As soon as I knew I would be in the US for a good chunk of time, one of my best friends, Sara, immediately booked a train down from NYC to see me. As I planned activities for the weekend, I couldn’t think of anything better to do than continue tasting my way through Northern Virginia, while introducing Sara to Northern Virginia wine at the same time!
We got stuck with a rather gross day in terms of weather – gray, cold, dreary…and windy. However, all of the wine tasting we set out to do was inside, so it was even more of a treat. We set out to visit Northern Virginia wine heaven with visits to Winery 32 and Lost Creek.
Winery 32
Tasting: $8 for eight wines
Winery 32 has the best story of any of the wineries I’ve visited – and is one of the newest (opened July 2014). They chose the name because a) they are located on 32 acres, b) they planted their grapes around their 32nd wedding anniversary, and 3) they have 32 peach trees on the property. I actually think there are even more “32” references in their story, but those three are the cutest! Also, the property used to be a llama farm; that’s not related to #32, but a pretty cool fact in my opinion!
My favorite part of Winery 32 was the wine bottle labels – the daughter of the owners designs all of the labels and they are hand-drawn by her. They almost all have a special story behind them, as well, which made for a really interesting tasting. Their peach wine is very different from anything I’ve previously tasted, and they do a special peach sangria with it, as well. It was definitely a very unique spot that will probably always stand out in my memory.
Oh, and if you are like me and religiously do everything that Conde Nast Traveler tells you to do, check out this article, which mentions Winery 32.
Wine – 3/5 | Tasting – 4/5 | Views – 3/5 | Atmosphere – 4/5
My favorite logo was this one, which I grabbed a picture of from Winery 32’s website. It tells the story of Loudoun County, where the winery is based – and where I grew up. For more labels, check out their Wines page.
Lost Creek
Tasting: $12 for seven wines
Think of your typical wine bar, with dimly lit lighting and an extensive list of options. There’s a guy with an acoustic guitar in the corner singing to the entire room. Everyone there is enjoying themselves, catching up with old friends, laughing and sipping their wine. The picture in your head? That’s Lost Creek!
The wines at Lost Creek were amazing! Honestly, I think I wanted to buy every single one. The best part, though, was the woman who led our tasting. She was super friendly and knew so much about everything; we ended up talking to her for about 20 minutes after the tasting before we sat at a table with our glasses of wine! The only downside is that there aren’t really views at Lost Creek. However, there is a nice outside oasis for days with better weather.
Wine – 5/5 | Tasting – 5/5 | Views – 2/5 | Atmosphere – 4/5
If you liked this post, check out more Northern Virginia wineries we visited in Part 1, Part 3, and Part 4.
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