Farm into a vineyard, Maggie Malick Wine Caves. Photos courtesy of Maggie Malick.
Careers in space satellites, home furnishings and show horses make up the varied backgrounds of Loudoun County’s new family-run wineries. In a little more than a decade, the number of wineries in the county exploded from 10, to more than 40, including 12 new additions in the last 2 1/2 years—with no sign of slowing.
Caving to the land
When Maggie and Mark Malick bought an overgrown Purcellville Christmas tree farm in 1996, wine wasn’t on their minds—bulldozers were. Mark needed room to practice takeoffs and landings with his ultralight aircraft.
But when you have 215 acres of rural land in Virginia, you have to do something with it. The Malicks planted a few acres of viognier in 2001 and slowly added to it over the years, selling most of the grapes. Meanwhile, Maggie started to make wine at home.
“I took a few classes, read books and magazine articles and bought kits to help walk me through the process. But it was mostly trial-and-error in the garage,” she says.
Maggie consulted with the Leesburg-based Fabbioli Cellars’ winemaker Doug Fabbioli, who mentored dozens of budding garagistes (novice winemakers who tinker at home). After winning some amateur praise, the Malicks developed plans for a commercial winery.
Maggie Malick Wine Caves, which opened last September, is a massive DIY-project of rebar and concrete. The production facility and a temporary sales and tasting area live in a man-made cave that the Malicks excavated and built from a kit they bought online and is covered by a grass-topped roof offering natural cooling.
It took them two years to build what they dubbed their Hobbit house, working mostly on the weekends while they continued in their full-time jobs. Mark specializes in vineyard real estate and Maggie, who is trained as an aerospace engineer, works in the intelligence community. An accomplished musician, she also plays sousaphone and tuba in the Redskins Marching Band and is a member of the Loudoun Symphonic Winds.
On the weekends, you often find her pouring 11 estate-grown bottlings, including Spanish varietals albariño and garnacha tinta (also known as grenache or garnacha) and most commonly used for blending in Virginia. Maggie deepened the red with a little merlot for the 2011 bottling (it was a very wet year), but expects this year’s release may be a straight varietal.
“With a couple more blending meetings that may change. But most people, so far, like it by itself,” she adds. Look for it this fall.
Cheers from Deutschland
On the other side of Purcelville, the father-and-son team of Gerhardt and Max Bauer oversee Otium Cellars, which opened its A-frame tasting room just over two years ago. The winery shares space with Goose Creek Farm where Gerhardt and his wife run a private equestrian facility to raise and sell Hanoverians, German show- and competition-horses. Max also leads tours in Maryland and West Virginia as a whitewater raft guide and swift-water instructor.
“We never intended to open a tasting room, just grow and sell grapes,” says Max, who now oversees vineyard operations and sales. His father, whom Ben describes as having the “finest palate in the family,” works with Waterford’s 8 Chains North Winery owner Ben Renshaw to bottle and blend.
Gerhardt cultivates several varietals unique to the region but common in his German homeland, including blaufränkisch and dornfelder. Zweigelt and grüner veltliner will soon join the global portfolio. The blaufränkisch is a clear star: smoky, spicy and cellarable.
Pushing Retirement
The vineyard at Stone Tower Winery was planted in 2009, and a temporary tasting barn opened last fall while construction on a permanent tasting space—using stone and timber from the property—was still underway. But Kristi and Mike Huber, owners of Belfort Furniture in Sterling, the largest furniture store in the region, couldn’t wait.
When they bought the 200-acres in Leesburg 10 years ago—surrounded by the 1,175-acre West View farm, which is owned by Mike’s parents (and also the site of the Hubers’ first date)—the plan was to build a home and retire. Then they checked out the soil and started to discuss growing grapes.
“Now the winery stands where our retirement house was going to be,” says Kristi. “But this way, we can share our amazing view with everyone.”
The couple lives in a 1870s farmhouse near the tasting barn and oversees daily construction and operations. Their daughter Lacey works alongside her mother, assisting on the 400-member wine club.
“Our goal is to produce wine that’s accepted on the world stage, not just good Virginia wine,” Lacey says.
The Hubers are thinking big with more than 40,000 vines already in the ground and plans for 23,000 more next year. The Hubers sell a sparkling wine, made in the traditional method champenoise-style and are upping their red game. They brought in California winemaker Tim Crowe last summer to work with the estate’s premiere harvest of Bordeaux varietals. His first release debuted this spring: a cabernet franc and merlot-heavy rosé.
It sold out in five weeks.
(September 2014)
