Wine Shopping in the Brandywine Valley
The wineries in Southern Chester County offer a fun way to explore the area and find just the right gift for wine-loving hosts, family, and friends!
If you believe in “eating local,” as most of us do, then the Delmarva region is certainly a great place for doing that, with our abundance of local produce farms, orchards, and roadside stands. Although the coming of winter has dimmed most local farm stands, the lights are still shining brightly at the wineries in the Brandywine Valley who have just finished harvesting their vineyards and whose fresh wines are resting in their barrels and tanks. While it’s still too early to taste those, there are plenty of bottles ready to drink and to make into just-add-a-bag-and-a-bow holiday gifts for family and friends in addition to selecting gifts for hosts who invite us over for a party or an evening meal.
A fine group of neighborhood wineries lie just across the border from Delaware in the rolling hills of Chester County, just a short and pleasant ride through the countryside, no matter which road you take. One itinerary starts out heading north on Route 896, where 1723 Vineyards in Landenberg and Vox Vineti in Christiana are two worthy destinations. From there, head northwest on Route 41 and find Va La Vineyard just before Avondale. Five minutes off Route 52 is Galer Estate just behind Longwood Gardens, and Route 202 will take you to the leafy entrance to Penns Woods Winery.
All five wineries have personable and accomplished owners, with wonderful stories to tell. The ambitious could visit all five in a day, or take the weekend to explore and enjoy all the area has to offer. To help with your shopping, we’ve put together a holiday basket featuring one special bottle from each winery for everyone on your list!
1723 Vineyards
Winemaking begins with farming, as tending grape vines is just another form of agriculture, and Ben and Sarah Cody are each fifth generation Midwestern farmers — Ben from Oklahoma, and Sarah from Indiana. Both bring a Midwestern friendliness to their winegrowing ventures, as well as a solid background in the business world, and everything bodes well for this Landenberg venture that began with its first plantings in 2015. Although 1723 — named for the date the original township was incorporated — makes excellent white and red table wines, the Codys are beginning to specialize in sparkling wines.
For our holiday gift basket, we’ve chosen the Non-Vintage 1723 Sparkling Rosé ($32), an elegant blend of Cabernet Franc and Chardonel with lots of fresh bubbles, keen strawberry and other red fruit flavors and a crisp finish — great for toasting and for sipping with an array of meat and cheese canapés.
5 McMaster Boulevard, Landenberg, PA
888.330.0526 Facebook Instagram
It has been more than 20 years now since Anthony Vietri has given up wandering the world as a film writer and returned to his mother’s family farm on the edge of Avondale to make wines. And the wines he makes from the very small winery come mainly from northern Italian grapes that are from the same region in which his ancestors once farmed. Va La wines were also the first in southeastern Pennsylvania to be given the mantle of “cult wines” by local and national writers, by wine lovers across the country, and by sommeliers at wine-savvy Philadelphia restaurants.
Of the four wines Vietri makes most years, his Mahogany red blend is the closet to being the winery’s icon selection. “The current bottling [2016 Va La Mahogany ($48)] marks the twelfth vintage of one of the signature red wines from our small farm, made from a field blend of northern Italian varieties,” Vietri says. Into our basket it goes.
8820 Gap Newport Pike (Rt. 41), Avondale, PA
610.268.2702 Facebook Instagram
Vox Vineti
Ed and Adrienne Lazzerini’s vineyard at the Andrews Bridge crossroads is located on a lovely swale of hillside on the northern side of Octararo Creek. But the winery itself is in a small building with a lack of esthetics that one would have found charming in a Bordeaux garagiste producer of a couple of decades ago. But if Vox Vineti has a humble birthplace, the wines themselves are very urbane and sophisticated.
Our basket selection is the 2015 Vox Vineti Polyphony ($55), which Lazzerini describes as “a cellar-able introduction to what young Cabernet Franc vines can achieve on rockier sites in southeastern Lancaster County. It matches beautifully with winter-weight foods.”
49 Sproul Road, Christiana, PA
Penns Woods Winery
This estate along Beaver Valley Road just off of Route 202 has been around for almost 40 years, long enough to have gone through two owners as Smithbridge Cellars before being modernized by Gino Razzi, a wine importer who also made prize-winning wines in his native Italy. Although approachable in their youth, Razzi’s red wines are made for aging and improving in the bottle.
One of them is our basket choice – the 2017 Penns Woods Proprietors Reserve ($38), which Razzi describes as “a wonderful gifting wine. It is a medium bodied blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc and Carmine with dark fruit notes and balanced tannins. It is a very approachable wine and suits many palates.”
124 Beaver Valley Road, Chadds Ford, PA
610-459-0808 Facebook Instagram
Galer Estate
Located just behind Longwood Gardens, Galer also had a previous incarnation, as Folly Hill Winery, before artist Lela and pharmaceuticals research and executive Brad Galer took it over and transformed it into a reliable provider of well-made and affordable California-style red, white and sparkling wines.
The 2018 Galer Estate’s Red Lion Chardonnay ($21) is described by winemaker Virginia Mitchell as “unoaked, crisp and balanced, with flavors of citrus blossom, Meyer lemon and yellow apple” – a perfect bring-a-bottle-to dinner holiday wine.
700 Folly Hill Road, Kennett Square, PA
484.899.8013 Facebook
When You Go: Because of COVID-19 precautions being taken at the wineries, it’s best to check in online to find how to order wines in advance for cellar-door pickup or to see if the tasting room is in full operation.
