Loudoun County Vineyards

We frequently sit out on our front porch or across the street on our neighbors' front porch to have a glass of wine or some other beverage-du-jour. Since one of our neighbors across the street is moving to Northern Virginia next week, we thought we should introduce her to some Virginia wine.

One of the things we enjoyed doing twice a year in the DC suburbs was the Loudoun County Farm Tour in the fall and the spring. From the website you can download a map that will show you all the farms and vineyards that open their doors to the public for the day during the farm tour.

We weren't really aware of all the vineyards in Loudoun County until we did the "farm" tour. In hindsight, I would use the farm tour to visit the farms that aren't normally open. There's a lot to see on the tour, and you'd be crazy to try and do it ALL in one day. The vineyards all have tasting rooms that are open throughout the year. You can download the Loudoun County Wine Trail map or use the interactive version on their website and go tour the countryside and try the wines separate of visiting the farms.

So anyway, getting back to the reason why all this came to mind in the first place... We have a small collection of wines from Loudoun County as a result of doing the farm tour. Tonight we opened up a bottle of Tarara red table wine. It was EXCELLENT!

We didn't even realize the bottle was
blue until after we poured the wine.
Pretty, isn't it?

Out of all the vineyards in Loudoun County, I think Tarara is probably the nicest, most expansive with many beautiful picnic areas and facilities to support big catered functions like weddings.

Grandpa, me, and the boys look for a geocache
on the Tarara Vineyard. (April 2007)

The man-made cave they have for wine
storage is pretty neat to see, too.

If you asked me to pick the top three vineyards to visit out of all the vineyards listed on the Loudoun County Wine Tour, I would recommend:

1) Tarara (see above)

2) Loudoun Valley Vineyards - Their pear desert wine is legendary and we buy a few bottles every time we go there. They offer a nice Mother's Day or Father's Day brunch there in a very pretty setting.

LW and our friend LS wine-tasting at LV Vineyards.
May 2006

3) Hillsborough - This one is a hit with the boys because they have a small pond with frogs going "ribbit!" The scenery is pretty, too.