Molon Lave Vineyards
Located south of Warrenton on Route15/29, in Fauquier County. Founded in 2009 by Louis Papadopoulos, son of the owner of Mediterranean Cellars. The name comes from a saying of Spartan King Leonidas, to Xerxes at the Battle of Thermopylae, meaning “come and take them.” Molon Lave is the only winery in Virginia which offers Kosher wines.
Wine. Tier II. Wide range of both whites and reds. In an unusual (for Molon Lave) entry into a wine competition, the winery’s 2021 Cabernet Franc received a bronze medal at the 2023 Virginia Governor’s Cup state-wide wine tasting competition. Mixed views from online reviews. Molon Lave offers a Retsina-type wine in honor of the owner’s Greek heritage.
Setting. One star. Nice views of the Fauquier County countryside. A large tasting area. Tastings include small food pairings, and snacks are available for purchase.
Stories. A short history of Kosher Wine. The use of wine has a long history in Judaism, as can be readily seen in the Old Testament. Archaeologists have shown that wine was produced throughout ancient Israel. Kosher wine traveled throughout the world along with the Jewish diaspora. Kosher wine similarly came to the United States with Jewish immigrants, initially to the New York area. In the US, Kosher wine was long associated with sweet wine produced from Concord grapes in the northeast, and still today two of the world’s largest producers of kosher wine, Kedem and Manischewitz, are based in the northeast. The popularity of Concord grape-based Kosher wine stemmed from Concord grapes in the 19th century being a fairly cheap, abundant, and most importantly local alternative to wines made from California grapes. Local origin of grapes made it much easier to ensure that the production of the wine, beginning with the grape harvest, had been handled in ways that qualified it as Kosher – if needed under local rabbinical supervision. Since the 1980s, Kosher wine production in many countries has seen a turn to drier wines. Molon Lave is one of these new-breed producers, whose Kosher wines aim to be indistinguishable in taste from non-Kosher high-quality wines. They are currently the only Kosher wine producer in Virginia.