For nearly two decades, weekends at Granite Heights Winery have looked much the same. Owners Luke and Toni Kilyk might be pouring wine in the tasting room, pruning vines, or welcoming guests to the winery, which overlooks the rolling Fauquier County countryside.
During the week, the married couple traded wine glasses for their day jobs — as an attorney and a doctor — before returning home to tend the vineyard they built together from scratch. Now, 18 years later, they’re ready for a different kind of weekend.
Granite Heights Winery announced that it plans to close its tasting room by the end of the year as the Kilyks retire from the winery business.
Rough Growing Season
The announcement comes during what many growers describe as one of the most difficult years Virginia vineyards have faced in recent memory. A harsh winter, a damaging April freeze, persistent drought and poor fruit set have left many wineries without a harvest.
“We also will not be getting any fruit this year,” the winery wrote on social media. “Like several nearby wineries, we pray for the other wineries.”
For the Kilyks, however, the decision to leave the business has been years in the making. The couple began scaling back operations in early 2025, reducing tasting room hours to the first two weekends of each month and selling most of their grapes to a neighboring winery. The lighter schedule allowed them something they hadn’t enjoyed in years: weekends off.
Retirement Refocus
Instead of harvesting grapes and greeting visitors every Saturday, the couple has spent time hiking with their dogs, visiting friends and family, taking day trips, and beginning to imagine traveling overseas.
“We started this business, in addition to our previous jobs, almost 20 years ago,” they wrote. “We were a lot younger and more robust back then.”
Looking back, they say they’re amazed by everything they managed to juggle: vineyard work, winemaking, farming, operating the tasting room, and maintaining careers in medicine and law.
Retirement doesn’t mean leaving Fauquier County. The couple plans to remain at their Opal property. They’ll begin removing the vines and restoring the fields while Luke continues a small law practice and Toni continues seeing patients at the Fauquier Free Clinic.
Although the tasting room will soon close, the winery will remain open on select weekends while it sells through its remaining inventory. So visitors will have one last opportunity to raise a glass to a winery that helped shape the region’s wine scene.
Feature image courtesy Granite Heights Winery
