entrance to Trump’s estate, heading south on Carter Mountain Road, you will begin to drive along the nearly 4,000 American flags waving from the fenceline that marks the border of the Trump property.   This is quite a sight as the crest of each hill on the winding country road brings a new array of flags into view.   I...

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...