Wine About Virginia: Visiting a new winery: Early Mountain Vineyards

Jun 23, 2012

Visiting a new winery: Early Mountain Vineyards

We had planned to visit Early Mountain Vineyards last week, but had to postpone that trip until this weekend. We were curious to see what changes had been made to the former Sweely property.

When you enter Early Mountain's tasting room you find the tasting bar on the left. The room extends straight back to bright windows revealing the vineyards and Early Mountain in the background. It is very appealing and quite a change from the layout when this was Sweely winery's tasting room.

We had arranged to meet with the assistant tasting room manager Heather. Heather greeted us warmly and gave us a tour of the tasting room building including the new outdoor patio with a fireplace and an area further out with couple fire pits. She described the various landscaping that has been done and some recent vineyard planting, then took us to around to see the main hall.

Inside, the old fireplace remains, although in a more streamlined way. As we mentioned before, the tasting bar is up near front of the building and a new food and wine shop is located on the right, about halfway down. We noticed board games and crayons for kids.

Early Mountain provides tastings in flights, which includes 4 wines in large pours from Early Mountain and other select Virginia wineries such as Breaux, Linden, King Family and others.

We had made prior arrangements to try just the Early Mountain wines as we have tasted all of the other wines at one time or another. The 2011 Early Mountain Pinot Gris ($17) was very light in color, but very flavorful, bright on the palate, and had a great, nearly everlasting finish. One very well made wine. The Early Mountain 2008 Merlot ($25) was smooth and fruity, but with a good structure and finish. A great red wine. We wound up purchasing both to take home.

We each had a glass of wine and looked around the large tasting room. We ran into Kathy from Virginia Made. They had just finished enjoying a cheese plate and wines and said it was wonderful. Early Mountain offers quite a variety of small plates, cheeses, charcuterie, and paninis, many made with local meats, cheeses, and produce. We will certainly be back again to try some, along with the new wines (we heard Viognier and Chardonnay) that should be released in the next several weeks.

Everything at Early Mountain Vineyards was first class. We were encouraged to find former Sweely employees at Early Mountain too. It speaks well of the new ownership. Early Mountain Vineyards is welcome addition to the Virginia Winery scene. They have a unique concept, a great facility, a tremendous view, and a friendly staff. Visit them soon and tell them you read about Early Mountain here at Wine About Virginia.