Sabin Wine Journeys

July 8, 2022.   You find Stinson Vineyards on a busy corner in the town of White Hall near Crozet.   The winery sits several yards from where we bottomed out our car on last year’s wine trip to the Monticello AVA.   Glad we came back!  Driving up through the vines, you come to a utilitarian, unassuming production facility and tasting room.   You know that the focus here is on wine and not fancy weddings or corporate events.   There is really no extra space.   The tasting room and adjoining production area were designed by owner, Scott Stinson, and opened in 2011.   The winemaker is his daughter, Rachel Stinson Vrooman. The property features mostly outside seating right up on the vines.   We saw the great Green Eggs that signal places for family barbecues.   Jessica Weisman is the tasting room manager.   Thanks for her insights on our visit.   Pets and families are welcome.   Outside food is allowed.   Stinson does n...

  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): ...