Sabin Wine Journeys - the Virginia Wine Journeys Blog

October 17, 2026.   Petit Domaine Winery near Hillsboro in Loudoun County is a new winery that occupies two realities.   The first reality is the present.   Petit Domaine sits on the Charles Town Pike (Route 9) on the site formerly held by Crushed Cellars.   Not long after our visit there in July 2024, Bob Kalok, the hippie owner, sold his winery to J. Bradley Snyder, who renovated the building and grounds and opened Petit Domaine in 2025.   While Mr. Kalok sold wine, eggs, jams, and other farm items to a peripatetic clientele of plain folk, Mr Snyder’s business model is to be the purveyor of exclusively sparkling wine made in the traditional method to well-heeled patrons.     The present Petit Domaine is a storefront to sell wines made in France by the premier cru house of Saint-Sauvenur of Vertus in the Marne.   Petit Domaine is not selling Virginia wine made with Virginia grapes.   Instead, they offer three nonvintage French sparkli...

October 17, 2026.   Hari Moosani is a software architect during the week and on weekends a grape farmer – a real vigneron.    He sports thick sideburns and a bushy moustache that he may have started when studying at Bangalore University before the wife and kids.   The grower proudly farms his acre and a quarter of vines for his Farm de Vine Vineyard situated on the side of Short Hill near Hillsboro.   Farm de Vine is a small place in the less-frequented part of Western Loudoun.  His acreage yields only around 100 cases a year on a normal year, but his experience has been that “normal” in Virginia is not always a good thing.   Since starting the vineyard in 2021, he’s experienced his first harvest (2022) – an emotional event for him, when the guidance of neighbors and people like Extension Agent Beth Sastre led him to plant small and grow slowly.   Then he endured a season of ruinous rains in 2024, and he completely lost this year’s Cabernet Sauv...

March 13, 2026.   We continue our short project of returning to some nearby wineries that we visited in the pre-Blog days.   In the case of 868 Estate Vineyards north of Hillsboro in Loudoun County, that visit was ten years ago, and I didn’t record any reactions at the time.   The vineyard name borrows from the highest peak on the property at 868 feet above sea level between Short Hill and the Blue Ridge.   Three couples bought the property that was part of the Grandale Farm in 2012.   We had the pleasure of meeting two of the owners: Chris Charron and Nancy Deliso.   Our information comes from them and Teresa who managed the tasting room.    (Interesting note that Linkedin lists Chris as the winery's "chief sampler.")                                                                 ...

January 16, 2026.   Last July marked the 40 th Anniversary of Doukénie Winery near Hillsboro in western Loudoun County.   Dr. George Bazaco and his wife Nichola (Nicki) first planted vines in 1985 with the encouragement of George’s grandmother, Doukénie Babayanie Bacos, who emigrated from Greece as a young girl in the 1920’s with a just few possessions including her mandolin.   Doukénie’s mandolin is on the wall of the tasting room to remind everyone of their deep winemaking roots. Grandson George created the winery within the 328-acre Windham Farm that still grows corn, soy, and hay along with Black Angus beef cattle.   Doukénie’s daughter and George’s mother, Hope, also served wine at the winery for many years before she passed away in 2024.   We had a chance to speak very briefly with Dr. Bazaco who still practices pulmonary medicine at his Reston office.   He has also long participated in the group Medical Missionaries that brings medical supplies an...

February 28, 2025.   Nate Walsh is devoted to the production side of winemaking.   Nate is the owner of Walsh Family Wine near Hillsboro in western Loudoun County and more than many winery owners, has applied his experience, starting as a cellar rat up to being a full-fledged winemaker, to improve winemaking in the region.   With Nate approaching business from the production end and wife Sarah applying her background in wine wholesale, they founded their winery in 2014, a year after they married.     According to Nate, back then, there were few places in Loudoun where new owners could get started without making huge investments in land and equipment.   The Walsh’s started with equipment loaned by a vineyard in Waterford.   Remembering this beginning, Walsh Family Wine has established a winemaker’s incubator program to encourage three or four new winemakers every year to use Walsh equipment and guidance to produce their own brands.   Nate loves...

February 28, 2025.   Looking for places we have not written about that are open in this bleak mid-winter, we came across Kalero Vineyard in the Loudoun Heights cluster of wineries near Hillsboro.   Owner Ann Fortin purchased 130 acres on Short Hill Mountain west of Hillsboro in 2015 with the goal to start a vineyard.   The focus of the property is the Heartstone Barn, whose cornerstone is etched 1834.     Restored with wood that glows in the sunlight and offset with the rustic stone wall, this is a nice large interior vaulted space in which to host the weddings and private events that are their primary business.      Seating in the barn is at new wood tables that can be configured in many designs depending on the party.   There is no fireplace.   Without the sun, the barn may seem dark except for the two-storey windows facing the West Virginia line just a couple of miles away.   Wedding receptions may flow out from the huge windo...