Yesterday, we took a trip to visit 4 wineries. Village Winery, Lost Creek Vineyard & Winery, Hidden Brook Winery and Fabbioli Cellars. I linked to the Virginia Wine pages rather than the individual winery websites here because the info given is consistent and compact. The individual winery websites can be found at the end of this post.

Our first stop, Village Winery, wasn’t much to look at. The building is weathered and the barn next door looks like a strong wind would knock it down. The owner is in the process of restoring the farm buildings.  For wine, he specializes in apple and elderberry wines, but he also make some more typical cabernets and merlots.  Both the apple and elderberry were quite delicious summer time wines.  They both had a very casual feel to them and were sweet without being desert wines.  We marked this winery for future visits and recommend it.

The other 3 wineries we went to were all practically next door to each other.  This allowed us to visit more wineries than we normally do in one trip.  Lost Creek Winery is very modern and has a large tasting area and a gift shop.  Their wines were quite good, particulary the Chambourcin and their two desert wines – Late Harvest and Courtney’s Christmas Blend.

Next door to Lost Creek is Hidden Brook Winery.  It was opened by one of the children of the Lost Creek owners.  It’s in a log cabin building and is fairly modern.  This winery was the most bland (ie uninteresting) we went to.  And the only one where we did not purchase any wine to bring home.  Their wines were good, but nothing really unique.  They also seemed a bit unorganized.  I don’t think they had a system worked out for paying for tastings because unlike every other winery we’ve visited in VA, they asked for payment before the tasting and then as we were leaving they stopped us and asked about payment again — and then realized that we had already paid.  That was just weird.

And lastly, we headed down the road to Fabbioli Cellars.  It’s run out of the finished basement of the family’s home.  Of the 4 wineries, we enjoyed the atmosphere of Fabbioli the most.  Also, we liked every wine we tasted there.  It was actually difficult to choose which ones to buy — well we are on a budget, so we couldn’t really buy one of each.  The people that run the place are all nice and personable and love a good chat.

I love this time of year.  It’s finally warm and there are so many wineries to visit.

Winery Websites:

Village Winery

Lost Creek Winery

Hidden Brook Winery

Fabbioli Cellars