Old House Vineyards — Attraction in Culpeper

It was early afternoon and my wife and I were on the road and feeling like stopping for lunch. We had been recommended to try Old House when we were in the area, and since we were very close at the time, we turned in to Corkys Lane and thought we'd give it a try. Old House is a larger facility than some of the wineries we'd visited lately. The complex had a winery, a distillery, and a brewery. The brewery sounded good to us. We first entered the Taproom. It was a fairly large space with long tables that seated 6-10 people. It seemed that it would be perfect for a large group. At one end was a long bar that stretched the width of the room, with 3 very friendly people waiting to help us. At the far end of the room was the food vendor Green Ribbon. We placed our food order, then since we had a few minutes headed to the Irish Pub to take a look.

Kearney's Irish Pub was a more intimate space than the Taproom. Along one wall was the bar, which like the Taproom had all of the beers and wines Old House had available. The walls were decked out in Irish memorabilia, and from the ceiling hung flags of all of the counties of Ireland. At one end of the room was a scale model of the Titanic.

My wife and I each ordered a pint. I had the Culpeper Cream, and my wife had the Helles Lager. Both beers were very good, nice and smooth and beer that we would purchase again if available to us.

When the food was ready, I picked it up from the Taproom and brought it back to the pub. We ordered Maryland Crab Dip with Tortilla chips. It was good, but could have been a bit more crabby and a bit less cheesy. My wife ordered Cevice, which she reported as being good but not spectacular. She said the seafood pieces could have been more bite-sized. I ordered a BBQ pork sandwich with cole slaw. The BBQ pork was excellent, if a little fatty. The cole slaw was obviously home made and definately added to the sandwich.

All in all, it was a very nice lunch stop. I try to keep my review of the food separate from the venues and the beer. The food was fine. We very much enjoyed the Taproom and especially Kearney's Irish Pub. It was a very comfortable place to have a pint and a conversation. We plan to make a return trip to Old House to sample the wines, which are excellent...

A stunning place for a Fall wedding! Two suggestions for the property for weddings: The Pavilion could definitely use more heaters-- It was bitterly cold and made it hard for older and younger guests to stay for the entire wedding. Additionally, while signs indicated that the house was off-limits to everyone except the wedding party, the rest of the property stays open and people visiting the winery and brewery were walking through the house and disregarding the signs knowingly, several of them while we were in there getting ready. This is concerning for several reasons, but most of all because the wedding parties are supposed to be able to leave their personal items upstairs during the wedding and there's not actually any protection against other visitors coming in and helping themselves.

Wedding parties, please be aware that if you're getting ready in the house, there's really only room for one side of the party at a time. If there is a side or two sides of your party getting hair and makeup done at the house on site, please, please give them enough time to do so as mirrors, outlets, and bathrooms are limited. There is only one bathroom upstairs where everyone is to get ready, so plan accordingly (there is a bathroom down the stairs, but that part of the house seemingly remains open to the public so you do have to contend with that). The bridal party was supposed to get ready in the smaller of the two rooms, but there simply isn't enough space for that, especially for parties of 7-10 or more (including Mother of the Bride and flower girl). As I wasn't the bride or groom for this wedding, I don't have information about what was communicated to them ahead of time about...

I've been coming to Old House for about 14 years when they only had one tasting room in the old house. My family and myself have always loved it here until our poor service experience this past weekend.

On 2 different occasions the wait staff was very rude. The first occurred in the distillery. The service girl passed us 3 time without greeting us and when she finally did the first thing she said is "you cant have that in here" speaking of my wine. I apologized and said I was totally unaware that I could not have it in there and she went on to tell me the rules. I said we were only coming to get a cocktail menu and prices. She coldly told us what they had and the price and we left with out purchasing anything.

Our second incident happened on the porch of the old house near closing. We were finishing up our glasses and were about to head out when we were stopped by another female service staff. She had a very rude attitude and said that they were closing and " That Technically This is Private Property and we're not Allowed to be there after they close" we told her we were on our way out and nothing more was said. My family will No Longer Be Patronizing This Winery. It is very unfortunate because it is a beautiful place and they have so much to offer but needs some major improvements in hospitality. Remember You Are In The Service Industry; The Patron's Pay Your Bills!!!! Kindness Goes A...