Sabin Wine Journeys

  If wineries can be judged like other real estate – by location, location, location - then Prince Michel may be the best situated winery in the State.   It is directly on State Route 29 South in Leon, Madison County, at the top of a hill to catch the breezes and turn the wind-wine sculptures in front of the tasting room.   Prince Michel has been in operation since 1982 and claims to be the oldest continuous operating Virginia winery, a claim that Barboursville, Chateau Morrisette, and a few others would dispute. (Prince Michele is under new ownership since 2005 when Kristen Holzman acquired the property from Jean and Silvian LeDucq.)   But there is no denying it is easy to get go.   Just turn right into their driveway from Route 29.   Period.    The view from the winery is of Route 29, which is not great.   The vineyard stretches out behind a spacious winery building.   Since our last visit, Prince Michel has added a brewery – Tap 29 ...

  In early July, 2021, Kim and I took a wine trip into the Monticello American Viticultural Area (AVA).   We planned our route with several criteria: (1) we would avoid going to wineries we have visited before; (2) we would use the Monticello Wine Trail as geographic organizing tool; and (3) we would select wineries that won a Gold Medal in the 2020 Virginia Governor’s Cup competition.   Putting these criteria together we made an initial list of five wineries.   Unfortunately, our visits also had to conform to when wineries were actually open and so the list had to be revised.   Many wineries are not open Monday, Tuesday, or Wednesday.   Traveling the AVA from North to South and East to West took longer than we anticipated. That and the 95+ degrees and humidity led us to alter our plans again on the fly.   We finally visited nine wineries on this trip, six of which we had never visited before.   The nine wineries are (in order of our visit): ...