Midland is located on Mount Airy Farm, in Fort Defiance, north of Staunton in the Shenandoah Valley. If you hit a sign saying “Midland Construction,” you are in the right place. This is a multigeneration family farm that recently had an incarnation as headquarters of a carpentry company, and the winery goes as often by “Midland Construction” as by Midland Winery. The Jordan family has major ties into the wine business of this part of Virginia. One brother, Ben Jordan, spent time as winemaker and General Manager of Michael Shaps Wineworks, and now winemaker and vineyard manager at another top Virginia winery, Early Mountain. Brother Tim Jordan is the vineyard manager for Midland, supported by a third brother, Grayson, while Ben is the winemaker.
Wine: Tier II. Midland’s wine offerings are high quality but tend to be limited at any one time, though different wines are bottled depending on the year; small production volumes and the wines’ local popularity means some production sells out fast. At the moment they have available Riesling, Blaufrankish (a German red grape, planted by only a handful of wineries in Virginia), and “Cabernet Frankish”, a blend of 75% Cabernet Franc and 25% Blaufrankish. The Midland farm has 10 acres of vines planted, with the first ones planted in 2007 by the brothers’ father, Ted Jordan. Grapes growing here include Chardonnay, Riesling, Petit Manseng, Gruner Veltliner, Cabernet Franc, Blaufrankish, and the unusual “Noiret” (a hybrid grape developed in the Finger Lakes area).
Setting: The “tasting room” looks nothing like some of the high-end event venues found throughout Virginia. It is a small wood-floored room in what looks like an old garage; the Jordans do the pouring at the bar or at your tables. Come for the wine. The winery is open only by appointment or announcement, so get in touch with the Jordans through the winery’s website, or follow them on social media to learn about events.
Stories. Augusta Stone Church. The Augusta Stone Church, located on US Highway 11 adjacent to Fort Defiance High School, is the oldest Presbyterian Church in continuous use in Virginia. The Appalachian frontier in Virginia and the Carolinas was largely settled by Scotch-Irish – families originally from Scotland who had been transplanted by the British to Northern Ireland, and then had moved on from there to Britain’s trans-Atlantic colonies (see our separate story “Scotch-Irish Settlement on Virginia’s Frontier”). The early arrivals to the mountains brought their religion with them from Scotland and Ireland – the Presbyterian Church. Two of the first Presbyterian congregations in western Virginia were established by the Congregation of the Triple Forks of the Shenandoah in the year 1740: a meeting house at Tinkling Spring, and the other here at Augusta. Both were served by the Reverend John Craig. A log meeting house was first constructed here in 1740 nearby, and in 1749 this was replaced by the Stone Church visible today. The stone church was intended to serve as both a meeting house and a fort against raids from the Native Americans who controlled much of the area. In the early 19th century the name of the community was changed to its present name, Fort Defiance, perhaps inspired by Augusta Stone Church’s early years. The church has a museum one can visit, with artifacts from its early history, and it also still has the baptismal registers of Reverend Craig from the 1740s (in case you have relatives from here). With a couple of additions added later, the Augusta Stone Church remains as it was first built in 1749, and now has the distinction of being the Presbyterian church in Virginia with the longest continuous use.