Fall is a fine time for sipping wine

The Chesapeake Bay area was once an under-the-radar destination for wine lovers. But over the past decade, there’s been an almost cult-like devotion to wineries in the Northern Neck and Middle Peninsula as the industry expands and the area offers one of the state’s premier wine trails. 

In the past few years, three new wineries have opened in Northumberland and Westmoreland counties. And why not? Few things are better than spending an afternoon listening to music and sipping wine with friends surrounded by fields of grapevines or perched on a hill overlooking the water. It’s become the new rivah trend.

And fall is prime wine-sipping time. The changing calendar and the crisper temperatures signal harvest season for wine drinkers. Now’s the ideal season to visit Triple V Farms, Monroe Bay Winery and Rivah Vineyards at the Grove, all relatively new on the local wine landscape.

Triple V Farms has two of its three offerings in place. Wines and vinegars are for sale and vodka is on the horizon.

Owners Marti Moyer and Craig Allshouse have spent the last three years breathing new life into the former Athena Vineyards property in Wicomico Church. They celebrated the winery’s official one-year anniversary in August.

Over the past year, they completed work on the 1,100-square-foot tasting room which includes a gift shop and the farm’s vinegar and olive oil selections. They hope to offer vodkas by the end of the year, said Moyer.

The couple bought the vineyard property three years ago when they moved to Northumberland County permanently. They opened it in July 2020 in the middle of the pandemic with wine tastings under a tent and held its grand opening a month later.

The former owners had about 20 different varieties of grapes on 11 acres but while the winery was unused, about 30% of the grapes were lost, said Moyer. Allshouse said 20 varieties were too many. There are now about 12 varieties on 14 acres. They produce the wines on-site in a separate facility from the tasting room.

The vinegars—which include tasty varieties like coconut, black mission fig, espresso, cranberry pear and honey ginger—are not produced on-site but are all available for taste-testing before purchase. There are 20 different balsamic vinegars and seven olive oils.

The wine list is also extensive. All are created by Allshouse, along with wine maker and consultant Floyd Oslin. There are 27 total, including six speciality wines, nine reds, seven whites. Two new releases are Wicomico Flood Tide, a sweet red, and Freeze, a sweet white, ice wine.

“To make an ice wine, you have to freeze the grapes on the vine, which you can’t really do in Virginia,” said Moyer.

In 2018, the winery harvested the grapes but hadn’t acquired its license yet, she said. So she froze them—about two tons worth.

“This year, two-and-a-half years later, we’ve got Freeze. But we only made 140 bottles,” she said.

Music, food trucks and fire pits (in season) are the norm at Triple V on Sippin’ Saturdays.

My picks: Symphony is a white wine with hints of orange and other citrus flavors.

Wicomico Flood Tide is a red that’s smooth and sweet.

Triple V Farms – Events

• October 23

Sippin’ Saturday — open 11 a.m.-7 p.m. Music by Cameron Ashton 1:30-4:30 p.m. Salty Bob’s Oyster & Seafood Company food truck. Free.

• October 30

Sippin’ Saturday — open 11 a.m.-7 p.m. Music by Grayson Torrence 1:30-4:30 p.m. Free.

• Every Sunday in October

Murder Mystery and Merlot — 1-6 p.m. Sip win and solve a mystery. Guests receive a murder mystery puzzle with clues. Solve the mystery in the fastest time and win. Free.

Just outside of Colonial Beach town limits overlooking a tributary of the Potomac River, Monroe Bay Winery got its modest start in an open strawbale barn three years ago.

It remains a strawbale barn but it’s an enclosed 3,000-square-foot tasting room and event facilities which can accommodate 200 people.

Owner Kiki Apple’s wine story started over two decades ago when she bought a house in the South of France. “That’s when my love of wine really started,” she said. Apple started making wine at home then moved on to planting grapes and now owning a commercial winery.

Monroe Bay Winery first started making and selling its wines in 2014 at shows and festivals. In 2019, she built the strawbale barn and tasting room on 20 acres overlooking Monroe Bay. She grows the grapes and makes the wine off-site at another location in the Northern Neck but hopes to plant additional grapes on the winery property.

The tasting room started out as a simple pavilion and in August 2019, 40 people attended a workshop at the site and built the expansive barn from over 1,000 bales of straw. The bales are actually inside the walls, which are covered in plaster, said Apple. During the building process, cut wine bottles were used to form mosaics and words in the walls and windows.

Monroe Bay currently produces 10 wines and four ciders including hard apple, pumpkin spice, boardwalk cider and hopped cider.

Paying tribute to the wildlife surrounding the winery, the labels are in bright blues and greens and all contain a blue heron.

Guests can sip wine and birdwatch on Monroe Bay, which is a sanctuary for three bald eagles, blue heron and turkeys, said Apple.

“The labels were my vision but I was not the graphic designer,” she said. “I was going for a Jimmy Buffet-kind of theme. Not starchy but more of a relaxed, casual vibe.”

Now that the walls are up on the barn, Monroe Bay Winery offers a variety of events, including art shows, art classes and a Brush with Wine paint nights in conjunction with the Art Alliance in Colonial Beach and Northern Neck Artists. Apple plans to include more music and food trucks on the weekend calendar next year. She says by next summer the winery will offer several food selections, including charcuterie boards and brick oven pizzas.

My pick: I loved them all but came home with a bottle of Traminette, a sweet white wine perfect for sipping.

Monroe Bay Winery  – Events

• Ongoing through November 27

Weekly art classes conducted by Northern Neck Arts, calendar of classes at nnartists.com/workshops.

• 1st Saturday of the month, April through December

A Brush with Wine art classes, 3 p.m. Create an original work of art and enjoy a glass of wine.

• October 23-24

Saturday at the Strawbale Barn — noon-5 p.m. Dogs & Hogs Gone Wild food truck.

• November 6-7

Saturday at the Strawbale Barn — noon-5 p.m. Dogs & Hogs Gone Wild food truck.

• November 7

Colonial Beach Bridal Show — 1-3 p.m. Vendors, past wedding resale booths. Free.

• December 4-5

Saturday at the Strawbale Barn — noon-5 p.m. Dogs & Hogs Gone Wild food truck.

Travel the winding road through Westmoreland County’s Kinsale, cross the bridge that spans the Yeocomico River and there you’ll find the newest addition to the wine trail, Rivah Vineyards at the Grove, owned by the youngest winery owner in Virginia, Bryce Taylor.

Bryce, just 26 when he opened the winery, co-owns the winery with his father William B. Taylor Jr., an Episcopal preacher. Bryce is hands on at the vineyard.

Taylor’s family has owned The Grove since 1799. A brick manor which sits on the property has survived five generations. A previous one likely burned in the early 1800s. There’s 70 acres of farmland on the 125-acre property, with about 20 acres used as the vineyard.

Taylor planted his first grapes at age 19 with the advice of wine-maker and tasting room manager Floyd Oslin. With 38 years of winemaking experience in Virginia, Oslin also consults with Triple V Farms and is helping with the startup of Riverdog Winery in Eastern Henrico.

The winery started producing in the fall of 2018 and opened in 2019. All the wines are produced on-site in the basement of the tasting room and event center, which can accommodate up to 350 people and overlooks the river on one side and the vineyard on the other.

“We’re a real deal winery,” said Oslin. “Not a custom crush, where we pick and send it out to have the wines made.”

Bryce’s grandmother Sue Taylor “was a big inspiration for him,” said Oslin. “She made an impact on everyone who knew her. She wasn’t a handshaker, she was a hugger.”

In her honor, Bryce named one of his first wines, Sweet Sue. It’s one of three reds and three whites produced at the winery.

Another of the wines, Labs & Hounds, honors the winery dogs, Happy, Cocoa and Shack.

Rivah Vineyards at the Grove has four major events planned before the end of the year, including Grove Fest and an Oyster Crawl (see related calendar of events).

My pick: Yeocomico White, which pairs great with seafood, particularly oysters.

Rivah Vineyards at the Grove – Events

• October 30

Grove Fest — noon-5 p.m. Music by Trent Jones; Dogs & Hogs Gone Wild food truck; vendors, special treats for kids in costume. Free.

• November 9

Barrel Tasting — Music by Cameron Ashton. Ticketed event.

• November 13-14

Oyster Crawl Weekend — noon-5 p.m. each day. Music by Cameron Ashton (Saturday); Oysters by Nomini Bay Oyster Ranch (Saturday) and Dog & Hogs Gone Wild (Sunday). Free.

• December 11

Holiday Open House — noon-5 p.m. Music by Trent Jones; Salty Bob’s Oysters & Seafood Company food truck. Free.