Virginia Wine - Loudoun County

Hi All,

A couple of my co-workers and I decided to check out a couple more wineries in our backyard. We headed south to Loudoun County, Virginia. Did you know that Loudoun County currently has 23 tasting rooms for you to sample some of Virginia's great wines? Here is an update of some fun wine stuff I did today at 3 of the wineries. We visited Chrysalis Winery, Quattro Goomba's Winery, and Hidden Brook Winery.

We started out at Chrysalis. Chrysalis is a beautiful winery that produces some great wines. I was first introduced to Chrysalis about 3 years ago when pouring for Davis Valley. Dewey and Rusty from Davis Valley recommended I try their wines at a festival that I was pouring at for them. I really enjoyed the couple I got to try and have wanted to go check out the full run since then. It took three years, but I finally made it and it was worth the wait. The winery is located back in horse country of Middleburg, Va. The tasting room is located at the top of a hill and looks down over the main vineyard and the winery. The building is beautiful and there is a lot of history that the tasting room staff would love to fill you in on, including Sarah's Table Wine. You will have to go the winery to find out that story. Anyway, the patio area and outdoor grill is a beautiful place to enjoy some light snacks or a picnic lunch. Customer Service there was fantastic and the staff is super knowledgeable of the wine, the property, the area and were very entertaining. My co-workers and I had a blast and will be putting it on our list to visit again. It is worth taking the drive out to Middleburg for the visit. They have 15 wines available and we left with 2 cases between the 3 of us! Check them out at
http://www.chrysaliswine.com/begin.htm

We grabbed some lunch in Leesburg, worked on some work stuff and headed back to Quattro Goomba's Winery. They are located right on Rt. 15 between Leesburg and Rt. 50. The tasting room is a log cabin set back off the road. We visited with two of the tasting room employees for a while and learned that "Quattro Goomba" means four friends in Italian. The winery was started in one of owner's basements. The owners were ordering grapes from different places and creating their wines. They were out of space at about 200 cases and decided to expand. They have a few vines planted at the front of the property but are still ordering their grapes from Chile, California, and Italy. They make 7 of their wines, carry 2 other selections, and make this great slushy drink called Frappe Vino which was delicious. I am excited to see what they are going to do in the future as they are aging a couple of their wines in old whiskey barrels. The couple wines that I have tried that are aged in a similar fashion are fantastic so I am sure theirs will be good also. The ladies working the tasting room were fantastic. They were very open and honest about their wines and gave, what I thought to be, very honest opinions of wine in general. They were great fun! The three of us left with 6 bottles. http://www.goombawine.com/

We started heading North on 15 to beat the traffic and decided to stop by Hidden Brook Winery. Hidden Brook is located right next to Lost Creek Winery and both wineries are owned by the Hauck Family. Bob and Carol Hauck own Lost Creek and their son Eric and his wife Deborah own Hidden Brook. The winery is a beautifully handcrafted log cabin set in the woods with some beautiful pine trees. The landscape was filled with beautiful flowers that added a nice accent to the log cabin. It was very appealing. Hidden Brook is one of the newer wineries in Loudoun County but you wouldn't know it tasting their wines. Deborah was working the tasting room and boy she was on point. She knows her wines. She gave honest opinions of her wine and what she likes. Their reds are very nice and well balanced. A couple of their whites were a on the sweeter side. The had a unique white that had a banana flavor which was very unique. We had a great experience and left with 9 bottles of wine. The only downfall is the only restroom was Port-a-Jon that was located outside, so "go" before you visit.
http://www.hiddenbrookwinery.com/

Well I hope that provides some insight into some great wines in Loudoun County. Enjoy!