the barns at hamilton station vineyards | virginia wineries

The story behind The Barns at Hamilton Station Vineyards is enough to fuel the imagination of any dreamer. The story, as I heard it, goes something like this... A girl and a boy were childhood best friends. They grew up and found and married the loves of their lives. Both couples had kids and stayed close through the years. As they neared that age where retirement feels closer than it is farther away, they started talking about was next. As dinner drew to a close one evening, and another glass of wine was poured all around, the two couples talked about what it might look like to open a winery. (I've had that conversation, haven't we all?) Their nightcap conversation turned serious in the many days and months and years to come, and eventually, they went through with it. Together, the two couples purchased a 103-year-old dairy farm in Hamilton, Virginia and converted it to a vineyard and winery. They recruited their kids to help clean the place, tear down what was too old and restore what was beautiful and well-kept.

One of the owners' daughters, now in college, told Zander and me the story as she poured our tasting. We were so hooked we kept forgetting to taste the next wine (most of which were notable). The historic barn-turned-winery captured my imagination last weekend, and it still has it held captive now.

I love the idea of the stories a barn holds - the memories of generations of kids jumping from a loft into bales of hay, screaming with delight and fear the whole way down, and the intimate connection between humans and animals and nature. I like the idea of this particular old farm and barn and its stories joining forces with two couples with a powerful story of their own.

The owners kept the original wood floors - re-purposing them in some places and leaving them as is, in others. The tasting room sits on the first floor and showcases exposed wooden beams and natural light. Once upon a time, the basement housed milking cows, and while you might not know that right away, it's not hard to imagine. The floors have barely been touched, and the smell of hay and milk and land still permeates the whole place, if you close your eyes and breathe in deeply.

The owners have kept the integrity of the farm structure and its aesthetic and historical appeal in tact while re-imagining a modern, solvent life for it. Fortunately for all of us, that new breath of life involves award-winning Viognier and tables with a view.

if you go...

the barns at hamilton station vineyards

tasting fee: $7

45 minutes from DC

the most photographed spot in the winery is the pinterest-inspired rakes as wine-glass holders

cooling off at glen manor vineyards

 

We passed the entrance the first time. The winding road led us around another bend before we found a turnoff to head back the way we came. Only one car drove behind us, and we hadn't seen another one in a few miles. The Blue Ridge Mountains rose and fell in the near distance, and the sun blazed in all its mid-afternoon glory. 

This time through the small town of Front Royal, we spotted the sign, and turned onto the gravel driveway. I noticed an advisory posted at the entrance prohibits buses and groups larger than six. As the SUV bumped along, I pulled hand wipes out of my bag and scrubbed my face, my arms, and my neck. Zander came to a stop in front of a remodeled, small modern wooden lodge. 

I reached for baby wipes in my bag, and scrubbed my face, neck, and arms. As I stepped out of the car, I stopped to kick mud off the bottoms of my shoes as best I could. 

"We look okay to be at a winery, right?" I asked. 

 

The staff at Glen Manor Vineyards didn't mind our trail clothes or sweaty faces. They welcomed us in and asked us where we'd been hiking. We talked shop about our favorite trails in Shenandoah, and they sold us on a few nearby with deep swimming holes. Then we got down to wine tasting business.  

Named for the "glen," or sloping mountain foothills in which the vineyard sits, the small winery grows a handful of grape varietals on site. The weather and harvest determines the wines they make and sell each season. It's a small, family-owned and run winery that rarely carries more than four wines at any given time. 

On our visit a few weeks ago, the tasting menu included four vintages: 2012 Rose, 2011 Cabernet Franc, 2011 Vin Rouge, and the 2012 Petit Manseng. Missing from the list is Glen Manor's most popular wine, their Sauvignon Blanc. The owners explained that last season was abnormally dry, negatively impacting the grapes. They do hope to release a limited number of bottles later in the season. 

We enjoyed each of the four wines. In particular, I liked the careful, thoughtful descriptions of the wines themselves. As someone still relatively new to wine tasting and developing my palate and vernacular, a detailed description helps guide me through the tasting. When I diverge from their description, that's okay, too, but I appreciate the nudge in the right direction.

The Rose is a balance of light and refreshing with a medium-weight, long finish. The Petit Manseng surprised us the most. It smells of tropical fruit - pineapple, guava, and mango - and though it has a sweetness throughout, it's crisp enough to warrant being labeled off-dry. While it's still too sweet for me to drink regularly, it pairs perfectly with a hot summer day after a long hike. 

We ordered a glass each and purchased a bottle of all four wines we tasted. We made ourselves at home on their patio to enjoy the fruits of our labor. I could sit all day in a setting like that, looking out over vines and mountains, sipping on a glass of cold, crisp wine. Couldn't you? 

The winery itself is sparse but beautiful. Come for the wines and stay for the company, scenery, and staff. 

if you go...

Glen Manor Winery Fort Royal, Virginia

No food for purchase, but picnics are encouraged

Fido (cough, Theo!) is allowed but must be leashed

wine info and vintages

Tasting fee: $7

friday photo | virginia wine

Virginia wine country looks and tastes and smells like home these days. @ Phillip Carter Winery 

Embracing Virginia's Terroir from Appalachian America

spring is for wine tasting | 3 virginia vineyards

cork love, at veritas vineyards

Oh, this photo, the one up top, is imperfect - the light does weird things, and the lower half is just a little blurry, but I "love" it so much I had to share it anyway. Zan and I spent our cold, gray sky Sunday in Charlottesville last weekend wine tasting at a few nearby vineyards. Natasha, the beautiful blogger behind Paper Crowns, recommended that we try Veritas and King Family Vineyards, so we took her advice and headed out into the mountains. We had such a great time that the weather didn't phase us, and we even stopped in at Afton Mountain Vineyards just because we saw the sign. It might as well have been a Spring day in blossom. I can't wait to spend this entire season squeezing in a winery or two after a hike in Shenandoah National Park. 

I'm no oenophile (just a regular old wino), but I'm happy to share the sights and views and tell you what I liked. 

Veritas is sprawling - one of the biggest vineyards in Virginia. I liked the Sauvignon Blanc and Viognier - both were crisp and refreshing, my perfect complement to a warm Spring day (if it ever warms up!). Zan enjoyed the Red Star - a great table red wine, and the Claret - a Bordeaux style blend that I found pleasingly tanniny. As we walked along the wrap-around porch, with the blue ridge mountains framing the vineyard, Zan said, "I could get drunk sitting on the porch and taking in the view all day." So we added that to our to-do list.

Tasting: $5

As I was snapping a few final photos and trying to drag myself away from Veritas, the couple that had been wine-tasting beside us asked if we'd been to Afton Mountain. Nope, we shook our heads. "It's a must. It's right up the road, about 2 miles, you can't miss the sign." It was on our way, and they were right, it was impossible to miss. As we drove in, I gasped. It's breathtaking. There's a sign inside the tasting room that reads, "Grapes don't grow in ugly places." It's no joke out there. 

We were surprised by the wines, too. Afton offers two wine tastings - house and reserve. The house tasting has a heavy focus on sweeter wines, so the reserve was more my style. We tasted 8 wines, and we enjoyed the majority of them. We left with four bottles - 2 steel Chardonnays (a crisp, fruity, dry chardonnay - we got one to give as a gift), Cab Sauv, and we splurged on the limited-case Petit Verdot, planning to uncork it on our next special occasion. 

House tasting: $5

Reserve tasting: $8 

Zan is hard to get riled up, about anything other than traffic. He's a happy man, but you won't find him breaking into excited laughter or jumping up and down over much. But when he does it, man, it's worth the wait. He was head over heels for King Family - for every little detail about it - from the bustling tasting room, to the polo field in the near-distance, to the wines themselves. He stage whispered to me at the end of our tasting, "I love this place!"

I loved this place, too. I loved it so much, in fact, that I planned out my whole future life living in the massive white farmhouse beyond the polo field. I could handle that view every day, couldn't you?

The most remarkable thing about King Family is that we liked every single wine. I don't think that's ever happened before. And there was a donut truck out front. And giant, rustic checker boards inside so you can challenge an opponent while you sip on that bottle you ordered. There's polo in the summer on Sundays, and we'll be there with Jess and Brian as fast as you can say, "Chukker" (that's a polo joke I learned at the winery. Dorky, huh?).

So we ordered a bottle of almost all of the tasting wines. Yep. Six bottles. We skipped the port, but we ordered a second Cab Franc because it's good with anything for anyone. Their Cab Franc might be our new all-purpose go-to wine. My favorite was the Roseland, a 2012 Chardonnay and Viognier blend.

Tasting: $5, goes up to $7 on April 1