Sabin Wine Journeys

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 ...