Breaux Vineyards
- Located in northwest Loudoun County, north of Purcellville off Route 671. “Loudoun County’s most impressive wine undertaking,” according to Breaux Winery’s website homepage. Owner Paul Breaux founded the “Cajun theme” vineyard in 1997 after a career in real estate on Nag’s Head, North Carolina. Breaux is one of the Virginia’s largest vineyards, and sells grapes to a number of other wineries. The winery hosts periodic “sip and paint” events.
- Wine. One of Loudoun County’s Top 20 wineries. After seeing increasing success in wine competitions in 2023 and 2024, Breaux had an off-year in 2025. After having been awarded three gold medals at both the 2025 and 2024 Virginia Governor’s Cup state-wide wine tasting competitions, Breaux managed only a single gold medal at the 2025 event, that for their 2021 Meritage. At the San Francisco Chronicle 2026 Wine Competition, three Breaux wines were given silver medals: their 2020 and 2021 Nebbiolo, and their 2020 Cabernet Sauvignon. Three Breaux wines took away gold medals at the 2025 Loudoun County awards: their 2023 Cabernet Franc, 2022 Equation Red and 2022 Merlot, with the latter two being voted best in class. Interestingly, the same Merlot which was so well-liked by Loudoun judges was not well-liked by those in San Francisco, who gave it a bronze medal. Breaux’ “The Frog” Nebbiolo Reserve was included in the 2024 “Governor’s Cup,” as one of the top twelve wines from Virginia at the competition. Large selection of both reds and whites: Breaux grows 18 different grape types.
- Setting: Two stars. Every review raves about the scenery. Good views of the Blue Ridge Mountains from the tasting room, terraces and spacious grounds. The vineyards extend up the side of Short Hill Mountain. Large, Spanish/ New Orleans style building. Cheese, bread and chocolates available and picnics are welcome. Several wines have names drawn from the family’s Cajun heritage, including “Jennifer’s Jambalaya.”
- Stories: French genes in Virginia wine country. The Breaux family who established this vineyard, as the names of some of the wines produced here indicate, are of Louisiana Cajun descent. The Breaux family can be traced in Louisiana to the mid-1700s, when they arrived from French Canada, present day Nova Scotia in Canada. The word “Cajun” is a deformation of the French word “Acadian”, one from Acadia; Acadia was the name given to the area of French settlement in the Eastern Maritimes of Canada, centered around Nova Scotia. Many early Louisiana settlers, in the long period when this was a French colony, before Napoleon sold it to Thomas Jefferson in 1802, had come from Acadia. For the most part they were escaping British rule, Britain having conquered this part of Canada from France in the early 1700s, with Britain undertaking an active policy of deporting Acadians after the end of the French and Indian War in 1763. many of these Acadian settlers, in turn, originated from the Poitou region of France, which contributed the greatest share of settlers to French Canada in the 17th and 18th centuries. The Acadia-Louisiana-Virginia Breaux are descended from the emigrant Vincent Brault, whose hometown was La Chaussée, in Poitou, some 20 miles northwest of the provincial capital of Poitou. While not famous in the wine trade, the area does produce a respectable appellation called Vins du Haut Poitou. From the vineyards of France to those of Virginia!