Sabin Wine Journeys

February 1, 2025.   Mitchell Harrison knew he was hearing something unusual.   A dairy farmer in rural Fauquier County, Harrison was listening to his HAM radio in the early 1940’s and overheard police radio transmissions – from Berlin, Germany.   Harrison informed the Government.   Shortly after war broke out, he got one of those offers you can't  refuse and sold the whole 700 acres of his Vint Hill Farm to the U.S. Army.   Rumor has it that Vint Hill Farm sat on top of a massive deposit of iron ore that acted as a natural antenna for broadcast reception.   By 1942, the Army established a major signals intelligence site at Vint Hill from which they could intercept Axis radio traffic.   Supposedly one such transmission detailed the Nazi’s Normandy fortifications and proved useful to the Allied Invasion on D-Day.   Through the next decades, Vint Hill continued in the spook world as an intelligence station until its functions were transfer...

  Pearmund Cellars Kim and I traveled to Pearmund Cellars in Broad Run for an afternoon visit.   We met Chris Pearmund and his first wife, Beryl, who runs the Broad Run facility.   Beryl and I had a nice talk about English Premier League football – she is a Brighton fan, while I support Crystal Palace.  She likes seagulls; I like eagles. Chris Pearmund is founder, winemaker, and managing partner at Pearmund as well as managing partner at Vint Hill Craft Winery and Effingham Winery.   He has a family connection with the new Sunrise Ridge Winery in Gainesville.   He is also a mentor to dozens of wineries in Virginia, among them Paradise Spring and the Winery at La Grange. Chris large and gregarious; a hail fellow, well met. Chris bought the former Meriwether Vineyard in 1996 and began operating Pearmund in 2002 making it the 47 th winery in Virginia, according to the Pearmund website.   The Broad Run facility features some of the oldest Chardon...