Sabin Wine Journeys

April 20, 2024.   Chateau O’Brien sits at the top of a steep hill just off the Markham exit from Interstate 66 in Fauquier County.   To get to the winery, be prepared to make a quick hairpin turn off of Old Markham Road (Route 688) onto a heavily-rutted 45%-incline gravel road across an unguarded railroad track.   Shortly you will pass under the gate for the winery as you continue to climb through the vineyard.   But the trip up the hill is worth it. Chateau O’Brien at Northpoint is the creation of Howard O’Brien who bought the site in 2002 and opened the winery in 2006.     Instead of the typical Virginia red brick, Howard renovated a pale yellow farmhouse, accented by a rust colored roof as his winery.   It appears to be have been built in terraces as part of the hillside.     Entering the main doors, you come out of bright sunshine into a cool tile vestibule with tasting bars on either side.   Straight ahead of you is a circular gathering space called “the Rotunda” with a pano

April 20, 2024.   Today we find ourselves toward the western end of Interstate 66 and Fauquier County at the Philip Carter Winery in Hume.   It’s early afternoon in the bright sun of late spring, and I am on a tour of the property with Vic the guide, standing in their rows of Cabernet Franc where a couple of leaves are unfolded on each cane.   I reckon they were at EL-9, about three weeks ahead of growing schedule.   The lyre trellises stand like scaffolds waiting for the vines to climb them.   There are 15 acres under vine at Hume and an additional acre is to be added this year.   The 25-year old Cab Franc vines are a holdover from the old Stillhouse Farm that Philip Carter Strother, owner of the winery, bought in 2008.   Philip Carter Winery is a fictitious name under Stillhouse Vineyards LLC.   The Strother family also owns Valley View Farm about ten miles away.   The farm has some grapes under vine but is focused on other fruit and orchards.   According to Vic, altogether they gr

December 7, 2023.   We felt it was high time to get back to our winery visits after taking a break over Thanksgiving.   We drove out to Boxwood Estate Winery which has a Middleburg address but is just over the county line in Fauquier County.   Approaching Boxwood from the south on Route 626 just outside of Halfway, you will pass the distinctive ochre-colored, white-columned manor house at Wavery.   This was the site of Piedmont Winery, the first commercial winery in Virginia’s modern era.   It is amazing that in just one generation we could move from dairy farm to nascent winery to, with Boxwood, a purpose-built modern winemaking facility encircled with extensive producing vines.   So much more is in store for us in the Commonwealth. Boxwood Estate Winery is owned by John Kent Cooke, the former president of Washington’s professional football franchise.   He appears to have brought together a stellar supporting cast to help establish his winery: Lucie Morton for viticulture, Stèphan

April 21, 2023.   South of Warrenton off of Route 29 lies Molon Lave Vineyards, the younger sister to Mediterranean Cellars on the North side of town.   Molon Lave is managed by Louizos Papadopoulos, son of the founders at Mediterranean.   But this is a larger operation with 31 acres under vine of some 50 acres total.   It has fewer wines on its menu, more recent vintages, and less blended wines than Mediterranean.   Both wineries are 100% estate grown. Molon Lave takes its name from King Leonidas of Sparta who, when the Persians demanded they lay down their arms, replied “Molon Lave” or “Come and take them.”   The battle of Thermopylae is also commemorated by the winery’s 480 B.C. Farm Brewery, which opened in 2020.   (We won’t be reviewing 480 B.C. Brewery beyond noting that it features four beers including a Saison, a Belgian Golden, a Dopplebock, and an IPA style beer.) The tasting room and production facility is in a nondescript low-swung building.   The tasting rooms are expan

April 21, 2023.   When we visited on an abnormally warm April morning, Mediterranean Cellars Winery was celebrating 62 years of winemaking.   While it opened its tasting room outside of Warrenton in Fauquier County in 2003, Mediterranean Cellars has a long lineage of winemaking through its owners, Louis and Katie Papadopoulos.   After an apprenticeship with his father and grandfather in Greece, Louis began winemaking on his own in 1961.   He came to the States in the mid-1960’s and eventually realized that similarities between the red soil around Warrenton and his native Greece showed the potential for wine.   He began planting vines in 1984. We were sorry to have missed Mr. Papadopoulos on our visit, but we had an engaging chat with long-term employee, Brigitta.   Thanks for her hospitality.   The winery sits on a small hill with the tasting room facing east across a patch of vineyard growing white wine grapes.   Looked like bud break was just past.   Vines wrap their tendrils aroun

March 9, 2023.   On a tip from one of our wine tasting colleagues, Kim and I celebrated our 140 th Virginia winery by driving out to the brand-new Crimson Lane Vineyards in Linden, VA.   The winery sits on a majestic ridge overlooking acres of red wine grape vines sloping down with a view across Interstate 66 and the Manassas Gap.   Sometimes the view from the tasting room will be obscured by clouds below.   The approach to the tasting room is up and down fairly precipitous rolling gravel roads. Tom and Deanna Herrity purchased the land at Crimson Lane Farm in 2014, planted their first vines in 2016 under the guidance of Lucie Morton and Steve Blias, and had their first vintage in the disastrous harvest of 2018.   In spite of that rain-drenched season, Crimson Lane managed to produce some good wine, as we’ll discuss shortly.   The winery opened to the public just a week before our visit in March 2023.   Being so new, they don’t have figures yet on average case production and don’t