On September 4th, we celebrate the life of founding father Robert “Councillor” Carter, III (February 1727 – March 10, 1804), of Nomini Hall located in Westmoreland County.  RCIII was an American planter, and for two decades sat on the Virginia Governor's Council, which among other things, promoted the establishment of a Virginia wine industry.  On September 5, 1791, Carter began what became the largest release of enslaved persons in North America prior to the American Civil War, and is now remembered as the “Great Emancipator”.

In celebration of this important day in American wine culture, we are offering our customers a 30% bottle discount on all bottles of our Nomini Hall Cabernet Franc! Maximum two case per person.

WINE CLUB MEMBERS: receive a discount at 40% off.

AMBASSADOR CLUB: purchase a case and get 50% off! Today and every day!

On July 10th, we celebrate the life of Landon Carter of  Sabine Hall, located near Warsaw in Richmond County, Virginia.  Landon Carter (August 1710 – December 22, 1778) was a planter from Virginia, best known for his account of colonial life leading up the American War of Independence, The Diary of Colonel Landon Carter, which included discussion about his Virginia winemaking efforts.  Landon’s account of his winemaking efforts in Virginia are among the first recorded in colonial America.

Built about 1730, Sabine Hall is one of Virginia's finest Georgian brick manor houses. It was built by noted planter Landon Carter (1710-1778). It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1969, and declared a National Historic Landmark in 1970.

In celebration of this important day in American wine culture, we are offering our customers a 30% bottle discount on all bottles of our Sabine Hall Viognier! Maximum two case per person.

WINE CLUB MEMBERS: receive a discount at 40% off.

AMBASSADOR CLUB: purchase a case and get 50% off! Today and every day!

On Cleve Day, we celebrate the life of Charles Carter of Cleve (ca. 1707–1764), who in 1762 received the first international recognition for producing excellent wine in Virginia in 1762.   Charles Carter, 5^th child born of Colonel Robert “King” Carter and Elizabeth Landon-Wells was born in Lancaster County, Virginia, and resided in Lancaster and King George County, Virginia.  In 1754, he built Cleve Plantation and its magnificence vied with seats of his brothers, John of Shirley, Robert of Nomini, Landon of Sabine Hall, and with the homes of his sisters, Anne of Berkeley and Judith of Rosewell.

In 1759, a committee of the Virginia assembly was formed and charged with the question of economic diversification, a question made urgent by the depression in the tobacco trade.  As its chairman, Charles Carter entered into correspondence with Peter Wyche in London, chairman of the agriculture committee for the Society for the Encouragement of the Arts, Manufacture, and Commerce (now the Royal Society of Arts), which offered prizes for various desirable enterprises in the colonies, among them vine growing and winemaking.  Carter’s correspondence reveals that the prospects and methods for the cultivation of the grape in Virginia were an important subject.  Carter had already begun grape growing at Cleve, where he made wines from both native and European grapes, and it was natural that he should have chosen commercial winemaking as one of his proposals for economic reform in Virginia.

The London society took an encouraging view of Carter’s proposals and recommended various vines and practices, including the trial of distilling brandy from the native grapes.  In 1762 Carter, who by then had 1,800 vines growing at Cleve, sent to the London society a dozen bottles of his wine, made from the American winter grape and from a vineyard of “white Portugal summer grapes.” These samples were so pleasing to taste—“they were both approved as excellent wines,” the society’s secretary wrote—that on October 20, 1762, the society awarded Carter a gold medal as the first person to make a “spirited attempt towards the accomplishment of their views, respecting wine in America.”  Mr. Carter died on April 26, 1764.

In celebration of this important day in American wine culture, we are offering our customers a 30% bottle discount on all bottles of our Cleve! Maximum two case per person.

WINE CLUB MEMBERS: receive a discount at 40% off.

AMBASSADOR CLUB: purchase a case and get 50% off! Today and every day!