Breaux Vineyards
- 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. From 2008-2011 was voted “Virginia’s Favorite Winery” in Virginia Wine Events poll. The winery hosts periodic “sip and paint” events.
- Wine. One of Virginia’s Top 40 wineries, and ranked by us as #3 among Loudoun County wineries. Breaux was awarded two gold medals at the 2023 Virginia Governor’s Cup state-wide wine tasting competition, for their 2019 Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve, and “the Quarter.” Eight Breaux wines received silver medals at the competition, including their 2020 Cabernet Franc Reserve, Petit Verdot, Malbec and Cabernet Sauvignon, while the 2020 Meritage and 2021 Viognier were given bronze medals. This repeated Breaux’ success from the 2022 Governor’s Cup competition, when the Breaux 2019 Nebbiolo and 2020 Sauvignon Blanc were awarded gold medals, and another ten bottles received silver medals. The winery’s biggest success came in the 2021 Governor’s Cup, when Breaux wines were awarded three gold medals, and their 2016 Nebbiolo was selected as one of the 12 best wines in Virginia by the panel. 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 Chausée, 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!