Sabin Wine Journeys

July 11, 2025.   From Mt. Crawford on the Eastern side of the Valley, we executed a lateral to the Western slopes.   On the way, we stopped briefly at the newest and most crowded tourist attraction in the Harrisonburg area - the new (and thus far only)  Buc-ee's in the Commonwealth.  I suppose we need all of that barbecue, fudge, and jerky in one place.  If you were wondering, perhaps the best wine to pair with jerky is a sparkling wine or one of the many Rieslings you can find in the Valley.   But I digress... After passing through the small town of Bridgewater and the campus of its picturesque college, we arrived at Bluestone Vineyard outside of town in Rockingham County.   ‘Bluestone” refers to a kind of blue-grey limestone that is abundant in the area.   It is darker than normal limestone.   (Here is an article on bluestone for you, posted by James Madison University:   https://www.jmu.edu/centennialcelebration/bluestone.shtml ...

July 11, 2025.   Two crossed keys is an internationally known symbol of hospitality.   Going way back, the hamlet of Cross Keys, near Mt. Crawford in Rockingham County, is named after the old Cross Keys Tavern, an important center of antebellum community life   and hospitality, which came to be used for the ultimate of caring during the Civil War - a field hospital in the 1862 battle of Cross Keys (or “Crossed Keys”).   Since 2001, when Bob and Nikoo Bakhtiar planted their first grapes, CrossKeys Vineyards has occupied the site of that old tavern.   The Bakhtiar family came to Virginia from Iran by way of California.   The Bakhtiar’s had to take down the many cedar trees that covered the property, and then they had to learn how to grow grapes in the Virginia climate.   Being in the real estate business, they were attracted by the close proximity to the Massenutten Resort, only 20 minutes away and the city of Harrisonburg, around 25 minutes away. ...

July 10, 2025.   Wolf Gap Vineyard and Winery is among a small pod of wineries located near the towns of Edinburg and Mt. Jackson in Shenandoah County.   While the winery has been around since 2004, current owners Janel and J.C, Laravie purchased the property in 2021 and have invested greatly here since then.   There are new production facilities in a renovated barn and a new indoor tasting room occupying space that the old production equipment used to cramp.   Finally, they added a new outdoor pavilion that we’ll get to in a moment.   We had a chance to sit down with the Laravie’s and their winemaker, David Lambert.     Right to Left: Janel, Jethro (the winery dog), JC, David, Roger. The mountain hump over Janel’s head marks Wolf Gap. The Laravie’s own a marketing business - Chacka Marketing – in Tampa, Florida.   But the location in the Virginia mountains was a coming home of sorts for both Janel, who is from West Virginia, and JC who hails fr...

July 10, 2025.   Our first stop on this year’s trip to Shenandoah Valley is to the winery that started it all back in 1976, the first winery in the Valley – Shenandoah Vineyards in Edinburg.   This is also the second oldest active winery in the Commonwealth.   Jim and Emma Randel started the winery after relocating from New Jersey to Emma’s family property in Shenandoah County in 1974 so that Jim could recuperate from a heart attack.   They began with seven and a half acres of vines in 1976.   They repurposed the ground floor of an old Civil War-era barn as their production plant; its stone foundation kept a stable coolness.   Upstairs they opened their tasting room to the public in 1979.   The barn is still in use today although the front staircase from the main parking area is, fittingly, densely overgrown in twined grape vines.  Jim Randel passed away in 1985 and left Emma to run the property on her own, which she did with great success. ...

July 14, 2025.   The next few blog posts will report on our visits to wineries and vineyards in the Shenandoah Valley American Viticultural Area (AVA).   We have visited the Valley in prior years, but I don’t think we’ve talked about the AVA itself.   The Shenandoah Valley was the first AVA established in Virginia – dating to December 1982.   47 FR 57696 (12/28/1982); 27 CFR 9.60.   The Federal Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) had to resolve two major issues before establishing the AVA: The Name .   In 1981, the ATF received a petition from Shenandoah Vineyards to designate a large region between the Blue Ridge and Allegheny Mountains as the “Shenandoah Valley” AVA.   However, more than a year earlier, a group of local businesses in California petitioned the ATF to designate their Shenandoah Valley, due east from Sacramento, as the AVA.   After public hearings in California and Virginia, the ATF solved this conflict by establishing the...