Sabin Wine Journeys

February 23, 2024.   Our first stop on this winter excursion to the Monticello AVA was a return trip to Flying Fox Vineyard and Winery in Afton.   You can’t miss the two-storey sign mounted beside a restored fiber mill.   Be prepared for a hard turn off of Route 250. Flying Fox was incorporated in 2000 but purchased in 2015 by three siblings, Chloe, Emily, and George Hodson.   Their parents had developed Veritas Vineyard nearby.   Sister Emily – now Emily Hodson Pelton – has been the winemaker at Veritas and Flying Fox and was awarded Winemaker of the Year in 2017.   Red wines come from the Flying Fox Vineyard five miles away but within the Monticello AVA.. White wines come from the Ridge Run Vineyard in the Shenandoah AVA.   Since our last visit, Flying Fox has moved to a new tasting room.   The new tasting room is large but unadorned and basic near the bar.   Even with lots of leather – sofas, even lampshades – the seating area has a low coziness quotient.   There is no fireplac

May 14, 2023.   It was time to get back on the road for our annual wine trip to Mr. Jefferson’s neighborhood.   We have traveled Route 29 South so many times over the years that we can tick-off the landmarks almost by memory:   the life-size statute of a white bull alone on a   hillside next to the American flag; Clark Brothers where men were celebrating Mother’s Day by emptying magazines of ammo into targets; Cowboy Church, Yowell’s Lake at Culpeper; the turn for Kelly’s Ford (site of a real- life Twilight Zone encounter); Bavarian Chef in Madison; Waffle House in Charlottesville, and on and on..   Our first destination on this year’s pilgrimage was Delfosse Vineyards and Winery in Faber, Nelson County, around a half-hour south of Charlottesville.   Rather than the mythical town in “Animal House;” Faber is a small community within the Monticello AVA.   And Delfosse Vineyards is the top winner of the 2023 Virginia Governor’s Cup.   Claude and Genevive Delfosse began their winer