Chester Gap Cellars
Off of Route 522, Zachary Taylor Highway, just below Skyline Drive and Shenandoah National Park, 10 minutes south of the city of Front Royal. With production of about 1,000 cases per year, this is one of the smaller Virginia wineries. The winery is at an altitude of over 1,000 feet, and reached by a short gravel road off the main highway, on a steep wooded hillside overlooking Chester Gap. Floridians Bernd and Kristi Jung founded the Cellars in 2000, with current owners Jeff Seese and Travis Patton purchasing the winery in 2017. Jeff is the new winemaker.
Wine. Tier II. At the 2021 Virginia Governor’s Cup state-wide wine competition, Chester Gap’s 2017 vintage Viognier and Vintner’s Red were given bronze medals. The winery has not entered large competitions more recently. Back in 2020 were awarded a gold medal at the Governor’s Cup for their 2017 Cabernet Franc, along with one silver medal. Limited production range: two whites (Viognier, and a Roussanne with nice peach-like aromatics), four reds and a sweet Petit Manseng. All but one of the wines is estate grown, and the Viognier is from grapes grown just down the road from the winery. Philosophy is minimal intervention to let the grapes speak for themselves.
Setting. One star. The views from the deck, and from the entrance road, are among the most spectacular for Virginia’s wineries, looking over the trees into Chester Gap with several rows of mountains visible. The winery itself is small, which means it is very peaceful most of the time. A hiking trail is being developed into the woods below the deck.
Stories. Front Royal: Gateway to the Mountains. For residents of Washington D.C. and the northeast United States, Front Royal is the nearest entry point to Shenandoah National Park and Skyline Drive, one of Virginia’ most popular tourist attractions. Over a million people a year enter the Park, and Skyline Drive with its spectacular vistas is one of the most popular and famous roads in the country. Visitors to Front Royal are not only motorized, as the town also bills itself as the Canoe Capital of Virginia. From here one can also access Shenandoah River State Park, and the hiking trails of George Washington National Forest. Incorporated in 1788, Front Royal had a long prior history, including being claimed by the Iroquois Confederacy as a hunting ground in the 17th century, and settled by Shawnee Indians in the earlier part of the 18th century. An early nickname was “helltown”, stemming from the effects of the alcohol consumed by 18th century boatmen on the Shenandoah River coming into the settlement for entertainment; a tamer version of former firewater-serving bars is the Virginia Beer Museum.