Sabin Wine Journeys - the Virginia Wine Journeys Blog

April 17, 2026.   The bumblebees and wasps buzzed lazily around the porch of Sharp Rock Vineyards where it was 90 degrees in the shade.   It felt like summer except for the lack of good old Virginia humidity.   Yet on a day of clear skies at the tail end of a heat wave owner Jimm East could fear for his crops because not four days from that afternoon, weather was predicted to bring a strong frost against his vines.*   Such is the weather in Virginia. Jimm East, a native of Cleveland and an an athlete at Chapel Hill, opened Sharp Rock Vineyards, or Sharp Rock Vineyards and Cottages as it’s now called, in the western edge of Rappahannock Country near the town of Sperryville.   He and wife Kathy renovated the 1790’s farm house and the 1850’s carriage house for their residence and for the wine tasting room and production plant.   That was 1998.   Since then, children have been born and raised, and the next generation is here, but neither children nor gra...

Rappahannock County is situated next to Shenandoah National Park in the northern Piedmont.      The mountains in winter are ever-present wearing their olive-colored fleece jackets for the cold.   The town of Washington is the county seat for the 7,300 residents.   There are more cows than people here.   Some call it “Little Washington” to distinguish it from Washington, District of Columbia, which is a little over an hour to the north.   It is an easy day trip from Washington, DC and the counties of Northern Virginia. The big noise in Washington has to be the Inn at Little Washington , the only 3-star Michelin restaurant in the mid-Atlantic or southern United States.   (There are only 14 3-Star restaurants in the United States.   The closest to Washington are the five in New York City.)                                             ...