Sabin Wine Journeys

October 18, 2024.   October is Virginia Wine Month everyone!   To celebrate, we present the following discussion we had with Dr. Joy Ting, the Research Enologist^ for the Virginia Winemakers Research Exchange (VWRE) headquartered in Charlottesville.   Joy is also the sole proprietor of Joy Ting Wines.   She holds a PhD in Applied Biology from Georgia Institute of Technology and holds a certificate on winemaking from the University of California, Davis.* Tell us a little about how a Doctor of Applied Biology ends up as the lead research scientist at the Virginia Winemakers Research Exchange.                When I completed my PhD, I moved with my husband, Paul, to Charlottesville.   This was in the early 2000’s.   Paul had accepted a position at the University of Virginia hospital as an anesthesiologist and professor of anesthesiology.   I took positions teaching biology in Charlottesville a...

October 26, 2023.   If you look at a map of the Monticello Wine Trail, Woodbrook Farm Vineyard in Orange is at the farthest northeast limit, off the beaten path for those wineries.   And yet to get there from Charlottesville is a pleasure because you are on Route 20 most of the journey – through Barboursville and past Montpelier Station.   When you arrive, what you see first, coming over a hill, is the back-end of a somewhat dilapidated barn.   Please don’t be put off by first impressions.   Drive around to the entrance to see what Twyman Family has in store.   Noel Twyman was a professional steeplechase rider in the 1980’s; the barn was originally his training barn.   Daughter Vaughn Jenkins and son Robert Twyman, co-owners, kept their father’s silks as the winery logo and retained about a quarter of the barn in its original state.   They converted the rest of the barn into a beautiful tasting room with light blonde exposed woods and surroundin...

October 25, 2023.   We continued our drive for about ten minutes or so to Chiswell Farm and Winery in Greenwood.   This is a new winery – only open for two years – owned by the Chiles Family, one of the largest fruit growers in the state.   Haven’t heard of them?   Well, if you are in the Charlottesville area this time of year, pay a visit to Carter’s Mountain Apple House on the same road as you take to Monticello.   Carter’s Mountain is the Chiles’ apple orchard, offering spectacular vistas across the valleys to the east and west.     From here, you can make out Mr. Jefferson’s Rotunda peaking above the old trees at the Academical Village.   You can also pick your own apples or buy apples in any incarnation you wish:   ten varieties of whole apples, apple pies, cider, caramel apples, and of course apple cider donuts.   Yum! The Chiles Family have been in the apple and peach fruit business since 1912, before coming to wine grapes. ...

July 8, 2022.   We diverted from our itinerary to make a return visit to Pippin Hill Farm and Vineyard in North Garden.   This was actually our third visit – Kim visited solo in 2016, and we came together in 2018.   We noted then that the wine was only “ok.” Pippin Hill was formed in 2010 and its tasting room and events venue opened in 2017.   There are several interconnected barns covering some 15,000 square feet.   From an easy chair on the long porch, you look out over some five acres of grape vines and to the Blue Ridge Mountains in the distance.   The focus for Pippin Hill and its owners, Dean and Lynn Easton Andrews, is to have an events venue for weddings (and other large events).   It is an events-oriented large operation and part of the Easton-Porter Group of hospitality properties   Wine and food are in service of those kind of events.    Pippin Hill grows its grapes, or acquires them from the Monticello Co-op, and then lea...