Blenheim Vineyards

(Been there, checked it!)

The Matthews family acquired Blenheim Farm in 1999. Their intention from the beginning was to prevserve Blenheim’s historical significance and to farm the land in some way. David Matthews’ mother had no intention of bing the lady of the manor and said she wanted pigs and chickens running through the house; she has settled instead for dogs and children. Because the neglected remains of an old vineyard were on the property, the decision was made to plant new vines and eventually build a winery. Peter Matthews was the original vinearyd manager and the whole family helped with such chores as wrapping mesh around the vineyard and hanging many bars of Irish Spring soap to discourage deer, or rushing out in the morning darkness to remove bird netting before the pickers arrived. Time has moved on, an electric fence now stops the deer and the family has stepped back from the everyday running of the vineyard and the winery. The family meets as a board and has the following mission statement: Our winery focuses on producing high quality wines from Virginia-grown vinifera grapes. The quality of our wines is enhanced by sourcing grapes from vineyards in varied climate zones (Piedmont, Blue Ridge and Shenandoah Valley).

Open seven days a week from 11-5:30. Tastings are $5 per person. Please call ahead if you will have 8 or more in your group.

We visited Blenheim on 24 July 2010. Here’s a link to Nancy’s post on our visit. 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.

All photos from this winery

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?

Chardonnay; Blenheim Farm Chardonnay; Viognier; Rose (99% Merlot fermented in steel tank); Cabernet Franc; Painted Red (Petit Verdot, Cab Franc, Merlot, and Malbec).