Jul

Castle Gruen Winery

“150 Wineries in 150 Days Tour: Virginia” – Stop #7
A map and all the information can be found at our page for Castle Gruen Vineyards & Winery.

Castle Gruen Winery, Locust Dale, Virginia

Does winery exploration get any better than Castle Gruen?

A mini dachshund named Dutchess greets you at the end of the short, rocky drive – a drive rough enough to conjure up visions of winter, blizzards, getting snowed in…
The winemaker (and owner) Dean Gruenburg, wearing a Hawaiian shirt, ambles out of his house, coffee cup in hand, and stands commiserating with you about the foul GPS navigation* out in his part of the world
The winery – tasting room, storage facility - the whole kit & kaboodle – is in a small castle-shaped, cinder block building right there in the parking lot
Dean proclaims “I’m in love with wine!” more than once as he leads you through his small handful of carefully crafted wines, classical music playing softly in the background
The tasting is free!

The no-hurry time to talk with Dean was what’s great about tiny wineries; we lingered well past the 5:00 closing time. Dean shared with us his preference for making big, fruit-forward, distinctive wines, noting - smartly – that he’d made a conscious decision to create wines that were stylistically different than what’s typically offered in Virginia. He only sells his wines through the winery tasting room, and he knows that, to be remembered and recommended, he needed to do something memorable – both through his winemaking, and through his whimsical tasting room and its castle theme. (“Castle” relates back to the German name Gruenburg.)

Dean led us through his tasty spicy Traminette (and a bonus: a sparkling Traminette that showed up in a recently-opened case, now all gone), his Princess Rose blend of Merlot and Traminette with a huge fruit finish, his light-bodied Norton, his storied Merlot (ask him about it; it’s a blend of Merlot, Alicante Bouschet, Concord, and Viognier), and his standout The King’s Red, a big blend of Merlot, Cab Franc and Cabernet Sauvignon. His next creative statement is likely to come from a new grape he’s cultivating, called Crimson Cabernet, which is new in Virginia but growing well in Missouri and Arkansas.

Castle Gruen produces fewer than 500 cases a year, and Dean’s goal is to grow, but slowly, and keep it down below 1,000 cases. That way he and his wife can handle the whole operation themselves.

We’re happy about that. It’s a good bet he’ll have time to chat next time we visit.

We picked up a bottle of The King’s Red ($20).

*If you’re using GPS navigation, be sure to turn onto Route 631 (Meander Run Road) off of Route 15, or you may end up on a farm on Locust Dale Drive by mistake.