Family-owned winery located in Bassett, along the Smith River and near the North Carolina border, an hour south of Roanoke. Butch and Virginia Hamlet opened the vineyard in 2010 on a 300-acre estate, centered on historic Eltham Manor (see below), which they purchased in 1987. With consulting and winemaking/ custom crush support from Virginia star Michael Shaps, Hamlet now produces some of the best wines in Southern Virginia.
Wine. One of the Top 100 wineries in Virginia. Hamlet’s “Eltham” (a 50-50 Petit Verdot and Merlot blend) has three times been awarded a gold medal at the annual Virginia Governor’s Cup state-wide wine competition, in 2022 (for the 2019 vintage), in 2020 and in 2019. Several Hamlet wines have been awarded silver medals at recent Governor’s Cup competitions. In 2023, the Hamlet 2021 vintage Cardinal Rose, Old Virginia Red, and Pinot Gris were awarded silver medals; in 2022, the 2019 vintage Cabernet Sauvignon, Petit Verdot, and 2020 Viognier received silver medals; at the 2021 Governor’s Cup, it was the 2018 Cabernet Sauvignon and Eltham. The Michael Shaps influence has made its mark early for still-young Hamlet Vineyards. Hamlet Wines are 100% estate-grown.
Setting. Only open for wine tastings on Sundays, or by appointment. Food available, including great flatbread pizzas. Can get very busy and crowded on Sundays.
Stories. Southern Virginia’s Manufacturing Boom – and Bust. The Hamlets located their vineyard in a place steeped in the history of Virginia manufacturing – both the good history and the not so good history. The home around which the estate they purchased is centered, Eltham Manor, was built by a member of the Bassett family, for whom the local town of Bassett is named. Taking advantage of cheap lumber from southern Virginia’s forests, and cheap power from the nearby Smith River, the Bassetts in 1902 founded Bassett Furniture Industries. In its heyday Bassett Furniture became the largest manufacturer of wood products in the world, and employed some 10,000 people. Bassett was the quintessential company town, with workers living in Bassett-built and owned housing, and public buildings erected by and named for the family. Some 10 miles east along the river, the town of Martinsville became in the same period one of the centers of the developing American textile industry. The textile mills provided steady work for women whose husbands worked in furniture factories. The area spawned a number of textile companies, and was known as the Sweatshirt Capital of the World. Eltham Manor, now listed on the National Register of Historic Places and the Virginia Landmarks Register, was built in 1936, during the good times. Virginia Hamlet’s family were the Walkers, whose knitwear company joined with the Bassetts in Bassett-Walker, Inc., one of the more successful textile companies of the region. By the 1990s, however, a long downhill slide in the fortunes of this stretch of the Smith River Valley, and of American manufacturing, was underway. Between 2001 and 2012, more than 63,000 U.S. factories closed—furniture and clothing mills, shoe and machine-tool factories. Some 19,000 workers in this area lost their jobs, and all the furniture factories in Bassett were closed by 2007. Bassett Furniture continues, but as a retailer for wood products imported from China, Vietnam, and Indonesia. Today Bassett and Martinsville celebrate their textile and manufacturing heritage, but the jobs are few, and the empty buildings many. At least now a successful winery, Hamlet, is creating some new jobs – and many hope for its continued expansion.