King Family Vineyards
October 25, 2023. Throughout the year we often find ourselves saying how lovely a winery’s view must be during the Fall foliage season - there are so many places worth a revisit with killer overlooks or views across a gap in the mountains. This year we tried to time a visit to the Monticello AVA to coincide with the peak of Fall Foliage. The Blue Ridge at this time of year is much less of the muted blue you see in the summer, and more like being dappled in sand or ochre. The summer of 2023 was brutally hot and took a toll on the vividness of the leaves this fall. But even so, when you see the individual trees close along the by-ways as you drive, you see all shades of yellow – from butter to golden delicious, from gold to butternut. Then trees running ochre to dull brown, and from scarlet to brick red to rust. How much more startling is a bright red gum tree when it is framed by golden poplars. Our first stop on this Autumn excursion was to King Family Vineyards in Cr