Recommend your Virginia winery

[Anonymous]

Go to Charlottesville

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:None have good wine. Agree with Bluemont on scenery.

This isn’t true - it’s just something inexperienced/small minded people like to repeat to give the aura of snootiness. But many/most don’t serve food or full meals.

Early Mountain has food but you’d have to come through Afton gap and up from Cville for it to be on the way back from Hot Springs.

Glen Manor has great wine
Linden has great wine
Crimson Lane has great wine and some food (book ahead)
RdV (named something new recently) has great wine and some food (book ahead)
Capstone has good wine

Another good option closer to Hot Springs is Maude and the Bear in Staunton (not a vineyard)

Closer to the DC end of your trip: Vault and Cellar in Middletown VA… also not a vineyard.

Also, Bluemont isn’t really close to your route home.

And, pippin hill has great food and a few of their bottles are pretty good, too.

The VA Dept. of Tourism has entered the chat.

For those of us who have traveled many time to N. Calf., and have family living there (who lived previously here), the VA and MD wineries, while fun to go to, don't exactly compete on taste or views. It is not small-minded (what?) or inexperience (again, what?) to express that opinion. I enjoy going out locally, but I am not kidding myself that what I am tasting is just as good.

And the CA Dept of Tourism has entered the chat.

For those of us who have traveled many times to France, Spain, Italy, Chile, and New Zealand, and have family who live in every one of those countries, the CA wineries are quaint, but don't exactly compare to the hundred-years old estates that we are used to. Because really, how can one region's wine be good when there is another region that is better? How silly to think that there might actually be one (or, gasp, two??) places in these inferior regions that might have good wine and nice views. Nah, just write off the entire state, that seems easier.

I’d venture a guess most of these posters have gone to Barrel Oak or Bluemont and never tried to find good wine. And have now concluded there’s no good wine in the entire state.

I'd also venture a guess that if most of these posters were given a blind taste test of better VA wines alongside other regions, they would not be able to identify the VA wine.

I was just going to say this. The Dunning-Kruger effect runs rampant among would-be oenophiles.

[Anonymous]

There is some weirdly aggressive poster on here that keeps chiming in the board anytime Virginia wineries are mentioned.

Per PP, if you are not impressed with local wineries, then you either know nothing about wine or are too poor to go to the good local wineries.

It can’t possibly be that the region, as a whole, just doesn’t compete with other known wine regions.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The vast majority of VA wineries/wines are mediocre - there are only a small number of exceptions. You don't have to take that comment personally or peg the person saying it as snobby. It's a simple fact that the quality of a wine is highly dependent on the climate of the region (which is why California regions such as Napa, Sonoma, Paso Robles etc produce most of the best red wines in the US).

That doesn't mean you won't find wines you like at VA wineries, and there are many VA wineries that serve good food and have beautiful scenery. But relative to the better/best wines/wine producers in the US, most VA wineries are weak.

+1 I have spent a fair bit of time at VA wineries and most of the wines aren't good. Almost none are worth what they want to charge you for them ($40 for a super tannic red with half an inch of sediment in the bottle! What a bargain!). But the views are nice, being outdoors is nice, and you can usually find something drinkable. Many often have live music and good food, plus the outdoor fireplaces/-pits that OP is looking for - it's a nice environment even if it's not world class wine. I like to get a Norton or Traminette because you don't see those often in other parts of the country, or whatever the house blend is - usually a bit sweet for my taste, but at least cheaper by the glass.