Located in Stafford, less than an hour south of Washington (except at rush hour), Potomac Point is a large, popular winery and event venue. The founders and owners, Skip and Cindi Causey, are from Stafford, and caught the wine bug while traveling in California. They planted their first grapes in 2006 and opened the winery’s doors in 2007.
Wine. Among the Top 100 wineries in Virginia, and the Top 40 wineries of Northern Virginia. The Potomac Point 2020 vintage Norton (a true “Virginia” grape) won the “Best Norton” award at the 2022 American Seaboard Winery Association competition. Three Potomac Point wines were awarded silver medals at the same event – the 2019 Merlot and Cabernet Franc, and the non-vintage “Rabelos,” a port-style wine – and three garnered bronze medals: the 2019 Petit Verdot and “Heritage”, and their 2020 Viognier. At the 2022 San Francisco International Wine Competition, the Norton, Merlot and Petit Verdot were awarded silver medals, while the Viognier again came away with a bronze medal. At the 2022 and 2023 Virginia Governor’s Cup state-wide wine competitions, Potomac Point wines have been awarded ten silver medals. In 2023 for the 2019 vintage Merlot and Petit Verdot, 2020 Norton, and 2021 Petit Manseng, and in 2022 for their 2019 vintage Cabernet Franc, Petit Verdot, Merlot and Richland Heritage Reserve, and their 2020 vintage Sauvignon Blanc and Petit Manseng. Back a little further, Potomac Point wines were awarded a Gold Medal for a different wine at each of the 2020, 2019, and 2018 Virginia Governor’s Cup, in 2020 for the 2017 Potomac Point Petit Verdot, in 2019 for the 2017 Richland Reserve, and in 2018 for the Cabernet Franc. Winemaker David Castanos is from Yecla, Spain, and has previously trained in France and New Zealand, as well as his family estate in Spain.
Setting. One star. Mediterranean-style estate with nice views of the grape vines. Tasting Room with a four-sided tasting bar and a relaxed, inviting Bistro serving tapas, soups, salads, paninis. Sit in a patio or courtyard, or the D’vine Lounge is a relaxed spot with sofas, a fireplace, and tables for playing board games. There is also a kid’s room with toys, unusual for wineries. Frequent venue for weddings and other events.
Stories. The Patawomeck Tribe and Pocahontas. The historical Patawomeck tribe formed as one of 32 Algonquian-speaking peoples in the Tidewater area of present-day Virginia. The name of the Potomac River, Virginia’s northern border for much of the state, came from the name of this tribe. The small tribe was loosely allied with the powerful Powhatan Confederacy. They were an agricultural people, cultivating varieties of maize, along with hunting and fishing. Their homeland was between Aquia Creek and Upper Machodoc Creek, and the Patawomeck main town, also called Patawomeck, was located on the north of Potomac Creek, in present-day Stafford County. The tribe was generally friendlier to the early English colonists than the regionally dominant Powhatan tribe. In 1613, the English Captain Joseph Argall, with the help of the Patawomeck “chief,” Japazaws, was able to capture Chief Powhatan’s daughter, Pocahontas. Pocahontas had been living in Patawomeck around three months on a goods trading mission for her father. Current tradition of the nearby Mattaponi tribe holds that Pocahontas had a first husband named Kocoum, who was a brother of Japazaws, and that Kocoum was killed by the English after Pocahontas’s capture in 1613. Today the Patawomeck tribe has about 2,300 members, most of whom live within ten miles of their historic village of Patawomeck. The tribe began to seek recognition from the state of Virginia in the 1990s. They were initially unsuccessful, until the popular Las Vegas singer Wayne Newton, whose father was Patawomeck, spoke in 2010 before the House Rules Committee in support of recognition. Since then they have been one of the eleven native tribes recognized by the state of Virginia. Potomac Point Winery is some twenty miles upriver on the Potomac from the village.