Sabin Wine Journeys

February 23, 2024.   Our first stop on this winter excursion to the Monticello AVA was a return trip to Flying Fox Vineyard and Winery in Afton.   You can’t miss the two-storey sign mounted beside a restored fiber mill.   Be prepared for a hard turn off of Route 250. Flying Fox was incorporated in 2000 but purchased in 2015 by three siblings, Chloe, Emily, and George Hodson.   Their parents had developed Veritas Vineyard nearby.   Sister Emily – now Emily Hodson Pelton – has been the winemaker at Veritas and Flying Fox and was awarded Winemaker of the Year in 2017.   Red wines come from the Flying Fox Vineyard five miles away but within the Monticello AVA.. White wines come from the Ridge Run Vineyard in the Shenandoah AVA.   Since our last visit, Flying Fox has moved to a new tasting room.   The new tasting room is large but unadorned and basic near the bar.   Even with lots of leather – sofas, even lampshades – the seating area has a l...

[On February 22, 2024, Kim and I had lunch with Lucie Morton during the 2024 Virginia Vineyards Association Winter Technical Meeting at the Omni Hotel in Charlottesville.   Lucie is an internationally recognized viticulturist and ampelographer, winner of the Virginia Wineries Association Lifetime Achievement Award (2018), the first woman to graduate from the Montpellier viticulture program (1974)*, author of seminal books on grapes and vine management¡   Lucie has lent her expertise to many new wineries and vineyards over the years, throughout Virginia and the United States.   I did not electronically record the conversation.   This post is a paraphrase of the conversation using my notes of the visit.   I have tried as much as possible to be faithful to what was said and the tone in which it was conveyed.   We are thankful to Lucie for her time and candor.] Q. Others have written extensively about your contributions to the Virginia wine industry and to ...

January 26, 2024.   Days like this day don’t normally come around until June: high clouds, blue sky and warm breezes.   We came to Endhardt Vineyards along the North Fork and Lincoln Roads, Loudoun County, still wet and puddled from the left-over from early morning rains.   Johannes (Hannes) and Sarah Endhardt have built their winery among the steep hills south of the town of Lincoln (address is Purcellville).   Hannes, a German dual citizen, learned to appreciate wine from his father a wine aficionado in Bavaria who favored Italian and Austrian wines.   The tasting room is by the shores of a pond with a great vine-covered hill rising behind it.     We spent a pleasant afternoon with General Manager, Jason Deaver, an accomplished chef in his own right.   We appreciate his hospitality. All 46 acres of the property are under a conservation easement.   In 2019 they planted 11 acres of vines growing Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay, Petit Verdot...