8 Virginia Wine Country Towns Locals Love (and 3 Tourists Overrun)
A couple pulls off Route 151, past the cidery everyone photographs, and keeps driving to a hilltop tasting room with six cars in the lot.
Across Virginia, from Loudoun’s horse country to the Shenandoah Valley, the wineries locals love sit a turn or two off the crowded route.
These are the Virginia wine towns worth the drive, and those that tourists have taken over.
Crozet
Crozet sits at the foot of the Blue Ridge in Albemarle County, a former railroad town that Charlottesville folks treat as their weekend backyard.
King Family Vineyards anchors the scene, with polo matches on the lawn most Sunday afternoons in season and a tasting room that looks straight up at the mountains.
Locals keep it low-key.
You can grab a slice of pizza at Crozet Pizza, walk it off downtown, and still make a tasting before the sun drops behind the ridge.
The winemaking here leans serious, but the mood stays neighborly, which is why Crozet regulars don’t advertise it.
Afton
Afton clings to the mountain where Nelson County meets Albemarle, right where the Blue Ridge Parkway crosses Interstate 64.
Veritas Vineyards and Afton Mountain Vineyards both sit up here, pouring some of the state’s most decorated wines from porches with valley views for miles.
Those views, though.
Cardinal Point rounds out the cluster, so you can taste three well-regarded labels without driving more than a few minutes between them.
Afton feels less like a town and more like a string of hilltops locals have claimed for their Saturdays.
Purcellville
Purcellville anchors the western edge of Loudoun County, the region that brands itself as DC’s Wine Country.
Walsh Family Wine, 868 Estate Vineyards, and Breaux Vineyards all pour within a short drive of the old brick downtown.
Pace yourself.
The town keeps a walkable Main Street with coffee shops and a restored train depot, so you can settle in over lunch between stops.
Weekenders from Washington flood the bigger names down the road, but Purcellville stays the town Loudoun locals call home.
Delaplane
Delaplane barely registers as a town, just a post office and a scatter of farms in Fauquier County, and that’s the appeal.
RdV Vineyards put this address on the map, earning a national reputation for Bordeaux-style reds poured by appointment in a converted barn.
Reservations required.
Barrel Oak Winery sits nearby with a dog-friendly deck and a far more casual crowd, so the two make an easy pair.
Come on a weekday, and you might have the Piedmont hills mostly to yourself.
Gordonsville
Gordonsville guards a crossroads in Orange County, a small railroad town with a walkable historic district and the old Exchange Hotel out on the edge.
Horton Vineyards, a Virginia winemaking pioneer since 1989, pours just up Spotswood Trail from the center of town.
A few miles south, the stone ruins at Barboursville Vineyards draw anyone who loves a good story with their tasting flight.
Gordonsville stays overlooked because the crowds barrel past it toward Charlottesville, and locals prefer it that way.
Markham
Markham hides off Interstate 66 in Fauquier County, the kind of place you’d blow past at 70 miles an hour.
Naked Mountain Winery climbs the slope above the village, one of Virginia’s older vineyards, with a tasting room that frames the foothills.
It’s easy to miss.
Philip Carter Winery sits just over in Hume for anyone chasing more history in their glass, so the pairing fills an afternoon.
Markham draws hikers off the Appalachian Trail at Sky Meadows, but the wine crowd stays thin enough to feel like a secret.
Woodstock
Woodstock proves the Shenandoah Valley grows more than apples and hay, sitting along the winding North Fork west of the Massanutten ridge.
Muse Vineyards spreads across the river bottom nearby, an ambitious operation whose wines have collected a wall of medals.
Yes, the valley.
Woodstock’s Main Street keeps a genuine small-town feel, and an overlook above town frames seven bends of the Shenandoah River.
Valley wine still surprises people, which keeps the tasting rooms out here refreshingly uncrowded.
Bluemont
Bluemont perches on the Blue Ridge at the far western tip of Loudoun County, where the pavement starts to climb toward the Appalachian Trail.
The tasting room at Bluemont Vineyard sits high on the mountainside, with one of the widest valley views in the state, and Dirt Farm Brewing runs next door under the same family.
Chase the sunset.
The elevation keeps things cooler in August, so the deck stays comfortable when the lowland tasting rooms bake.
Bluemont regulars time their visits for a weekday golden hour, long after the wedding crowds have cleared out.
Psst! How much do you know about Virginia’s wine country? Take our quiz and see if you can ace it.
Quiz
Virginia Wine IQ
Answer these on Virginia’s grapes, ruins, and wine history. We bet you can’t get them all right. Prove us wrong?
Which Founding Father tried and failed to grow European wine grapes at his Virginia estate?
Where the Crowds Take Over
Virginia now has more than 300 wineries, and a few towns pull far bigger crowds than the rest.
These three still make a fine day out, but you'll share every tasting room with a bus tour or a bachelorette party.
Middleburg
Middleburg wears the crown as Virginia's horse-and-hunt capital, a stone-walled village halfway between Washington and the Blue Ridge.
Boxwood Estate Winery sits right at the edge of town, and Greenhill and Chrysalis pour a short drive out, all of them polished and priced for the DC set.
Book ahead.
The main street packs boutiques, a historic inn, and enough Range Rovers on a Saturday to slow traffic to a crawl.
Middleburg is worth seeing once, but locals treat it as a place they take out-of-town guests, not a spot they linger.
Washington
Washington, the tiny Rappahannock County seat known as Little Washington, runs just a few blocks square, yet it draws visitors from across the country.
The Inn at Little Washington, a three-star restaurant, is the true draw, and the town's tasting rooms fill with couples killing time before a dinner reservation.
Small town, big prices.
Little Washington Winery sits on the edge of town with mountain views and a busy events calendar that keeps weekends packed.
The setting charms everyone, which is exactly the problem for anyone hoping to taste in peace.
Leesburg
Leesburg mixes a genuine historic downtown with the sprawl of DC's outer suburbs, and its wineries pay the price in weekend traffic.
Places like Stone Tower and Fabbioli Cellars sit within a short drive, drawing limos and party buses out from the Beltway by mid-morning.
Come early.
The cobblestone side streets and the courthouse lawn still charm, but King Street on a Saturday belongs to the crowds.
Leesburg rewards a weekday visitor, when the tasting rooms breathe and you can find parking a block off Market Street.
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