868 Estate Vineyards
In the northwest corner of Loudoun County, located on busy Harpers Ferry Road alonf with several other wineries. The winery is owned by 3 families in partnerships, and opened in 2011. The estate formerly included a restaurant, Grandale, but this closed after the Pandemic. 868 has been up for sale since 2023, for an asking price of $7.5 million as of early 2026.
Wine. One of the 20 best wineries of Northern Virginia, and among the State’s best 50 wineries. Appreciation of 868’s wines has been on a marked uptick the last two years. Three 868 bottles were awarded Gold Medals at the 2025 Virginia Governor’s Cup state-wide tasting competition (a Chardonnay, a Meritage and a Sauvignon Blanc), and two more at the 2026 competition — their 2022 and 2023 Meritages and Chardonnay. The 868 Estate 2024 Sauvignon Blanc and 2023 Cabernet Franc were both designated as “Best in Class” at the 2025 Loudoun County awards.
Setting: One star. Pretty and scenic property, nice gazebo. If the setting in the winery isn’t enough for you, go a few miles north to the place of which Thomas Jefferson wrote “The passage of the Potomac through the Blue Ridge is perhaps one of the most stupendous scenes in Nature” (see Harper’s Ferry, below).
Stories: Civil War — John Brown’s Raid. 868 is the southernmost of five vineyards all located on Harper’s Ferry Road, in the northwest corner of Loudoun County. The Maryland and West Virginia state lines are seven miles away on county road 671, at historic Harper’s Ferry. Harper’s Ferry’s fame derives from “John Brown’s raid,” one of the key triggering events for the American Civil War. Brown was an abolitionist who believed armed insurrection was the only route to ending slavery. In 1859 he led a raid on the federal armory at Harper’s Ferry, with the intention to seize the guns and other weapons at the armory and to use these to arm slaves and help them fight for their freedom. The raid failed and Brown was hanged, but it also so heightened tensions between the North and South that the war was started not long thereafter. Historians variously characterize Brown as either a terrorist or a heroic martyr.