Loudoun Crafted - 2024 Loudoun Crafted: A Guide to Local Beverages & Producers

Cheers to your Epicurean Journey

2023-12-08 08:52:59

With so much fertile farmland and access to abundant seasonal ingredients, Loudoun is a celebrated culinary destination. But this bounty of fresh produce also makes it one of the most exciting wine and craft beverage destinations in the US.

Our hills and valleys are crossed with vines, farm fields ripple with hops, corn and barley and orchards are ripe with apples, pears, plums, peaches and berries to flavor everything from cider and beer to spirits and mead. There’s even tea being grown in Loudoun’s rich soil.

In 1984, Willowcroft Farm Vineyards barreled Loudoun’s first wine. Today, there are more than 50 wineries in the county, producing a range of varietals few other regions can match: Chardonnay, Viognier and French-style Bordeaux (Cab Franc, Cab Sauvignon, Merlot) thrive, but so does Spanish Albariño, Nebbiolo reminiscent of Italy’s Piedmont and Norton – the original American grape. Wine aficionados are singing the praises of Loudoun's Petit Manseng and Tannat.

More than 30 breweries make up the county’s LoCo Ale Trail, from trendy taprooms in the urban east to mountain-top beer gardens out west. Many utilize local fruit, grain and even yeast in their fermentation.

They’ve been joined by a slate of craft cideries that are turning sweet Virginia apples into liquid gold. As for distilleries, there are three and counting, producing a range of award-winning rye, whiskey and bourbon as well as classic liquors such as rum, gin, brandy, cassis and even absinthe.

Then there’s tea – locally grown hand-plucked camellia sinensis from Green Hills Garden & Nursery in Taylorstown – as well as several meaderies channeling the ancient process of fermenting local honey with water (and sometimes fruit) and at least two small-batch artisanal coffee roasters.

You won’t go hungry in Loudoun.

You won’t go thirsty either.