Help with VA/DC Wines?

Hello!

So we moved from SF to DC last year. We miss Napa/Sonoma wine country so much - and we are hoping that everyone out there is safe (between the pandemic and the fires!).

As we start this new chapter in our lives, we’ve been told a lot of things about the wineries near our current home (i.e. DC, Northern Virginia). Some say, “yea, there are some great ones out there!”, others say “they’re great for what they are!”, and others admit “yea … don’t really bother …”

So we need some help! We’re hoping to find wineries that fall into any of the following categories:
(1) great to visit (picturesque setting, friendly hosts, tolerates/encourages children/picnicking), with wines that are at least passable
(2) for the nerds: playing to the terroir, these might not be using the big-money grapes of California (Cabernet, Pinot Noir, Chardonnay), but really making great, interesting, nerdy wines that’ll really impress a group of berserkers/sommeliers
(3) for the pockets: someone’s gotta be coming in and throwing a good amount of money to plant new grapes, hire fancy consultants, construct big tasting rooms.

So tell me your favorite Category (1), (2), and (3) places [and of course, bonus points if they satisfy more than one category!]! Also would love it if someone was open during the pandemic - but even if not, we can wait!

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Don’t bother with trying to categorize or pigeonhole wineries around here into categories. Approach them fresh and for what they are. It’s more about exploring an area and how much you want to drive between visits. If you do a search there’s been a few threads recently that can sum up a lot of what you want. Leesburg has a strong pocket of wineries around it to explore, but a strong favorite for quality and a nice drive/view would be Linden, and you could definitely hit up several in that area as well. RdV is fairly high level, definitely high $$, but not open to the public for tastes or tours afaik. The other option is hitting up the Charlottesville area for several choices if you want to make that kind of trek.

I am not super well versed in Va wines, but I have enjoyed what I’ve had from Early Mountain Vineyards. https://www.earlymountain.com/

You will like local wine stores more than local wineries.

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Agree with Howard and Matthew. There are some gems around here for wineries, but many are wedding venues that make grape juice. Even the ones that try hard still charge a “markup” for getting you in the door and just aren’t worth it once you know what $35 should get you in a chard. I had a thread here earlier that got a lot of good replies from some of the gems to seek out, a lot of them recommended by Howard and Matthew here. Linden is probably the best close to DC, but central Virginia (Charlottesville area) is probably the best concentration of them. White wines and Cab Franc seem to be the most consistent year over year, but some exceptions.

Welcome to the area!

I second (or third) Howard. Bassins (MacArthur Beverage) is a shop with a good selection and they have tastings. Also keep in mind from a purchasing standpoint that most wineries and shops (including K&L) ship to DC. Give them the address of the nearest fedex (for me it’s 5225 Wisconsin Ave- friendship heights) as your shipping address…K&L has great shipping prices and since you don’t pay sales tax, the tax you save will likely cover cost for priority overnight (by 1030am) shipping.

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  1. Glen Manor
  2. Linden
  3. RdV

The nice thing is they are all within a 30-40 minute drive of each other.

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Living in the Charlottesville are we have yet to taste more than 2-3 wineries that we would put on par with anything in California. The reds are generally under-ripe and made for current consumption. The whites are usually better but almost always overpriced to CA wines and even France.

We have seen very few wineries that made bad/flawed wines but it seems that all work from the same recipe. The climate prevents wineries from branching out. The reds are almost always Cab Franc, Petit Verdot, or Merlot. And some Tannat. Some Cabs here and there and Moss makes some good Cabernets. One of the few.

Well, as for #2, I don’t have wineries to recommend, but the wine geek grape of Virginia is definitely Petit Manseng.

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I’ve never visited but Chrysalis did well in a Norton challenge (if you like Norton).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norton_(grape)

There are people making excellent wine in Virginia. The pricing is difficult, in part because there is no economy of scale or shared resources, and in part because the main business model for most wineries is to bring local tourists out for days at the winery with picnics and wine, so they focus a lot of resources on the experience. That can actually make it a pretty fun weekend activity - take a picnic, go out to some wineries, have a good time.

My favorite wineries that I visited in my few years living in DC (2016-2019) were:
Early Mountain - good Bordeaux blends, arguably the best Chardonnay in Virginia, maybe tied with Linden
Michael Shaps - superb Petit Manseng, Petit Verdot (IMO the two most promising grapes in Virginia), Tannat
The Barns at Hamilton Station (Michael Shaps is also the winemaker here) - closer to DC than Shaps’ Charlottesville location. V. gd Petit Manseng
Veritas - Excellent Petit Verdot, good Viognier, some other gems to be found
Ox Eye - Best Pinot Noir in Virginia. Admittedly, this is not saying a whole lot, but it’s an impressive feat in itself
Barboursville - most of their basic tasting is worth avoiding, but the library tasting gives you access to some good wines, including a good Nebbiolo and their Octagon Bdx blend
Paradise Springs - only an hour’s drive from DC, fun place. They have a sister winery in Santa Barbara, but the Virginia stuff is actually good. Good Meritage, good Petit Verdot, good PV/Tannat blends. In my experience the whites were less impressive.
Stone Tower - their estate Hogback Mountain and Windswept Hill Bdx blends are actually fully ripe, well structured, good wines. They’re also $70. So is their varietal Petit Verdot, which is asking a lot when other wineries are making good versions for half that price. But the wines are genuinely delicious and it’s a fun day out near Leesburg, only an hour’s drive from DC. They also make a delicious Port-style wine from Norton grapes. Porton.

I don’t personally love Linden because they are pretentious and exclusionary and I don’t like tasting at places where I literally have to hear someone say “we don’t want those kinds of people here”. That said, the wines are good, and Jim Law has been a very important part of improving the quality and community of Virginia wineries.

A few other places worth considering:
Benevino Vineyard Cabernet Franc at Delaplane.
Various Nortons at Chrysalis - quality is variable, but it’s worth it just for the experience I think. Some of it is pretty good. The carbonic stuff is, in my opinion, missable.
Boxwood is trying really hard to make good wines from major Bordeaux varietals in Virginia. That’s a tough ask, but the best versions are good. The tasting room is a little sterile and small.

I never made it out to Glen Manor but I’ve heard good things. I’ve also never been to RdV - too pricy for me - but supposedly the wines are excellent.

Rdv is a lovely experience.Quite impressive and the wines are more European than California in style.They have done an amazing project near Middleburg.

Didn’t the OP say that he lives in Northern Virginia, not DC. Unless he works in DC (and can ship to DC at his work address), is shipping to DC an option? I don’t know what shipping rules are in Virginia, but I know more places ship to DC than to Maryland, where I live.

As for good stores in DC, Bassins is excellent for most types of wines. Weygandt Wines in Cleveland Park mostly has wines imported by Peter Weygandt’s Weydandt-Metzler operation, but that is a good thing not a bad thing because they import so many good wines that are not available at most wine stores. Schneiders on Capital Hill is also an excellent store.

By “those kinds of people” was that in reference to the limo/party crowd that’s out in force most weekends? If so, then this doesn’t surprise me at all. Jim has long held the belief that Virginia wineries should be about the wine and not weddings or rolling parties.

I’ve visited a number of times and have taken friends as well. We’ve never had a bad time or been mistreated. That being said, I have seen people not understand that Linden has set up rules and enforced those rules and felt they have been slighted. Generally, this involved the use of the deck on the weekend which was restricted to Linden club members.

In Virginia, I like Vienna Vintner for wines. $15 Rose through $1000 1st growths (mostly in the $30 to $50 range from all over). They have weekend tastings (used to anyway) and monthly wine dinners. They are close to my work, which is bad on the old wallet.

I can’t speak for all locations, but the Fairfax Wegmans has a good wine shop and premium wine room (French heavy) and the Nutley St. Safeway has a decent fine wine room (very Cali heavy).

My impression of Linden from members of my tasting group who’ve known Jim for years is what Brian says.

My sense from my friends is that Jim (and therefore Linden) is serious about their wines.

Agree with MacArthur’s (Bassins) as a great shop.

In NoVa (Arlington) I would highly recommend Arrowine. They have good relationships with some good importers, including Thomas Calder. Their email ‘specials’ each week is my advice. The emails often have sharper pricing than what’s in the shop on hand. They also have a solid charcuterie and cheese selection, as well as bringing in various unusual meats (wagyu, bison, and boar, etc… from different sources in addition to d’Artagnan)

I live in Potomac and work in Rockville, but I ship to the FedEx office in Friendship Heights- 5225 Wisconsin Ave NW, mentioned above. The shipment arrives by 1030 and I pick it up during my lunch break. Assuming the OP is in NoVa, driving to DC for pickup shouldn’t be a huge issue, and it seems that nearly everyone ships to DC.

I also forgot to mention that Chain Bridge Cellars is an excellent small shop in McLean. Sadly it appears that their sales floor is closed, but they have free delivery with $100 purchase to Arlington, Falls Church, McLean, Tysons, Vienna and Great Falls and it looks like they are doing some sort of virtual tasting this Saturday. Bassins also currently has a $100 minimum for curbside pickup.

Ben, great take on VA wineries in that they have to cater to weekend/tourist crowd. That was our opinion too.