Otium Cellars
• In western Loudoun County. Planted in 2007 by the Bauer family, Otium Cellars differentiates itself by a focus on German varietals. Blaufrankish, dornfelder, lemberger and grau burgunder are planted as well as more traditional chardonnay, cabernet sauvignon and Malbec based wines. Set on a hillside, Otium is located outside the town of Purcellville in Western Loudoun. Otium Cellars is part of Goose Creek Farms, an equestrian facility dedicated to raising world-class Hanoverians. Advertised for sale in August 2019 for just under $4 million.
• Wine. Tier II. Ranked by NBC as among Virginia’s top 5 wineries. Distinctive tasting opportunity with the German varietals. Many grapes still outsourced, including from Washington State.
• Setting. One star. Scenic picnic area, views over hills, fields, vines, horse farm next door which is part of the same complex. Bread and cheese for purchase. Large area can accommodate groups. Service experience seems to vary based on posted reviews.
• Stories. Early German settlers in Virginia. Germans began to come into English Virginia in the first few decades of the 18th Century, for the most part fleeing wars in the west of Europe. Most of them settled in the mountains of Virginia, Maryland and Pennsylvania, west of the lands already in the hands of earlier arriving English colonists. Along with the Scotch-Irish who began arriving somewhat later, they formed a frontier buffer between the English and the lands still held by Native Americans. Many place names still testify to the German foundation of towns in the area – Germantown, Germana, and others. In the 1730s, a large number of Germans – originally from the Palatinate, along the Rhine River — crossed the Potomac into what would become Loudoun County, and founded the town of Lovettsville. The surrounding area, the northernmost part of Loudoun, was called “the German settlement” into the 1800s. A historical marker in Lovettsville marks the place of the first German Reformed Church in the state. It is not clear whether these settlers brought German winemaking approaches with them, the Rhine being a prime winemaking region in Germany. Today, it is Otium, southwest of the original German settlement, that carries the flag for German wines in Loudoun County and Virginia. And a little Latin… Not many Virginia wineries carry Latin names, Otium in this case being Latin for leisure. Good place to recline and imagine peeling grapes.