Sabin Wine Journeys - the Virginia Wine Journeys Blog

March 14, 2026.     One of the many wineries along the Route 9 Corridor in Loudoun County, 8 Chains North is not blessed with a beautiful and inviting entrance.   From the parking lot, you actually enter the tasting room through the backdoor on the backside of a long low-hung Dutch-roofed barn.      But 8 Chains is about as close to Route 9 as you can get and its convenience rewards people who stay for a time to relax on the front porch that runs the length of the barn on the side facing rolling vineyards.   This is where you were meant to sit. The interior of the main tasting room, though recently refreshed, remains small, utilitarian, and a little dark.   Some comfy sofas form a seating area by a fake fireplace.   I seem to remember this from our visit many years ago when 8 Chains was owned by founder Ben Renshaw.   I understand that Ben has moved to West Virginia but still makes the wine here for new owners, Cissi and Edz (Edgars) Stu...

November 15, 2025.   We can easily forget how rough and ready our region has been in its history.   Out west in Loudoun County, for example, back in colonial times, the old Carolina Road was the main trade route that ran from Fredrick, Maryland through Leesburg and ended in the Yadkin Valley of North Carolina (today, a prime wine producing area for that state).   Unfortunately, cattle thieves and highwaymen so frequented the road that it was called “the Rogues Road.”#   Cheryl and Mike Morrison started Rogues Hill Vineyard in 2012 and changed it the next year to the more obscure “Terra Nebulo,” which they translate as “Land of the Rascal” to commemorate this area outside of the town of Waterford for its history of banditry.   The Morrison’s opened Terra Nebulo in 2015.   The winery is contained within a reproduction of an old hay barn, constructed with great care by Amish craftsmen.   The barn sits in a hollow framed by tall grass and a view of a large...

July 28, 2024.   Our late-July Sunday continued with heat and increasing humidity as we parked at the Wine Reserve at Waterford.   This is another winery off of Route 9 west of Leesburg in Loudoun County and about 4 miles from the historic Quaker village of Waterford.   Cori and Jonathan Phillips took over what was the Loudoun Valley Vineyards from the Cameron family in 2015, renamed it the Wine Reserve, and opened for business in January 2017.   Jonathan is a lawyer and substitute judge in Fairfax County. From the outside, the winery looks like a California ranch home hugging the ground.   On entering, you feel as if you are welcomed into someone’s living room.   To the left are plush sofas bracketing a stone fireplace.   To the right is a long bright room with tasting tables that flows onto a wide side deck.   Here there are good views of the Blue Ridge.       The Wine Reserve is a small boutique winery.   The tasting r...

July 27, 2024.   It escapes us why it has taken us so long to visit Corcoran Vineyards and Cidery outside the historic village of Waterford.   But here we are on a near ideal July morning for winery visits – warming, yes, but with low humidity for once, and a cloudless sky. Jim and Lori Corcoran first planted grapes at what was then Corky’s Farm in 2001.   They also had cattle, sheep, goats, and chicken on the property.   They incorporated their winery in 2002 and opened for business as Waterford Vineyard in 2004, becoming only the 11 th winery in Loudoun County.   Since then, they have seen ups and downs in business, and in life:   They renamed the winery “Corcoran” in 2007.   Jim was diagnosed with multiple myeloma in 2012.   Lori took over the whole operation.   In 2019, the Virginia wine industry honored Jim with the Gordon Murchie Lifetime Achievement Award as a champion of the industry even as he continued his battle with cancer. ...

October 23, 2022.   Kim and I had long planned to visit Carriage House Wineworks with our companions, Anne and John.   In the time it took to make arrangements, we discovered that Carriage House is one of only six Virginia wineries mentioned in the Third Edition of Karen MacNeil’s The Wine Bible , published in October 2022.   This is high praise, indeed, for a winery that released its first vintage in 2019 and opened to the public in 2020.   We were anxious to see whether Ms. MacNeil’s endorsement was warranted. Carriage House is located just outside of the quaint hamlet of Waterford, in Loudoun County.   Mike and Geri Fritz own the vineyard and winery, originally as a partnership with the nearby Windhorn and Quartz vineyards.   They bought Quartz Vineyard in 2017, and the partnership with Windhorn has been dissolved.   Mike Fritz now has six densely packed acres of vines which produced around 26 tons of harvest this year.   Thanks to Mike for ...