As part of my quest to visit (and drink wine in) all 50 states, I recently traveled to Virginia for a Valentine’s Day weekend getaway. It turns out that Virginia really is for lovers…wine lovers, that is. My wife and I had a marvelous time, and would recommend this route for a scenic and relaxing day of wine exploration.
I first heard about Loudon County’s up-and-coming wine scene from VinePair’s Wine 101 podcast. As a wine educator, host Keith Beavers covers all the world’s most famous and esteemed wine-producing areas, but he also urges people to check out emerging and local wineries. I couldn’t agree more. Give me a modest regional wine in a friendly, laid-back place over a 100-point wine in a snooty tasting room any day.
Our guide for the day was Paul Bauman, CEO of Vino Virginia. I booked online and received a text confirmation right away, along with a detailed email with tips for conquering a full day of wine-tasting. (Line your stomach, drink water, no perfume or cologne, please. All helpful advice for beginners–and a welcome reminder for folks who’ve been on wine tours before.)
Paul picked us up, along with two other guests, at the Metro-accessible Fashion Centre Mall at Pentagon City in Arlington. Our fellow travelers were two delightful young people who were also excited to try some Virginia wine! We hit it off right away and enjoyed a short ride out of the city and into the Virginia countryside.
Note that when you take a local wine tour, the stops will usually vary based on the season and the wineries’ availability. I’m sharing what was on my tour. But you might get different places–the surprise is part of the fun!
Vino Virginia goes to two wine places, a lunch stop, and a third spot that is either a winery or a cidery. You are welcome to buy additional glasses or bottles of wine at each stop, as well as bottles or cases to take home. The driver will keep your purchases secure while you imbibe. We also got a paper handout with our schedule for the day and the name of each stop on the itinerary. (This is very handy later on, when you’re sober and trying to remember the names of wines and wineries!)
As we cruised deeper into the Virginia wine country, the trees were bare and the rolling hills were shrouded in mist. Gray weather makes some people feel melancholy, but it makes me feel happy and thirsty. Not many things are better than passing time in a warm tasting room with good company and a strong drink.
The highway’s data centers and overpasses turned into horse pastures and stone walls as we got further from the city. Our guide told us how Virginia had been divided first by the Revolutionary War and then by the Civil War. We learned about America’s first vineyards at Jamestown and how Virginia’s wine industry had faltered and been revived. Colonial history–like fog–is something we don’t see much of in Texas so I was enjoying every minute of the history lesson.
The van pulled off the road in the historic town of Aldie, Virginia. Our first stop was not a winery, but a wine merchant: The gregarious Aldie Peddler, Wally.
A former actor and eager storyteller, Wally runs a wine room from an old Colonial house with a yard full of chickens. He showed us a gallery of portraits and press clippings while offering generous pours of sparkling, red, and white wines.
Next to the wine room is a charming bottle shop where wines from around the world share space with local jams, jellies, and pickles. My favorites were a Prosecco and a Castilla y León Garnacha. Not too many Virginia wines here, to be sure–but since when do I ever complain about anything that’s liquid and made from grapes? It was a fun way to get the party started, and soon we were on our way to the next place, the Boxwood Estate Winery.
While the Aldie Peddler’s wine room is quaint and homey, the Boxwood Winery is sleek and stylish. The decor is contemporary, all glass and stainless steel. There’s a round, silver-toned tasting bar to match the steel fermentation tanks. The wines are mainly Bordeaux-style red blends with a couple of whites and rosés available.
We were treated to a welcome drink–a glass of refreshing Sauvignon Blanc–and a quick tour of the grounds and winery building. They have their own bottling line and an elaborate system of overhead pipes to move wine around the building with minimal oxygen exposure.
The barrel room–dubbed “Cupid’s Cave” for the Valentine’s Day holiday–was decked out with red lights and black table linens for romantic dates. We were seated right behind the bottling line among the tanks and pipes. As a wine nerd I found this level of access really cool!
Service at Boxwood was friendly and attentive. Our next wine was a Sauvignon Gris that paired admirably with the overflowing meat and cheese platter. We gobbled up every morsel while sipping a series of estate-grown wines.
The standout–every taster agreed–was a Cabernet Franc-based blend called Trellis. I snagged a bottle to take home in my checked luggage, and I’m excited to review it later on The Wine Fairy blog.
Cabernet Franc is the most-planted grape in Virginia according to Wine Folly. I’m accustomed to thinking of it as a minor blending grape, but here it is used as the backbone of elegantly herbal red wines with a pale-ish color and moderate, snack-friendly tannins. When I’m chattering about Virginia wine at a Dallas wine bar next week, this is undoubtedly the wine I’m going to be talking about.
The next item on the agenda was a lunch break. (Winery snacks are included in the tour, but lunch is on your own.) We stopped in Middleburg, a picturesque one-street downtown of red bricks and white shutters.
Middleburg, I was not surprised to read, has a population of 673 as of the 2010 census. It’s dubbed “the Nation’s Horse and Hunt Capital” for its fox-hunting tradition, equestrian sports, and large estates. In the rain, it smells like horses and wet slate and looks like something out of a Hallmark Christmas movie.
Maybe it was extra busy because it was Saturday, maybe my restaurant-selecting radar was malfunctioning but we had trouble finding a place that would seat us without a reservation. Instead we had a round of cocktails–and a rather shocking service hiccup–at a local wine bar. (You don’t need to hear about it here, but Yelp certainly did. My wife and I are easygoing customers–it honestly takes a whole load of bullcrap to get us a-Yelping.)
But anyway, one hostile place didn’t wreck our happy mood. I had eaten a huge breakfast at the hotel (and an even bigger pile of charcuterie at Boxwood) so food could wait. We stepped out onto the drizzly stones and browsed some shops. Shortly, tour guide Paul showed up with the van and some pecan cookies and all was right with the world.
We took a poll on whether to go to a cider bar or a third winery, and the unanimous answer was “Wine!” And so we rolled onward to Greenhill Vineyards for our final tasting flight of the day, helpfully captured in this photo:
Our group raved about the the Ontology, a dark and woodsy wine from 100% Chambourcin. Greenhill also has a wine made from Petit Manseng, a rather obscure French grape that I had never had a chance to try. At this point of the tour my palate was probably toast and my tasting notes were gibberish, but I gather that we enjoyed that bottle as well.
Now it’s time for the review portion of this review: Would I recommend this Northern Virginia wine excursion? That’s an unqualified “yes.” The tour was seamless, well-paced, and thoughtfully designed. We were grateful for our safe and professional driver and clean and comfortable vehicle.
The wine shop and wineries that we stopped at on the tour were all places that I would be happy to visit again. There’s something here for everyone, whether you’re a serious wine explorer or you just want to get cruuuuuunk with your friends. (Hey, no judgment!)
I also found the tour to be a great value. Car rentals, Lyfts, and tasting room fees can add up quickly, and drawing straws to be the designated driver is no fun. The tour price included all our tastings, tasting room gratuities, bottled water, light nibbles, and transportation to/from the Pentagon City Metro station.
This past weekend was my first trip to Washington, D.C., and it came at a time when I’m deeply fearful about the state of the nation and its capital. So I opted to skip the monuments and national landmarks in favor of something that brings me unqualified joy–wine! I’m so happy I did. Virginia wines aren’t commonly distributed in the Texas market, so this was a rare opportunity to sample new (to me) grapes and styles. A wine tour with Vino Virginia is a wonderful way to spend a day when you’re traveling in Virginia or D.C.
Thank you for reading this Wine Road Trip report! If you want to plan a trip of your own, you can find all the details below.
What/Where: The Virginia Wine Experience (Loudon County, Virginia)
How much: $179 per person. Includes booking fee, all tastings, transportation to/from pickup point in Arlington, Virginia or Reston, Virginia. Does not include lunch or optional driver gratuity.
Visited on this trip:
The Aldie Peddler (Aldie, Virginia)
Boxwood Estate Winery (Middleburg, Virginia)
Greenhill Vineyards (Middleburg, Virginia)
Review disclosure: I was not compensated or provided any free products for this review. Opinions expressed on The Wine Fairy blog are entirely my own.
Leave a Comment