Sabin Wine Journeys

July 12, 2025.   In the last ten years of Ted Jordan's life, after a career as a carpenter and construction contractor, he and his sons conceived a project to grow a vineyard on their family farm at Mount Airy in Fort Defiance (Augusta County).   They named the project “Midland” after Ted’s Midland Construction Company and began planting in 2007.   Two of Ted's sons, Ben and Tim Jordan, have since collaborated on a number of winemaking ventures that we'll discuss.    Ben Jordan was the winemaker at Early Mountain Vineyards and is the co-owner of Lightwell Survey Wines in Waynesboro, the name being another nod to their father’s construction business.   Tim Jordan has worked at Barren Ridge and consulted on winemaking before opening Star Party Winery a few minutes away from Lightwell.   Together they own the Midland-Mount Airy vineyard and the Common Wealth Crush Company.   The Mount   Airy vineyard now includes at least four vineyard bloc...

July 12, 2025.   The city of Staunton* is worth visiting for many reasons – the Blackfriars Playhouse, the Woodrow Wilson’s birthplace and museum, and Ox-Eye Vineyards. Taking the name of the daisy that grows in the vineyard, John and Susan Kiers purchased   land for their vineyard in 1996 and soon after began growing grapes for sale to other growers and wine producers.   Their 26-acre vineyard is 8.5 miles out of town in the Augusta County community of Swope.   The vineyard is at an elevation of 1,830 feet with slopes facing east and southeast.   They are blessed with cool temperatures, low rainfall and deep limestone soils that we find in Shenandoah Valley.   John and their daughter, Harriet Kiers Keogh, share vineyard manager and winemaker responsibilities with John primarily responsible for the still wines and Harriet responsible for the sparkling wines.   They produce about 2,700 or 2,800 cases of wine a year, all of which is estate-grown at...

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. ...