GRAPEVINE
MATT FITZSIMMONS
SweetVines Makes Some FineWines
T
his December, the Virginia wine industry welcomed Sweet Vines Farm as its newest member. But for owner/ winemaker Seidah Armstrong – Sadie to her friends – it’s all about going back to her roots. After all, she’s one of a handful of local winemakers who can trace their winemaking lineage back multiple generations. Sadie loves to tell the story of her maternal great-grandmother and great-great grandmother, both of whom made wine using muscadine grapes. While not as popular as its European Vitis Vinifera cousins, this indigenous American variety was widely grown until the early 20th century and still popular among home winemakers due to its natural aromatics, high yield, and resistance to disease. Although her background is in the field of education, Sadie caught the wine-bug in 2009 and started to make wine on her own. But a few years ago
34 | February 2022
SWEET VINES FARM WINERY 14376 Tower Road Unionville, VA 703-942-9336 Thevines.com this hobby turned into a calling, so she and her husband started searching for property to pursue winemaking fulltime. “I didn’t find this place – it found me,” Sadie explained while we toured the farm, located in rural Unionville. The main building is a former residence she and her family turned into a tasting room. Fortunately, Chateau MerrillAnne is only 10 minutes away and Lake Anna is just south of here, so they have the makings of a mini wine trail. As for the farm, the winery has lots to offer despite being open for a short time. Outside you’ll find a gigantic chess board and fire pit ready for visitors. Sadie and I spent a lot of time chatting at her Ancestors Garden. Saying the farm is warm and adorable is an understatement. Sweet Vines sources grapes from the former Oak Crest winery, but they have 1 acre planted here with 3 more on the way. In keeping with family tradition, these vines include plantings of muscadine, her ‘ancestor’ grape. But don’t be fooled by the name; while sweet wine lovers will likely enjoy her “Typo” cinnamon-flavored dessert wine and muscadine, she is also serving a chardonnay and wine from the now-closed Hammerstone Cellars. Sadie also has several fruitbased wines. “Summer Evening”, a strawberry-lavender wine made from plants grown on the property. But my favorite of the day was her “Pearolicious”, a pear wine that while dry had a “fruit sweet” quality to it. Sweet Vines Breaks New Ground – But Black-Owned Wineries Still a Rarity Sadie has another claim to fame; out of the state’s 300 establishments she’s the first Black female winery owner, and part of only a handful of Blackowned wineries in the Mid-Atlantic. The importance of this milestone isn’t lost among the local wine community. Blacks are vastly underrepresented in the American wine scene, in everything from ownership, the diversity of tasting room staff, to wine writing. According to a 2019 survey of 3,100 wine GRAPEVINE > PAGE 35
Old Town Crier
