Brooks Mill Winery, located in Wirtz, Franklin County, is a small farm fruit winery operated by H.T. and Rhonda Page. They began planting with a blackberry vineyard in 2006, opened a tasting room in 2008, and have expanded each year. Near Smith Mountain Lake from which many vacationers come for a tasting or a bottle.
Wine. Tier III. Note there are no grape wines here. Owner H.T. Page is the winemaker, and produces an extensive line of both sweet and dry fruit wines: dry and dessert-style pear, dry and sweet blackberry, sweet and semi-dry blueberry, cherry, peach, and plum.
Setting. Brooks Mill Winery looks different than most wineries: the winery-tasting room is a converted garage, and the Pages live next door in a suburban neighborhood. Comfortable, friendly, and wholly unpretentious setting. Best to call ahead, but ring the bell if the door is closed.
Stories. Booker T Washington. Some 5 miles north of Brooks Mill Winery is Hale’s Ford, site of the Booker T. Washington National Monument. The site preserves portions of the tobacco farm on which educator and leader Booker T. Washington was born into slavery in 1856. The museum provides interpretation of Washington’s achievements, as well as of 1850s slavery and farming. Washington lived with his enslaved mother on the farm until 1865, when after the Civil War his mother was freed to rejoin her husband in West Virginia. Washington worked in salt furnaces and coal mines in West Virginia for several years to earn money, and was able to attend the Hampton Institute in Virginia. The head of the Institute recommended him to lead the newly founded Tuskegee Institute in Alabama, and Washington’s career was launched. He went on to become a famous educator, author, orator, and adviser to multiple American presidents. He was a key proponent of African-American businesses and one of the founders of the National Negro Business League. His second autobiography, Up From Slavery, was a national bestseller. Washington died of kidney disease in 1915.