Between the amazing countryside views and the variety of the delicious wines, this a winery road trip you should add to your list. The Shenandoah area is known for outdoor activities, such as hiking, kayaking, and camping, beautiful caverns, and colorful fall foliage. We can't forget the long list of wineries along Route 81. Spending a weekend in Woodstock, Virginia, within the Shenandoah region, is a great way to escape the city, breath in the fresh country air, and indulge in the a few flights of wine.
Woodstock is a quaint, little town in the Shenandoah area. The hotels, Cracker Barrel, Walmart, are all conveniently near each. We dined at Spring House Tavern and Mary's Botanitas, both had delicious food and plant-based meals.
The four wineries I visited were all less than 20 miles of each other. Below is my review and ranking of the wineries, from best (being a 5) to least favorite (being a 1), based on the types of wines, location and layouts of the wineries. Let’s keep in mind everyone has different taste buds and opinions, so I recommend you visit these wineries and experience the wines for yourself.
List of Wineries/Cidery
Cave Ridge Winery
The Winery at Kindred Pointe
Wolf Gap Vineyard
Muse Vineyard
Sage Bird Ciderworks
Cave Ridge Winery
Cave Ridge Winery is nestled in the middle of The Winery at Kindred Pointe and Wolf Gap Vineyard. All their wineries are conveniently no more than 10 minutes driving distance of each winery, and they are were all about 20 minutes from the strip of hotels in Woodstock. You are allowed to bring your own outside food to all three of the mentioned wineries. There is plenty of indoor and outdoor seating at Cave Ridge and occasionally they have live music performances on the weekends.
Depending on the season you visit Cave Ridge Winery will most likely dictate which wines are available on their wine menu. That is usually the case for the majority of wineries. For the summer of 2022, they had a Summer Flight, Sweet Flight, and a Red Flight. As you can see from the image above, the Summer Flight is what I tried, and consisted of four wines: Sparkling Rosé, Summer Splash, Traminette, and Sangria. You can read the descriptions of some of the wines on their website. Being that sweet white wine is my preference (which is why I chose the Summer Flight), the Summer Splash and the Sangria were my favorites from the flight.
In addition to the wines, Cave Ridge Winery also has delicious frozen slushies, which they call "Lushies", with the choice of a frozen red wine blend or white wine blend. There are light refreshments for sale to partner with your wine, such as hummus and chips, and cheese and olive trays.
Overall Rating: 4
The Winery at Kindred Pointe
The beautiful outdoor landscaping and the frontside of the their Pavillion tasting room was what struck me the most driving up to The Winery at Kindred Pointe. One thing I noticed all the wineries we visited had in common was the brilliance of the country greenery of the property landscapes.
The surrounding forestry in combination with the vineyards, with a pop of color from the flowers, just brightened up my energy and mood as we arrived to each of the wineries.
I did enjoy the fact that we were able to choose which wines we wanted in our flights compared to a couple other wineries where the flights were pre-selected. My flight consisted of a mix of 2 reds and 2 whites: 2015 Malbec, 2015 Merlot, 2017 Petit Manseng, and the Oscar (Vidal Blanc). The Petit Manseng was my favorite out of the four because of the citrus, pineapple blended taste. My friend ordered the Sangria with her flight and she said it was so good she wanted to take home a bottle. Frozen slushies with a peach wine flavor were also available.
In addition to the wine, the winery does offer flights of hard cider. I did not notice that they offered any refreshments, but you are able to bring outside food. They had a nice gift shop of wine theme products. Their Pavillion tasting room is large enough to hold a big group, and they also had outdoor seating that looked out over the large property.
Overall Rating: 3
Wolf Gap Vineyard
Wolf Gap Vineyard is another winery that has an initial captivating front display in combination with the surrounding vineyards. The winery pavilion resembled someone's house. They had upper and lower seating areas where you had a great view on the vineyard and the pond that was on the backside. They had a few snacks available for sell, but you could also bring outside food. The ladies that worked there were very nice.
My experience at this winery is limited because I decided to bypass the wine flight and settle for a glass of Blueberry wine, which I thought was delicious. The ladies that accompanied me had individually ordered the white wine flight and the red wine flight, which they were able to select on their own which wines it included. Based on their reactions to the wines they weren't too thrilled about them.
Overall Rating: 2
Muse Vineyard
Muse Vineyard may have been the most visually appealing winery we visited. Its' modern exterior could be seen miles away as we drove closer and their beautiful grounds are covered with vineyards. The inside of the building complimented the outside with its open, bright tasting room, and the theme of the orange branding was accented all around the room.
The facility had a lot of indoor and outdoor seating, upstairs and downstairs. They even have their own wine trail that wraps around the property. We journeyed down to the springing bridge, which was quite thrilling to walk over.
Their wine flights are pre-selected with no options to swap out wines. No outside food is allowed, but they do have a full food menu including entrees, appetizers, and snacks. One of the ladies with me got the chicken quesadilla, which she enjoyed very much.
Less than a mile away is the Seven Bends State Park where we had completed a morning hike prior to visiting Muse Vineyard to recover from the wine tasting from the previous day. It's a fairly new park, but the backdrop of the mountains, mixed with the calming sounds of the North Fork Shenandoah River made the 3 miles that we hiked seemed a lot shorter than we thought we had completed!
Overall Rating: 5
Sage Bird Ciderworks
Instead of visiting the fifth winery in the area, we decided to change it up and visit Sage Bird Ciderworks and I'm glad we did. Their taproom of hard cider was less than an hour away, south from Woodstock, down Route 81. Coincidentally, we showed up on Harry Potter's birthday, so the whole taproom was decked out in Hogwarts themed decorations. As shown in the picture above, they added food coloring to my hard cider to reflect the house colors of the Hogwarts school in the movie. They had the Harry Potter movie on the TV and tunes from the Harry Potter movie scores were playing in the background.
We enjoyed our flights in the backroom, played board games, and chatted. It was a great way to spend a rainy day. I enjoyed the Sweet Shenandoah hard cider so much I had to go back and get another glass.
Overall Rating: 4
Muse Vineyard was wonderful!
Absolutely breathtaking 😊