Linden Vineyards
- Linden is just south of Interstate 66, in the village with the same name. Jim Law, owner and manager of Linden, began his Virginia wine career back in 1981, which in this state makes him one of the industry’s pioneers. The success of Linden was one of the key elements in taking Northern Virginia wines from a hard-to-find curiosity to the huge piece of the region’s economy which they have become.
- Wine. Among the top 3 wineries in Virginia, and the #1 winery of Northern Virginia. Jim Law is one of the best-known winemakers in the state, and has been a key figure in the Renaissance of Virginia wines. Note that Linden has not been participating in wine competitions, so that the BS rating is a subjective view. Linden was included in the Washington Post’s best wines of Northern Virginia. One of top four VA wineries, receiving a four-star rating, in Hugh Johnson’s 2019 industry standard wine guide. Their Hardscrabble red, a Bordeaux blend named after one of Linden’s vineyards, is our favorite Virginia wine.
- Setting: One star. The small road from I-66 to the vineyard is a beautiful, bucolic byway, and the views from the winery’s balcony, overlooking the vines and the hills nearby, are lovely. The nearby village of Linden has several remaining 19th century homes. The Appalachian Trail crosses the town in the G Richard Thompson Wildlife Management Area.
- Stories: Virginia Wine Pioneers: Jim Law. Jim Law and Linden are front and center in the story of rebirth of wines in Virginia, and the drive for high quality which has surprised so many observers. A Washington Post feature in 2014 called Law “the oracle of Virginia’s wine industry.” A visit to Linden is a bit like seeing one of Henry Ford’s first factories… It all started here! Law’s story goes back to the 1970s, when he spent two years in the Peace Corps in the 1970s teaching agriculture in what is now Congo, and on return put that experience to work with a job in a winery. Looking for soils that could make more “serious” wines than the wineries in his native Ohio, Law found his way to Virginia, where he first planted vines at Linden in 1985. From then it was a lot of hard work, experimentation, and smarts. In a quote that captured a lot of what has made Linden arguably the top vineyard and winery in Virginia, Law described his vineyard as “The old vines and the old trunks are kind of gnarly and falling apart, but these guys will go forever if you take care of them. I often say that with the old vines, we spend a lot of time on our knees. That’s not praying; that’s getting down and cleaning them up and taking care of them.” Jim Law makes great wine, and keeps it simple. At Linden he makes his trademark Hardscrabble red blend and Chardonnay, and makes wine from the Avenius vineyard, owned by Shari Avenius, who is Linden’s winery manager and Law’s significant other. He also custom crushes for a neighbor, Capstone Vineyards. Yet aside from his wines the other thing that makes Jim Law stand out is that he has consistently stood for the values of cooperation and helping peers. Top-end Virginia winemakers who have learned from Law include RDV’s Rutger de Vink, Jeff White of Glen Manor, and the recently retired Jim Dolphin of Delaplane Cellars. An impressive trio of pioneers themselves. Come see where it started: just remember Jim Law is always serious: Linden does not accept groups, and only buyers of a wine case get to sit on the deck.