Charlottesville VA Wineries- Where Should We Go?

Will be there for three days in late May. Our first visit. What wineries are the best to visit? Obviously, wine quality is important but also looking for friendly, welcoming staff and great overall experiences. Generally prefer wineries doing small lot fermentations and offering a more personal experience.

Any advice is appreciated.

Dave Ball
ITB Calicaro Wine

Barboursville is about 20 min north, and for my money, the highest quality in the area. Their best efforts are with Bordeaux varieties. The staff in the tasting room are great, as is the restaurant. Closer to town, I’d check out King family.

I would suggest Veritas and Keswick Vineyards. Both are great and have a good, broad range of wines.

C-ville has a go amount of wineries so it somewhat depends on what you are looking for.

If you are looking for high quality wines, the Barboursville, Keswick and Horton on the North and East side of C-ville. On the west side you have Veritas and King Family which are also beautiful wineries. Starting memorial day weekend, King Family has a 1:30 polo match that is free of charge to attend. The owner is a huge po’o fan. Another unique, new, smaller winery north of the city is Glass House.

Others of note are Blenhiem- Dave Matthews ( Dave Matthews Band) own this winery
kluge Estate was bought out of foreclosure and is now Trump Winery and his son is running the winery

My wife and I go to c-ville three or four times a year and pour for some of the wineries at different wine festivals.

Feel free to PM me with any questions or other info. Also go to Virginiawine.org, you can download a PDF wine guide for all the different Va wine regions

Jon

Thanks y’all. Really looking forward to this trip and the inside perspective on where to go is invaluable. Also found a good discussion by doing a quick WB search on Charlottesville wineries that tracks with the reco’s in this thread.

As a follow up question: are there any good restaurant reco’s?

Dave
ITB Calicaro Wine

Crozet Pizza. Cash only but amazing, amazing! Pollack Vineyards is out that way and has an exceptional all around lineup of reds and whites. Veritas and King Family are close and have decent offerings as well. But Crozet Pizza is the destination.

In town, Continental Divide is laid back with great tex-mex and good beer. Ten, Blue Light Grill, Hamilton’s are all cant misses. You must stop in at Feast in The West Main Market to pick up some snackers (read: great cured meats and cheeses) for your wine touring.

Make sure you get a reservation for Crozet Pizza. Unless things have changed, and I doubt it, they will turn you away without one - even for carry out. Maybe it’s not as big an issue during the week but it is on weekends.

For something a little more upscale there is Clifton Inn or Boars Head Inn. Not sure if it’s still as good as it use to be but Clifton Inn use to be a gem.

Jonathan W pretty much has the winery side covered – Barboursville, Veritas and King Family I think do the whole “tourist/tasting visit” the best.

Regarding restaurants, my strong suggestions are: Clifton Inn if you want to go someplace very nice with a great wine list; Tavola for outstanding rustic Italian (like A16 in SF, but no reservations); Commonwealth for great drinks and scene; and Whiskey Jar for casual old-school Southern. Feel free to PM if you want more information or have any questions…

A few other restaurants to add are:

Duners - look like a small whole in the wall, but the food is awesome, get there early. There will be an hour wait by 6:30

Downtown Grill - nice high end steak restaurant with a decent wine list.

Commonwealth is nice and if the weather is nice, the roof decks a cool hang out.

Enjoy,

On

A few other restaurants to add are:

Duners - look like a small whole in the wall, but the food is awesome, get there early. There will be an hour wait by 6:30

Downtown Grill - nice high end steak restaurant with a decent wine list.

Commonwealth is nice and if the weather is nice, the roof decks a cool hang out.

Enjoy,

Jon

Dave

If you are interested in a true boutique winery experience. Navigate off the beaten path (literally & figuratively) to Ducard Vineyards In Etlan. I should note that the owner is a neighbor and close friend of an old friend of mine

I tasted a number of wineries in the area. Many had peculiarly funky fruit. Others were sound but indistinct. Barboursville was the best the bunch - until I tasted through almost the entire lineup at Ducard.

The proprietor, Scott, is truly practicing a labor of love. He runs a sustainable vineyard and winery. The Cab Franc is my favorite, though my wife prefers his Bordeaux blend. The Norton is unique and enjoyable.

If you are lucky, they may be hosting an event during your visit. If not, an afternoon in his tasting room, including some locally artisanal foods they sell is a joy. If you, go, please give him my regards.

Ditto on Veritas and King Family Vineyards(Crozet). The winemaker Mattieu Finot for the King Family is talented guy from the Rhone Valley and has experience from many wine growing areas around the globe…Gary

I can echo the Veritas recommendation, that was always my favorite winery while I was at UVA. Also, if you should fine yourself in the downtown area during lunch time, check out Revolutionary Soup.
Matt

On the restaurant side, the only one my wife and I go out to any longer is Mas (and we’ve been to everything). Tapas place. Really, really good. A bit hard to find for a non-local. If you want something closer to downtown and the University, I’ll second the Continental Divide rec. It’s loud and small, but the food is consistently good. As are the margaritas.

If you want a place on the downtown mall, I’ll suggest Petit Pois. Decent little wine list. Excellent food.

+1 of the Revolutionary Soup recommendation. It’s nothing pretty, but easily some of the best soup I’ve ever had.

If you go to Veritas, contact Claude Thibaut (http://www.tjwinery.com/) – he makes his outstanding sparkling wine in the cellars of Veritas – and arrange for a tasting with him (it will be separate from the Veritas tasting).

I want to mention one more winery in Virginia. I don’t drink that much wine from Virginia wineries, but the best I have had is from Linden. The reason nobody else has mentioned it is that it not that close to Charlottesville. In fact, I would think it would take a good hour and 1/2 from there. But, if wine rather than convenience is your first priority, think about going to Linden.

I’ll be done there in late May as well, Thanks for the reccs, I had a number of the wineries on my list.
Wanted to know who had any experience with RdV Vineyards. When Jancis’ was there last year for WBC, she gave the highest marks to Rutger’s wines, Like 18’s which is very high for her.
I klnow the tasting is expensive as are the wines and probably sold out.

I’m a big fan of RdV, which is in Northern Virginia, not in the Charlottesville area. The inaugural vintage (2008) is sold out, but the 2009, which is better, is on sale now. You can do a private tour and tasting for $40 – not sure if they waive it for mailing list members or if you purchase something while you’re there.

+1. Only got to taste their basic in 08, ‘Friends and Family’, but relative to most everything else from VA in the <$30 range thought it was exceptional. Can’t speak for the upper tier but have been impressed by what people whose tastes I respect have said. Would call ahead re: tours and fees, as I had heard they only did tours by appointment, but that may have changed.

RdV is not offering tours at this time. They plan to start again later this spring. I think they told me May but I won’t swear to it. If you sign up for the mailing list, they will send a notification when they plan to start tours again.