Aug

Blenheim Vineyards

“150 Wineries in 150 Days Tour: Virginia” – Stop #16
Find a map and all the info on our page on Blenheim vineyards.

I am not a groupie. I don’t collect autographs. I refuse to look if I end up near someone famous (though in D.C., famous tends to mean politicos, and often it’s just best to turn away…). I don’t want to have lunch with Jesus.

But Dave Matthews…that’s another story. Matthews, with his family, owns Blenheim Vineyards (pronounced Blen-em). Blenheim is a stone’s throw from Kluge (and the gated Vineyards Estates neighborhood across the street). So you know it’s a nice neighborhood; it’s Dave’s neighborhood – he lives in Charlottesville. And you can’t help but wonder if maybe Dave gets a little thirsty of a Saturday, maybe craves a little wine and some common man experience. So even though you want to totally disregard the whole “Dave Matthews owns the winery” thing, you can’t (and, honestly, the tasting room folks don’t really let you – I assumed they’d play that down, but no, they volunteer that info).

It’s impossible to sip without craning your neck just so to…take in the local artists’ work on the winery walls (no Dave there), or admire the 32 skylights in the vaulted ceiling (nope, no Dave up there), or gaze upon the piedmont view (hmmm, definitely no Dave out there).

Which is a shame, because there’s much (besides Dave) to admire in this big, beautiful barn of a building, with its wall of windows looking towards the mountains and its peeks over the rail, down into the barrel room. Blenheim, like Kluge, does a traditional tasting, or a self-guided tasting inside or outside on the sun-filled deck. Ten acres of grapes (and a few bought from other vineyards) produce the winery’s ~5K cases.

If you’d like to dig in a bit, cough up the $25 for a private cellar tour, which includes some barrel and tank tastings of unreleased wine and a good hour with the winemaker, Kirsty Harmon. Now, Kirsty has to have Dave on speed dial, wouldn’t you think?