Located just off of Route 20 in Barboursville, some 30 minutes northeast of Charlottesville, this is a small and relatively new winery. The vineyard was first planted in 2009 by Robert Shepard. Early wine crops were sold to First Colony Winery, though wines have now been sold under the Five Oaks label since 2017. Shepherd learned the wine business, as several other new Virginia winery owners have, at Piedmont Virginia Community College. The winemaker is Jason Hayman of Thatch Winery (which was previously First Colony).
Wine. Tier III. Five Oaks is in early days of producing wines. Its initial foray into the Virginia Governor’s Cup, the annual state-wide tasting competition, yielded a pair of bronze medals. Chambourcin is the current star of the winery, but the fun may be more in tasting wine from the more unusual grapes planted by Five Oaks: Traminette, Cayuga White, and Sabrevoix.
Setting. For now a temporary tasting room in part of the property’s barn. Small and cozy, and you may well find owner Robert Shepard doing the pouring and commenting.
Stories. So many grapes, so little time. Few people realize that over 60 different grape varieties are grown in Virginia for wine production. These range from the relatively obvious and well-known ones like Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon (which make up a smaller share of Virginia’s wine grapes than that of many other wine regions), to much lesser-known ones. Unless you drink a fair amount of wine, you may not have run into varieties such as Vermentino, Verdejo and Nebbiolo. And chances are very low that you’ve run across a couple of the grapes Five Oaks uses in their wines: Cayuga White, and Sabrevoix. Cayuga White was developed at in the Finger Lakes from crosses of hybrids Schuyler and Seyval Blanc. In cool climates it produces Riesling-type flavors and can produce a nice sparkling wine. The Sabrevois grape, planted mainly in Minnesota and Quebec, was named after a village in the Richelieu River basin in southern Quebec. Wines made from Sabrevois have a deep red color with hints of pepper, spice, and berry, and substantial tannin structure. If you try wines from all of Virginia’s grapes, you can be well on your way to a successful application to the “Wine Century Club.” Admission based on having tasted wines from at least one hundred different grapes…