WINERY | OUR WINES
If I could give more than 5 stars for this place I would… my friends and I love to go to wineries and this is one of the top ones I’ve ever been too. It’s such a neat place and has a feeling of history to it-you literally feel like part of the family the moment you walk through the doors.
Our Selections
Click on our wines below for descriptions.
For information regarding shipping or to place an order, please call the winery at 540-423-1032 or send an email to info@oldhousevineyards.com
Wines are available for shipment to the following areas: Alaska, California, Florida, Minnesota, Virginia, and Washington DC.
Petillante
This Virginia sparkling wine is produced through the art of bottle-fermented winemaking known as methode champenoise. At Old House Vineyards we use this traditional French technique of the second fermentation occurring in the bottle to create the tiny bubbles. Soft with crisp fruit character, Petillante is the perfect sparkling wine to complement any special occasion. Santé!
Clover Hill
The dry, crisp, and flinty finish may have one thinking of Pinot Grigio. Try this wine with oysters on the half shell.
Chardonnay
This barrel fermented selection features a soft palate and balanced acid structure; tropical fruit overtones are complimented by the wine’s crisp apple finish.
Vidal Blanc
A semi-sweet white wine with floral notes. This wine will have one thinking of a Riesling.
Rosie's Rosé
This lush Rose presents a bright pink color with intense raspberry flavors. Chilled, this off-dry wine is refreshing to the senses and delightful on any occasion.
Melange de Maison
A combination spanning vintage years, this light bodied and fruit forward red blend is perfect for a Summer picnic.
Wicked Bottom
Our Chambourcin is barrel aged to integrate the fruity character with oak structure creating a complex, yet approachable red wine.
Cabernet Franc
The Cabernet Franc grape has found an ideal home in the climate and soil of Virginia. The loose clusters ripen clean and smooth to bring spicy notes to the nose and fruity character to the palate.
Bacchanalia
This unique blend of Cabernet Franc, Petit Verdot, and Merlot presents a well- structured and mid-bodied wine with a spicy complexion.
Chambourcin Dessert Wine
A multi-year blend of fortified wine aged in Woodford Reserve Barrels for a period of two to five years; a friend of dark chocolate, cigars, cold nights, and fireplaces.
Some facts and figures about how we make our wine at Old House Vineyards.
- Harvest is done in early September to late October as each of the varieties of grapes ripens.
- We pick the grapes in the cool of the morning into 25 pound lugs then bring them to the winery.
- The crushing and destemming is the first step of the pressing process. The crushed fruit falls down into the press or fermenter, depending on the type of wine being made.
- The white wine pressing process is very gentle as it is important to keep the skins from breaking down too much. The goal is to separate the juice from the skins without adding any more solids to the juice.
- The juice is allowed to settle in a tank and the sediment is racked off into a vessel for fermentation.
- “Racking” is the term for sucking the clean wine off of the sediment or lees on the bottom of the vessel. The wine is transferred into a clean vessel and the lees is left behind in the old one.
- Lees is filtered and kept separate or thrown away. Sometimes the filtered lees can be very good and can add another component to a wine. Other times it can be hard or unpalatable and will be thrown away.
- With red wine the grapes are crushed into a bin and fermentation begins. The skins of the red grape are very important in red wine–they have all of the color and a lot of the hearty character that defines a red wine.
- The cap of a red fermenter is the grape skins that float to the top of the vat. These skins catch CO2 that is released from fermentation.
- “Punching down” is done with a stick or paddle to get the cap back into the wine. This process is performed 2-3 time a day during the fermentation process.
- To press off the grape skins after fermentation, the juice is pumped out of the bin and the skins are shoveled into the press.
- The pressing is similar to the whites in that pressing gently is better for the wine.
- After a couple of days of settling, the wine is racked into oak wine barrels.
- The barrels we use are a combination of both new and older oak. We use French, American and Hungarian oak barrels to make our wines. Each gives the wine a slightly different character.
Old House Vineyards | 18351 Corkys Lane, Culpeper, VA 22701 | (p) 540-423-1032 | (f) 540-423-1320 | events@oldhousetoday.com