Virginia Wine Month: Wine Tasters Enjoy Last Fall Season at Oakencroft

Thanks to tourism and the harvest, October is one of the busiest months of the year for Virginia wineries.

Just minutes from the University of Virginia and the downtown mall, Oakencroft is popular with students, locals, and tourists, but it was just a farm on Garth Road until Felicia Rogan moved to Virginia from New York.

"My late husband John Rogan who died twenty years ago thought, 'Wouldn't it be fun to have a vineyard on this beautiful Oakencroft property?' So we started with a few vines," said Owner and President, Felicia Warburg Rogan.

A few vines turned into a full-fledged vineyard. Workers at Oakencroft pick the grapes themselves, and harvest them in barrels. The aging process is closely monitored. Stainless steel for white wines and French and American oak for reds.

"This is our stainless tank room, and we like to make a lot of our whites in stainless steel because it doesn't color the quality of the fruit," explained Oakencroft expert and tasting room employee Leslie Stone., "we don't really like [the wines] over 65 degrees."

For twenty-five years, business has been booming at Oakencroft and in Virginia. There's over 100 vineyards in the Commonwealth.

"You never know what's going to become of a vineyard that you've planted and a winery you've begun, and yet the public has been so supportive," said Rogan.

"I'm here with some friends and co-workers...and we're just trying to get in a nice wine tasting on a nice Saturday," said UVA Grad and wine taster Alex Woershing.

The tasting room was packed before the UVA home football game, but it won't be next year. The Oakencroft vineyard is closing December 31st.

"It's unfortunate considering how close it is to the University and the downtown area," said Woershing when he learned the news.

But the founder of the vineyard says it's time to retire.

"It's bittersweet closing it now," said Rogan. "The property is under contract...but I will always be supportive of this wonderful industry."

The new owners are going to keep the vineyard running. They'll be selling the grapes and the juice from the grapes to other wineries, but the area won't be open to the public anymore---so no more tasting room.

Felicia Rogan says now is a good time to visit the vineyard before it closes, because there are great sales on cases and bottles of wine. Most wines are thirty percent off, and some are sold out.

Throughout the decade, Virginia wineries have sold about a quarter-million cases of wine per year.