Sabin Wine Journeys - the Virginia Wine Journeys Blog

August 14, 2026.    Our wineries seem to have a certain topology.   They sit at the bottom of hills and look up at their vines as an audience may look at the orchestra.   Or they sit at the top of a hill and look down at the vines as a lord surveys the fiefdom.   The commonality between all of these are the hills that Virginia has no shortage of, whether they’re lumps, bumps, mounds, or large enough to be named mountains.   Add some nice soil and a nice exposure and grapes can be grown.   Slater Run Vineyards is reachable by straight climb up one of these hills along a rutted driveway passing the House Vineyard on your left.   Once you reach the winery at the top, this vineyard appears like an apron skirting the hillside.   We are writing from east of the town of Upperville, just off the John Mosby Highway and just inside the Fauquier County line.   The Salter Family has farmed the land near Goose Creek and Plum Run Farm for over 300 yea...

July 31, 2026.   When he was a young man, George Washington came out to survey land for Lord Fairfax in the country around what is now Delaplane in Fauquier County.   He came with rudimentary maps of the area and discovered at one point that his map failed to include the mountain he was looking at.   It was a lost mountain.   This yarn is what staff will tell you about how Lost Mountain got its name.   It helps explain why Lost Mountain Vineyards adopted the name for a great wine and then for its whole operation.    I offer some advise so that you yourself don’t get lost visiting Lost Mountain Vineyards: turn on your GPS.   The winery is not listed on the “Attractions” sign for Exit 23 on Interstate 66; there are no grape cluster signs pointing the way through the town of Delaplane, and the entrance and driveway for the winery is totally unmarked.   The recent history of Lost Mountain Vineyards is inextricably twined with its predece...

December 19, 2025.   Encountering Jason Murray – owner and winemaker at Arterra Wines – must be what it was like to meet a passionate disciple of a new faith.   The faith in question is “clean wine,” and his pursuit is in hostile territory, so goes the received wisdom.   All shall be explained. First, some preliminaries:   Arterra Wines is to be found between Interstate 66 and Route 17 (Winchester Road) in the northwestern part of Fauquier County.   It has a Delaplane address.*   Sandy and Jason Murray purchased the property from Bob and Phoebe Harper (of Naked Mountain) in 2014 making the Murray’s in a sense the second generation of Virginia winemakers.   At purchase, the land was completely wooded, and the Murray’s have since hacked out an 8-and-a-half-acre estate vineyard from the hilly forest.   The A-frame lodge that holds the winey and tasting room opened in 2015.   It seems to rise organically from the hillside while remaining largely ...