Cedar Creek Winery

This is my favorite winery. The owners are friendly, attentive and so obviously passionate about their vineyard. The cab Franc and Chardonnay are on point They take pride in their winemaking. I love the tour. Ron“s guided tour and description of how wine is made is the most informative I have ever heard on a tour. I usually do not like going on the tours because I find them boring. He is so detailed and passionate when describing the process that you can’t help being interested in learning. His wife and I apologize for not knowing her name, I should considering I’ve been there enough, is delightfully funny and so sweet and helpful. I enjoy this place, the wine is excellent and such friendliness. You should go and see what I mean.

When I review a winery, I rate for the experience as much as the wines. Fortunately Cedar Creek delivers both. Highly recommended for lovers of Cab Franc and/​or vertical tastings.
Wine: 5 stars (if you like Cab Franc)
Ambiance /​service: 5 stars (assuming you enjoy learning about wine as well as drinking it)
Venue: 3 stars (working vineyard, not an event center!)
Cedar Creek is unusual among the wineries I’ve visited as it’s tiny and grows only two varietals; Chardonnay and Cabernet Franc. This is a working farm vineyard first and foremost — yes they have a tasting room and picnic table, but it is most definitely NOT a place people would drive to listen to a band and hang out for the day.
But what sets it aside from everyone else is its large library of vintages of different years, which allows you to do multi-​year vertical tastings. I had Cab Francs years 2009 — 2012, and I left with a mixed case (including several 2008s). Vertical tastings of this extent are rare and this was by far my most extensive one; in fact I can’t remember a single place in VA which can boast 4 years worth (5 if you buy a bottle of the 2008, not on the tasting menu).
The learning experience was equally worthwhile. My server let me tour his production room and gave me a easy to understand rundown of how he makes his wines. For a self described amateur who became a farmer almost by chance, he’s accomplished quite a lot. As a wine geek, the tour was enough to make my day, even without the wine.
And the Cab Francs were good to great, especially the 2008 and 2009 vintages. The younger ones were a bit fruitier but still enjoyable. I need to invite some friends over so I can do my own private vertical tasting. I can understand why Early Mountain Vineyards decided to highlight Cedar Creek’s Francs in their own place.
Call ahead since they don’t get a lot of foot traffic. And arrange for a tour. The drive there is beautiful and it’s hard not to envy someone who lives in a little slice of wine-​laden heaven.

The customer service is quite nice as well!
We stopped in and were greeted in the parking lot by the owner. He explained the property to us, showed us around and allowed us to tour the barrel room, where he also explained the wine-​making process. We can never see enough of these from the various wineries we visit, as it’s nice to know how each does it and how seriously they take wine-​making.
He explained how they only grow two wines; chardonnay and cab franc and as such, they only taste/​sell these two varietals. When tasting, they do a vertical of each of varying years for a total of 6 to taste/​7 to buy.
We really enjoyed every aspect of this visit from the friendly service we received to the views of the mountains nearby and we definitely enjoyed the way the wines tasted.
Definitely a MUST SEE when you’re in this area!