Little Washington Winery, located in the village of the same name west of Warrenton, offers a unique experience among Virginia wineries. Carl (a former member of the Loudoun County Board of Supervisors) and Donna Henrickson started making wine as a hobby in 2003, and opened the winery in 2011. While the winery enjoys spectacular views and proximity to the most famous restaurant in Northern Virginia, its real calling card is wine education. Little Washington runs a “Wine Bootcamp” every weekend, with different types of pairings, aimed as it says to “make a wine snob out of anyone.” Their “Dirt Wine Tour” also showcases small-batch wines from many different places – a tasting experience you will not find elsewhere in Virginia.
Wine. Tier II. The big attraction here is the ability to compare Little Washington Winery’s own production with often top-flight wines from around the world. And it is a lot cheaper to do that here than down the road at the Inn at Little Washington! The winery produces three reds, a “Que Syrah,” a Cabernet Franc, and their signature Bordeaux-style red blend George (which was once voted top wine at the Virginia Wine Showcase, a now-defunct competition, as well as by Virginia Wine Lovers Magazine), and the same number of whites.
Setting. Three stars. Along with the ability to taste wines from a variety of sources, Little Washington also enables you to taste wine in a variety of places. They have not one but three tasting rooms: the principal one at the winery, which boasts phenomenal views of the mountains (Savor Magazine called it a “full frontal view of Old Rag); the Tasting Room at their Skyline Vineyard; and a Wine Loves Chocolate Tasting Room on Main Street of the village. The latter, as one would imagine, offers truffles along with wine. Picnics are welcome at the main tasting room at the winery. The tasting room at the Skyline Vineyard is in the Skyline Vineyard Inn, where one can further enjoy both the wines and the view while overnighting in one of their suites.
Stories. The Inn at Little Washington – a Virginia Institution. For decades, Patrick O’Connell’s famed Inn at Little Washington has been at the top of almost all lists of best restaurants in the Washington area. And when they say that, no one means the “Little” Washington area! Founded in a run-down garage in 1978, with Patrick’s mother’s comments that if nothing else he could always go into selling granola door-to-door, the Inn has become probably the best-known restaurant in all of Virginia. The highly applauded menus draw from a base of traditional French cuisine, and an eclectic approach to the “local food” and farm-to-table movements, with the origins of many recipe ingredients specified on menus – places and individual farms. The wine cellar holds over 14,000 bottles; the Inn was one of the first to see the interest of upscale diners in Virginia wineries and wines, and has today probably the most extensive selection of Virginia wines that one can find in one place (short of the Governor’s Cup annual wine-tasting competition). Reservations are required long in advance, especially if you want a weekend table.