New Kent Winery
- New Kent Winery is located in the town of New Kent, 20 miles east of Richmond, 2 hours south of Washington (depending on Interstate 95 traffic). Part of the Colonial Virginia Wine Trail. Owned by Joe and Jo Anna Dombroski, who purchased the winery in 2014. The vineyards were planted in 2001. Mid-sized winery with production of over 6,000 cases annually. Joined with a golf course and high-end real estate venture.
- Wine. Among the Top 100 wineries of Virginia. The New Kent Reserve Chardonnay was awarded a gold medal at the 2022 Virginia Governor’s Cup state-wide wine competition. Several other New Kent wines have been awarded silver medals at recent Governor’s Cup competitions. At the 2023 Governor’s Cup, the Reserve Chardonnay and Cabernet Franc came away with silver medals; in 2022, the New Kent Meritage earned a silver medal; in 2021, the Reserve Chardonnay, 2017 vintage Cabernet Franc, and “Trinity” were awarded silvers, and in 2020, the Chardonnay, Meritage and Cabernet Franc were as well. Wide range of reds: Merlot, Norton, Petit Verdot, Malbec, Tannat and Cabernet Sauvignon. Have an unusual white merlot.
- Setting. Beautiful grounds, upscale feel to the large tasting room.
- Stories. One star. Virginia Native Americans – Chief Powhatan. The two most famous Native American figures in the history of early English settlement and colonization of Virginia are Pocahontas and her father, Chief Powhatan. The Algonquian-speaking peoples of the Tidewater were the most numerous of the three main groups of Native Americans in today’s Virginia when Europeans arrived in 1607. Many of the Algonquian-speaking groups at the time had been recently unified in a confederation under the main chief who history calls Powhatan. Powhatan more properly refers to the name of his tribe. New Kent Winery is close to two important sites related to the man and the tribe. One of these is the religious site of Uttamusack, the primary temple site of the Powhatans, which counted three, 60-foot long temples among many other structures. A historic highway marker relating to Uttamusack can be found on state road 30 in West Point. The site is a 90 foot bluff above the Pamunkey River near its mouth, where it flows into the York River; there is currently no access to the site. Just in 2017, Dominion Energy agreed to purchase the site of Uttamusack and donate it to the Pamunkey tribe, as part of the mitigation required for federal approval of a new transmission line across the James River. The second site, 5 miles northeast of the winery, is the Pamunkey Tribe Reservation, where lies the grave of Chief Powhatan’s, who died in 1618.