Native Americans in Virginia Archives - BS Guide to Virginia Wineries

Mattaponi Winery

Located in Spotsylvania Courthouse, about five miles West of Interstate 95, Mattaponi is a unique venue: a Native American winery. Owner Janette Evans is of Cherokee Heritage (not Mattaponi), and several of the wines carry Algonquian names (Mattaponi being an Algonquian language). The small family-owned winery, focused on fruit wines, originally opened in 2007 in the living room of the Evans’ log cabin. In 2014 a larger tasting room opened.

Wine. Tier III. Mattaponi’s Chardonnay was awarded a Bronze Medal at the 2020 Virginia Governor’s Cup state-wide wine tasting competition. Dessert wines with Algonquian names include Odeimin, a strawberry wine, a blackberry wine called Makadewamin, a peach wine called Kizismin, and Tibik–Kizismin, a blueberry wine. Grape-based white wines include chardonnay, Riesling, and Wabamin, a semi-dry wine made from the Niagara grape. Red wines include cabernet sauvignon, cabernet franc and Miskwamin, whose name means “red berry” and is made with Concord grapes. Pow Wow is a chocolate-covered strawberry wine. Mike Evans is the wine maker.

Setting. The new tasting room is in a 3,000 square-foot building, which can accommodate up to 100. A wraparound porch enables sitting outside or local bands to play.

Stories. The Mattaponi Tribe. The Mattaponi were a branch of the Pamunkey group of tribes, and one of six tribes whose control was inherited by Chief Powhatan in the late 16th century. They were identified by name by John Smith as early as 1607. The Mattaponi are distinguished by a continuity that very few eastern Native American tribes have managed to achieve. Tribe members still live on the original Mattaponi Reservation, that stretches along the borders of the Mattaponi river, which was created back in 1658 by an act of the Virginia General Assembly, making it one of the oldest Native American reservations in the country. The tribe is one of only two Virginia Native American tribes in the state that owns reservation land it has held since the colonial era. Though there have multiple attempts to take the tribe’s land, and the reservation’s size has shrunk, is still lies where it was originally created – a rarity for reservations. Tribal rolls number 450 people, though only 75 live on the 150-acre reservation. Facilities on the reservation include living quarters, a small church, a museum, the Fish Hatchery and Marine science Facility, and a community tribal building that was formerly the reservation school. There is a separate Upper Mattaponi tribe, which has a 32-acre reservation in Hanover County, and which was formally recognized as a tribe of Virginia only in 2017. Another aspect of continuity: in 1646 the Mattaponi began paying tribute to an early Virginia governor; this practice continues to the present day, when on the fourth Wednesday of November the tribe presents game or fish to the governor of the Commonwealth of Virginia.

Lazy Days Winery

Lazy Days Winery

Located in Amherst, Amherst County, off of Route 29 near Lynchburg. Lazy Days is a family winery owned by William and John Fitzhugh, in what was once the Central Virginia Livestock Yard. The first vines were planted in 2007, and Lazy Days enlisted the help of Virginia wine guru Michael Shaps. Wines are now 100% estate-grown and produced, with William Fitzhugh the winemaker. With a large adjoining amphitheater, Lazy Days is a venue for weddings and other events, including the Virginia Summer Solstice Wine Festival.

Wine. Tier III. Interesting array of grapes grown on the vineyard’s nine acres produce Lazy Days’ 100% estate grown wines. The original plantings of Petit Manseng, Petit Verdot, and Merlot have been joined by Chambourcin, Traminette, Tannat, Malbec, Pinotage, Albarino and Arneis (a white wine grape from the Italian Piedmont). They are also known for the “Bill’s Wild Blackberry” wine, which was awarded a bronze medal at the 2022 Virginia Governor’s Cup wine competition. Co-owner William Fitzhugh is the winemaker.

Setting. One star. Good and expansive views of the Blue Ridge Mountains. A laid-back atmosphere as one would expect from the name. The tasting room is in the old stockyard showroom from the days of the Livestock Fair. Cheese and fruit platter available.

Stories. Monacan Indian Nation Ancestral Museum. Some ten miles from Lazy Days Winery, still in Amherst but to the southwest of the village center, is the Monacan Indian Nation Ancestral Museum. The Monacan are the Westernmost of Virginia’s Native American tribes, and one of the few tribes still located on the land which they have inhabited for more than 10,000 years. The earliest written histories of Virginia record that in 1607, the James River Monacan (along with their Mannahoac allies on the Rappahannock River) controlled the area between the Fall Line in Richmond and the Blue Ridge Mountains. Both were Siouan tribes, and at the time, the Virginia Siouans numbered more than 10,000 people. They were an agricultural people who grew the “Three Sisters” crops of corn, beans and squash, and they had domesticated a wide variety of other foods, including sunflowers, fruit trees, wild grapes and nuts. They lived in villages with palisaded walls, and their homes were dome-shaped structures of bark and reed mats. They hunted deer, elk and small game. The Monacans also buried their dead in mounds, a tradition that differentiates them from neighboring Indian nations. Throughout the piedmont and mountain regions, thirteen mounds have been identified. In the 1750s, Thomas Jefferson described a party of passing Indians on his property (near Monticello) who visited a burial mound there. They stayed at the mound for quite some time. Because the Monacans of Amherst County were the only Siouan Indians remaining in the mound region at this time, it is assumed that they were these travelers. As European settlers pushed into the mountains, most Native Americans moved further west or north. Some of the Monacan people stayed in Virginia, entrenched in their ancestral home in the mountains, a place that became known as Amherst County. Other members of their confederacy, such as Saponis, Occaneechis, and Tutelos, joined these remaining Monacans, and the Monacan people adopted the few Tuscaroras who chose to remain in Virginia. With over 2,300 citizens, the Monacan Nation is a federally recognized tribe. The Monacan community today centers around Bear Mountain in Amherst County. In 1868, a parcel of land was donated for a meeting place for the Indian people. Shortly thereafter, a log building was built, to be used for the meeting place; this became the Indian mission school, which still stands at the foot of Bear Mountain and is now a registered national historic landmark. In 1995 the cabin was turned over to the Monacan Nation, and is now the Monacan Ancestral Museum. The Museum is staffed by volunteers from the tribe.

Potomac Point Winery

Located in Stafford, less than an hour south of Washington (except at rush hour), Potomac Point is a large, popular winery and event venue. The founders and owners, Skip and Cindi Causey, are from Stafford, and caught the wine bug while traveling in California. They planted their first grapes in 2006 and opened the winery’s doors in 2007.

Wine. Among the Top 50 wineries in Virginia, and the Top 20 wineries of Northern Virginia. Potomac Point’s 2023 Albariño was awarded a gold medal at the state-wide Virginia Governor’s Cup annual wine competition in 2025, while five of their wines received silver medals: the 2020 vintage Petit Verdot, 2021 Norton, 2022 Richland Viognier and Heritage Reserve, and their 2023 Chardonnay; their 2022 vintage Albariño was also awarded a gold medal at the previous year’s Governor’s Cup. The winery’s 2023 Petit Manseng was awarded a prestigious double gold medal at the 2024 San Francisco International worldwide wine competition, while their 2022 vintage Albariño managed the same feat at the 2023 San Francisco International event. The Potomac Point 2020 vintage Norton (a true “Virginia” grape) won the “Best Norton” award at the 2022 American Seaboard Winery Association competition. Winemaker David Castanos is from Yecla, Spain, and has previously trained in France and New Zealand, as well as his family estate in Spain.

Setting. One star. Mediterranean-style estate with nice views of the grape vines. Tasting Room with a four-sided tasting bar and a relaxed, inviting Bistro serving tapas, soups, salads, paninis. Sit in a patio or courtyard, or the D’vine Lounge is a relaxed spot with sofas, a fireplace, and tables for playing board games. There is also a kid’s room with toys, unusual for wineries. Frequent venue for weddings and other events.

Stories. The Patawomeck Tribe and Pocahontas. The historical Patawomeck tribe formed as one of 32 Algonquian-speaking peoples in the Tidewater area of present-day Virginia. The name of the Potomac River, Virginia’s northern border for much of the state, came from the name of this tribe. The small tribe was loosely allied with the powerful Powhatan Confederacy. They were an agricultural people, cultivating varieties of maize, along with hunting and fishing. Their homeland was between Aquia Creek and Upper Machodoc Creek, and the Patawomeck main town, also called Patawomeck, was located on the north of Potomac Creek, in present-day Stafford County. The tribe was generally friendlier to the early English colonists than the regionally dominant Powhatan tribe. In 1613, the English Captain Joseph Argall, with the help of the Patawomeck “chief,” Japazaws, was able to capture Chief Powhatan’s daughter, Pocahontas. Pocahontas had been living in Patawomeck around three months on a goods trading mission for her father. Current tradition of the nearby Mattaponi tribe holds that Pocahontas had a first husband named Kocoum, who was a brother of Japazaws, and that Kocoum was killed by the English after Pocahontas’s capture in 1613. Today the Patawomeck tribe has about 2,300 members, most of whom live within ten miles of their historic village of Patawomeck. The tribe began to seek recognition from the state of Virginia in the 1990s. They were initially unsuccessful, until the popular Las Vegas singer Wayne Newton, whose father was Patawomeck, spoke in 2010 before the House Rules Committee in support of recognition. Since then they have been one of the eleven native tribes recognized by the state of Virginia. Potomac Point Winery is some twenty miles upriver on the Potomac from the village.

Third Hill Vineyards

Third Hill Vineyards

In Quicksburg, Virginia, just off of exit 269 on Interstate 81 in the Shenandoah Valley. Recently opened (in 2016) by Edward and Wendy DeMello, currently bottling wine using grapes from other Virginia vineyards while their grapes mature. They moved here from California after retirement, though Wendy is originally from the Mid-Atlantic. Ed designed the winery. The vineyard is named after nearby Third Hill, which was used as a Civil War signal station.

Wine. Tier III. As of early 2023, available whites are Riesling, Vidal Blanc and Chardonel, and reds are Chambourcin, Cabernet Franc, “Petite Pearl” and Petit Verdot.

Setting. There are great views from deck and the grounds of the vines and Shenandoah Mountains. Large and attractive tasting room. Owners very hospitable. Cheese plates available.

Stories. Medieval Virginia: A Late Woodland Period palisaded village. The Late Woodland Period – the North American equivalent of Europe’s Middle Ages, lasted from AD 900 until 1650. It was a time when Native American societies, including in Virginia, underwent important social and cultural transformations. It traditionally has been dated from the supposed widespread adoption of maize agriculture. During this period scattered populations consolidated into large villages and towns, occasionally fortified; they also built burial mounds or large burial pits, and developed into some of the most socially and politically complex groups on the Atlantic Coast. Along the north and south forks of the Shenandoah River and the Potomac River, as well as in southwestern Virginia, Indian families joined together to live in compact, planned communities that often consisted of dome-shaped houses placed in a larger circle around a common plaza. These ring-shaped settlements were often surrounded by a palisade—a wall of upright wooden posts. The palisade protected villagers from their enemies and from wild animal predators such as bears, but also helped give villagers a sense of identity as a community. Palisaded villages seem to date largely after AD 1200. Explored in 1944, and again in 2003-2009, the Keyser Farm site near Luray along the South Fork of the Shenandoah River, is one of the few such villages in Virginia to have been researched. Archaeologists have found there three major types of pottery wares — crushed quartz–tempered, limestone-tempered, and shell-tempered, indicating likely occupation of the site by successive different groups. The site has given its name to a cultural sub-group during the Late Woodland period.

Wolf Gap Vineyard and Winery

Wolf Gap Vineyard and Winery

Wolf Gap is located in Edinburg, off of Exit 279 on Interstate 81 in the Shenandoah Valley. The name comes from a mountain gap west of the vineyard. Will and Diane Elledge started the vineyard in 2007; Will is an Air Force retiree. The winery is for sale as of July 2018.

Wine. Tier II. Seven Wolf Gap wines have been awarded silver medals at the two most recent Virginia Governor’s Cup state-wide wine competition. At the 2023 Governor’s Cup, silver medals were awarded for the 2017 Chambourcin and Marriage red blend, 2021 Cabernet Sauvignon and Chambourcin. At the 2022 Governor’s Cup, silver medals went to the 2016 Marriage reserve, the 2017 Chambourcin reserve, and the 2020 Traminette. There is also a Traminette-Viognier blend which gets good reviews. The Mariage Reserve is a Chambourcin-Cabernet Franc blend. Their Blueberry wine is also popular.

Setting. Very small, family operated winery. The kitchen bar sits over a garage. Tasting deck with good views of the mountains, especially at sunset.

Stories. The frontier in retreat: Shawnee Raids in the 1750s. When settlers first began making their way over the Blue Ridge into the Shenandoah Valley in the 1720s and 1730s, they encountered limited Native American settlement. The area had been cleared by Iroquois war parties, and was mostly the preserve of Iroquois hunters. The 1744 Lancaster Treaty with the Iroquois provided for the Valley’s coming under Virginia’s control. By the 1750s, however, one strong tribe not allied with the Iroquois became much more present in the Valley and launched a series of raids on colonial farms and settlements. The Shawnees were one of the most powerful tribes on the western side of the Alleghanies, with one band located near present-day Winchester. This band vacated the Valley in 1754, at the outset of the French and Indian War, and over the next decade Shawnees launched hundreds of raids on settlers. One can find markers throughout the Shenandoah commemorating massacres during this period. Hundreds of settlers became casualties. While most raids left victims scalped or shot, some resulted in the taking of captives – a common practice for many Native American tribes, especially after contact with European germs led to large-scale population drops in many tribes; a handful of stories of captives escaping or being released and walking hundreds of miles back to European settlements gained notoriety. Large numbers of settlers moved back across the Blue Ridge to the greater safety of the Piedmont, and the Valley’s population only rebounded after the Revolution.

Muse Vineyards

Muse Vineyards

Muse Vineyards is located on the amusingly named Serendipity Lane, near Woodstock on the Shenandoah River, between Strasburg and Mt Jackson. The vineyard is named for owner Robert Muse. He and Sally Cowel bought the property over a decade ago and opened the winery in 2015. Robert is a former lawyer, and Sally was American Ambassador to Trinidad and Tobago. In keeping with the resonance of the family name, wine blends carry names of mythological Greek muses. Tim Rausse, well-known in Virginia wine circles (and son of Gabrielle Rausse) is the winemaker. The property has 22 planted acres, from which they not only make their own wines but sell grapes to other winemakers. Be ready for dirt roads and one-lane bridge as you make your way here.

Wine. One of the Top 40 wineries in Virginia. Muse’s most successful wine is their “Clio” (a Bordeaux-style red blend): the 2020 vintage was awarded gold medals at both the 2024 and 2025 annual Virginia Governor’s Cup state-wide wine competition, and the 2019 vintage was awarded a gold medal at the 2023 Governor’s Cup. Their 2022 vintage Gamay (unusual for Virginia) also received a gold medal at the 2024 Governor’s Cup. Their 2021 vintage Nebbiolo was a gold medal winner at the 2024 Atlantic Seaboard Wineries Association competition. Muse’s most successful white wine is their (again unusual for Virginia) Roussanne varietal. The 2021 vintage Roussanne white was named “best in class” at the prestigious San Francisco Chronicle nation-wide wine competition in 2023, while at the 2022 San Francisco Chronicle competition, the 2020 vintage Roussanne won an impressive double gold medal.

Setting. One star. Beautiful Shenandoah Valley views (for the most spectacular pictures of the winery, click on their impressive website). Look for the narrow suspension bridge over the Creek on the grounds. Small, modern tasting room. Rarely crowded as not very close to other wineries. Cheese and meats available for purchase.

Stories. Mound Builders formed the most extensive and long-lived culture of pre-Columbian North America. Over a 5,000 year-period, ending shortly before the arrival of European settlers, a group of associated cultures build thousands of Mound structures – for ceremonial, burial, and elite residential purposes. Their mounds – flat-topped pyramids, at times formed into animal shapes – were most concentrated in the Mississippi and Ohio River Valleys, but could be found all the way from Georgia north to Wisconsin. Their largest known settlement was at Cahokia, near present-day St Louis, which featured dozens of mounds including the 100-foot tall Monks’ Mound, had over 20,000 inhabitants, and influenced a larger area of an estimated 100,000 people. One of these Mound Builder groups evidently came as far East as the Seven bends of the Shenandoah, south of Fort Royal. An early colonial Virginia chronicler, Samuel Kercheval, stated that when settlers arrived in what is now Shenandoah County, virtually every farm in the bottomlands of the river and creeks contained pyramidal ceremonial mounds, dome-shaped burial mounds, and the ruins of large villages. As late as 1865 there was a 25-feet high, 250 ft. by 250 ft. pyramidal mound near the North Fork of the Shenandoah River and the town of Mount Jackson. Some mounds survived to be field fortifications during the Civil War, but soon afterward were leveled. The remnants of some mounds survive today on the fringes of the valley and between Massanutten and the Blue Ridge Mountains. Archaeologists have recently identified numerous stone cairn cemeteries in the northern tip of the Shenandoah Valley, and some ceremonial rings built out of stones in this region. The cairns have been determined to be cremation biers that date from the Middle Woodland Period up to the early Mississippian Period. The area is the same where archaeologist William Gardner identified several large, long-lived villages on the South Fork of the Shenandoah River and downstream from where the two Forks of the Shenandoah River join together. Some of these villages might have had as many as 1,000 residents.

Mediterranean Cellars

Mediterranean Cellars

In Warrenton, south-central Fauquier County, a little north of the town on Route 17. Louis Papadopolous opened Mediterranean Cellars in 2003, having made wine in his native Greece earlier in his career (along with goldsmithing).

Wine. Tier II. Wide range of reds and whites, and a pair of sweet wines. A Retsina wine, Greek style, is available. Wines are produced principally from estate-grown grapes. Tasting menu includes several wines aged longer than is common at Virginia winery tastings, up to eight years old. Good olive oil as well.

Setting. One star. Winery is set on a hill offering good views overlooking the vineyard and the hills. Pretty drive coming in. The tasting room has a log cabin feel. Light Greek food available.

Stories. (1) Where the early 19th century elite played. The Ruins of the old Fauquier White Sulphur Springs resort are located southeast of the center of Warrentown, on Great Run. Before the Civil War, White Sulphur Springs was the most celebrated mineral water resort in the United States. A one-day stage coach ride from Washington DC, which in turn was accessible by the new railroads, made it feasible for plantation owners through the South to spend a month at “The Springs.” The grand Pavilion Hotel had a dining room which could seat 400. Guests, who included Presidents Monroe, Madison and Van Buren, were entertained by orchestras, balls, horse racing, fox hunting, medieval style jousting tournaments. The famous Dred Scott decision was written at the Springs by Chief Justice Taney in the Summer of 1856.
(2) 17th Century tribal wars. The same Springs which encouraged the creation of the White Sulphur Springs resort in the 1800s naturally had attracted other people centuries earlier. When Captain John Smith first explored the lands of Virginia, he noted on his 1608 map the presence of a Native American town here, which he called Tanxnitania. This was a major town of the Manahoac tribe, thought to be Siouan language speakers. Some five decades later, the Manahoacs abandoned the site of the Springs here and moved to the James River, driven away by constant raids by northern Iroquois Indians. Those Indian raids appear to have been a new phenomenon which followed the arrival of European settlers. Well before the European presence grew large enough to inflict military damage on Native American tribes, their arrival had major and devastating impacts. Disease was clearly the biggest factor, which many Indian towns becoming completely depopulated due to repeated epidemics of different types – the Native Americans not having the built-up immunity to many germs which had limited impact on the Europeans who brought them with them. The arrival of firearms was another overnight game-changer, with the tribes who obtained them first from Europeans gaining an immediate and unprecedented military advantage over enemy tribes. And the third of the big changes was the enormous escalation in slavery of Native Americans. The escalation was driven partly by southern planters in Virginia and the Carolinas, seeking Indian slaves for labor in their rapidly developing tobacco plantations, and partly by tribes looking to repopulate their own ranks, after the large-scale deaths from diseases. The Iroquois, who were by far the most powerful of the tribes in the new colonies, were feared more than any other. From their bases in upstate New York, they ranged far South and West in their “mourning raids”, capturing thousands to join their ranks, and typically killing twice as many as they captured. The Manahoacs’ move from Warrentown, or then Tanxnitania, was one of a great many displacements of tribes that took place during this period. As the European settlers moved west, they were moving into Native American territories already undergoing major changes.

Saude Creek Vineyards

Saude Creek Vineyards

Saude Creek is located in Lanexa, New Kent County, east of Richmond. About 2 hours south of Washington depending on Interstate 95 traffic. Part of the Colonial Virginia Wine Trail. On a former farm property, overlooking the Pamunkey River. Owners are Jason Knight and John Britt.
Wine. Tier II. At the 2025 Virginia Governor’s Cup state-wide wine competition, Saude Creek came away with four silver medals, after having received three the year before. The winery’s 2025 silver medals were for their 2019 Tannat, 2021 Vidal Blanc, 2023 Pamunkey Fall (a Chardonnay and Vidal Blanc blend), and their non-vintage Traminette (a white wine from the hybrid Traminette grape, originally developed in the midwest). Wide range of whites and reds. Tavern White and Tavern Red (a spiced wine) blends are well received. Unusual Chambourcin/Touriga Nacional red blend produced here. Uses 100% Virginia grapes, some from a central Virginia vineyard also owned by Jason and John.
Setting. One star. Nice views of vineyard and gardens, and especially the Pamunkey River. Tasting room features 160-year old timbers rescued from a former tobacco warehouse. Winding entrance driveway is nice. Sometimes have live bands on weekends. BBQ available.
Stories. One star. Virginia Native Americans – Werowocomocco. At the time of European arrival at Jamestown in 1607, the Algonquin-speaking Native Americans of the Tidewater area had become mostly unified under the paramount leadership of the Powhatan tribe, and its chief Wahunsenacawh (who the settlers referred to as Chief Powhatan). Werowocomocco, on the York River (the Indians referred to it as the Pamunkey River) was one of their more important villages, the “village of the leader,” functioning as a type of capital. Three creeks flow into the river here, and this is where allied and/or lesser tribes brought tribute to the chief. When Captain John Smith was captured, this is where he was brought before Chief Powhatan, and where the legendary intervention of the chief’s daughter Pocahontas took place. The site was apparently abandoned by the Powhatan in 1609, perhaps to create more safety from the threatening colonists, and the chief’s residence moved to a site on the Chickahominy River. The original site, on Purtan Bay, was rediscovered by archaeologists only in 2003. The National Park Service purchased the land in 2016 and is in the planning stages of opening the site to the public, as part of the Captain John Smith Chesapeake National Historic Trail. The site of Werowocomocco itself is about a 40-minute drive from Saude Creek, across the York River. Alternatively, York River State Park is directly across the York from Purtan Bay and the site of Werowocomocco, and about a 25 minute drive east from the winery.

New Kent Winery

New Kent Winery

New Kent Winery is located in the town of New Kent, 20 miles east of Richmond, 2 hours south of Washington (depending on Interstate 95 traffic). Part of the Colonial Virginia Wine Trail. Owned by Joe and Jo Anna Dombroski, who purchased the winery in 2014. The vineyards were planted in 2001. Mid-sized winery with production of over 6,000 cases annually. Joined with a golf course and high-end real estate venture.
Wine. Among the Top 100 wineries of Virginia. New Kent was awarded two gold medals at the 2024 annual state-wide Virginia Governor’s Cup competition, for their Reserve Chardonnay and Merlot (both non-vintage), while the Norton was given a silver. At the 2025 Governor’s Cup event, New Kent came away with three silver medals, for their 2021 Cabernet Franc, 2023 Vermentino, and non-vintage Norton. The New Kent Reserve Chardonnay was awarded a gold medal at the 2022 Governor’s Cup. Several other New Kent wines have been awarded silver medals at recent Governor’s Cup competitions. At the 2023 Governor’s Cup, the Reserve Chardonnay and Cabernet Franc came away with silver medals. Wide range of reds: Merlot, Norton, Petit Verdot, Malbec, Tannat and Cabernet Sauvignon. Have an unusual white merlot.
Setting. Beautiful grounds, upscale feel to the large tasting room.
Stories. One star. Virginia Native Americans – Chief Powhatan. The two most famous Native American figures in the history of early English settlement and colonization of Virginia are Pocahontas and her father, Chief Powhatan. The Algonquian-speaking peoples of the Tidewater were the most numerous of the three main groups of Native Americans in today’s Virginia when Europeans arrived in 1607. Many of the Algonquian-speaking groups at the time had been recently unified in a confederation under the main chief who history calls Powhatan. Powhatan more properly refers to the name of his tribe. New Kent Winery is close to two important sites related to the man and the tribe. One of these is the religious site of Uttamusack, the primary temple site of the Powhatans, which counted three, 60-foot long temples among many other structures. A historic highway marker relating to Uttamusack can be found on state road 30 in West Point. The site is a 90 foot bluff above the Pamunkey River near its mouth, where it flows into the York River; there is currently no access to the site. Just in 2017, Dominion Energy agreed to purchase the site of Uttamusack and donate it to the Pamunkey tribe, as part of the mitigation required for federal approval of a new transmission line across the James River. The second site, 5 miles northeast of the winery, is the Pamunkey Tribe Reservation, where lies the grave of Chief Powhatan’s, who died in 1618.

King Family Vineyards

King Family Vineyards

King Family Vineyards is located in the village of Crozet, Virginia, in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains 15-20 minutes west of Charlottesville. David and Ellen King purchased the farm in 1996, after relocating from Texas. The idea of winemaking arose when someone asked to lease part of their land for a vineyard; the family decided to make a go of it themselves and opened the winery in 2002. They have become one of the most successful wineries in the state.

Wine: Top Tier. We have King Family Vineyards as one of the Top 4 wineries in Virginia. King was awarded four gold medals at the 2025 annual Virginia Governor’s Cup state-wide wine competition, for their 2021 Meritage, Mountain Plains Red and Loreley dessert wine, and 2023 Viognier. The King 2019 vintage Meritage was judged as the #1 wine in Virginia at the 2024 Governor’s Cup, while King wines won a nearly unprecedented (outside of Michael Shaps) seven gold medals at the 2023 Virginia Governor’s Cup. Their 2021 Mountain Plains Red was voted the #1 wine at the 2024 Monticello Cup. The winemaker is Matthieu Finot from the Rhone area of France.

Setting: Two stars. Named as one of Virginia’s 10 Most Beautiful Wineries. From the terrace, guests overlook the beautiful and vast fields of grape vines. This family oriented business makes guests feel welcomed and warm from the moment they arrive. Unlike most other wineries and vineyards, the King Family Vineyard hosts polo matches on their field for the enjoyment of guests. In the colder months, they have a fireplace and cozy spots for guests to warm up. Fans of quality wine, stunning landscapes, and exciting sports absolutely cannot miss King Family Vineyards. Beautiful views in multiple directions. Cheese, meat and bread available for purchase.

Stories: One star. Before Jamestown: Monacan Indian towns in Virginia. Native Americans in Virginia, at the time of European arrival, were mostly part of three distinct linguistic and cultural groups. One of these groups were Siouan speakers, the easternmost of the Sioux, and the main tribe of this group were the Monacans. The Monacans are known to have had five main towns in present-day Virginia. King is probably the closest vineyard to one of these villages, Monasukapanough. Monasukapanough, which was shown on John Smith’s 1612 Map of Virginia, was located on a bend of the South Fork of the Rivanna River. The site was where Thomas Jefferson identified and excavated an Indian burial mound in the early 19th century. Jefferson reported that as a child, he saw a group of Native Americans go six miles out of their way to visit a mound near Charlottesville. In later life he investigated, and found over a hundred skeletons in the burial mound, and while his methods left much to be desired by the standards of modern archaeology, his was the first scientific excavation in the country of any of these important Native American monuments. The mound has since been eroded or plowed away, as has been the case for many of these mounds. Part of the ancient village was on what is now the South Fork Soccer Park. The Monacans were enemies of the Powhatan tribe to the East. Their territory, which is said to go back 10,000 years, was first explored by Christopher Newport. The tribe, now numbering about 2,000 members, received federal recognition as a tribe only in January 2018.