Stoney Brook Vineyard is located in Troutville, Botetourt County, sitting in the lower hills of the Blue Ridge, some 15 miles north of Roanoke to the east of Interstate 81. The 240-acre farm has been in the Showalter family since the mid-1800s, producing tomatoes and then farming chickens until winding down in recent decades. Jim and Judy Showalter, after a long career at General Electric, have re-opened the family farm as a family Vineyard and Winery. The 4.5 acres of vines were planted beginning in 2012, with the winery opening its doors to the public in April 2021. Jim and Judy are joined by family members Traci, Carrie and Kevin in running the vineyard and winery.
Wine: Tier II. The winery’s inaugural production was awarded a pair of silver medals at the 2021 Virginia Governor’s Cup, the annual state-wide tasting competition.
Stoney Brook’s plantings to date consist of Petit Manseng, Petit Verdot, Viognier and Cabernet Franc, so come if you like these varietals as stand-alones or blended. Red wines available are the Cabernet Franc with 5% Petit Verdot, with 30% Petit Verdot (the “Back Porch Red”) or about 50% Petit Verdot (the “Hankern Red”). Whites start with the Petit Manseng, blended with smaller amounts of Viognier as the “Back Porch White” or the “Hankern White.” Think of it as a horizontal tasting of Cabernet Franc and Petit Manseng. There are also Peach and Blackberry wines on offer.
Setting: One star. Stoney Brook sits in a particularly scenic section of the Blue Ridge. You can sit outside or on the covered deck and enjoy great views looking down over the farms, vines, and rolling hills down to the Shenandoah Valley, and the Appalachians on the far side. The tasting room is a small, rustic-feeling new building. There are frequent music events, small or large – check their website for updates.
Stories. Natural Virginia: the Appalachian Trail. There are few more memorable hiking experiences than starting at one end of the Appalachian Trail and walking the full 2,200 miles to the other end. Troutville is a designated “AT Community,” with good access to the trail and hiker-oriented shops. For most people, who head north, this entails beginning at Springer Mountain in Georgia, and ending one’s expedition at Mount Katahdin, in Maine. Far more people do smaller sections of the magnificent trail. If you live in Virginia, you can cover almost a quarter of the entire trail without even leaving the state: 544 miles, more than any other state along the AT contains. The AT was completed as a formal trail in 1937, after ten years of planning and work. It is managed by a combination of the National Park Service, the US Forest Service and the Appalachian Trail Conservancy, and maintained by more than 30 trail clubs along its length. In Virginia, large sections are maintained by the Potomac AT Club and the Old Dominion AT Club, the Roanoke AT Club, and the Mount Rogers AT Club, with yet more clubs supporting smaller sections. For through hikers along the AT, the Virginia state line is reached at mile 466, near the small town of Damascus, in Washington County, and again at mile 1,007, when the trail heads (briefly) into West Virginia at Harpers Ferry. Virginia’s terrain can be broken up by region, and it varies from one end to the other. The trail in Southern Virginia is challenging, characterized by long, steep climbs and descents over ridge lines; the middle section, mostly in Shenandoah National Park, is one of the most gentle, rolling sections of trail; and in northern Virginia the train travels through farmland and rolling hills. It is estimated that backpackers doing the entire stretch of the AT in Virginia will take at least a month, and burn some 282,000 calories along the way. AT highlights in Virginia include McAfee Knob, at mile 713 (one of the most iconic spots on the AT, and said to be the most photographed place on the entire trail), some 28 miles along the border of Virginia and West Virginia, Troutville (where you can stop off to visit Stoney Brook Winery), the James River Footbridge (the longest footbridge on the AT, and a place for the adventurous to jump into the James River from the bridge), and 101 miles inside Shenandoah National Park. Even if 2,200 miles is too much for you