Vint Hill Craft Winery
- Between Gainesville and Warrenton, off of routes 15 and 29 in Fauquier County. Vint Hill was launched in 2009 by Chris Pearmund and Ray Summerel. Pearmund is a serial entrepreneur, who started with the vineyard of his own name, started and sold the Winery at La Grange, and is also launching Effingham Winery. Vint Hill, whose tasting room is in an old military installation (see below), is a different business model than most: a winery without a vineyard – they crush grapes from elsewhere in Virginia, and the west coast.
- Wine. Among the Top 50 wineries of Virginia and Top 20 wineries of Northern Virginia. The 2021 Covert Wineworks Viognier was awarded a gold medal at the prestigious 2023 San Francisco Chronicle nation-wide wine competition, while three other Vint Hill wines were awarded silver medals: the 2019 “Charlotte” Chardonnay, the 2020 Enigma and 2020 Double Barrel reserve. At the 2022 San Francisco Chronicle competition, two Vint Hill wines – the 2019 Merlot and Tannat, were awarded gold medals, while their Cabernet Franc, Petit Verdot and Sauvignon Blanc received silver medals. The Covert Wineworks 2021 Cuvee Blanche was named “best white hybrid” at the 2022 Atlantic Seaboard Winery Association competition. Several other Vint Hill wines received silver medals at competitions in 2022: the 2019 vintage Tannat and Chardonnay, 2020 Enigma, Tannat and “Vanessa” Petit Verdot, and 2021 Petit Manseng. The “Bebe la Franc” Cabernet Franc and Merlot came away with bronze medals.
- Setting. The tasting room overlooks the winery production floor. Space is somewhat small compared to some other wineries. Outside, no vines but plenty of history, especially for fans of John LeCarré.
- Stories. One star. 20th Century Virginia History – Spies in the vines. In 1942, the United States Army set up a secret monitoring facility in a farmhouse in Warrenton, Virginia. The farm’s relative proximity to the U.S. Signaling Intelligence Service’s headquarters in Arlington, Virginia, combined with the location’s isolation, made it a good place to pick up international radio signals. The Army bought the land and turned it into a surveillance and decoding base known as Vint Hill Farm Station, or Monitoring Station No. 1. The barn that the Army once used is still there today, but visitors won’t need a security clearance to get in—just their photo IDs if they want to get a drink (thanks to The Smithsonian Magazine for this story). Relatively new tenants have moved into the former spy station, which, until the 1990s, was alternately used by the Army, the CIA and the NSA. One is Vint Hill Winery. Its neighbors include The Covert Cafe and an inn that offers Cold War-themed escape rooms. Right next door to the winery is The Cold War Museum. If you’re taken hostage, best offer to be exchanged for a bottle of red.