Rappahannock Cellars — Attraction in Front Royal

A hard review to write, since Rappahannock is a local favorite amongst many friends and colleagues.

First, the winery itself is beautifully situated (5 stars) and interestingly designed (5 stars).

As the wine goes, it is unique, distinctive, and worth consideration, especially for a Virginia production (5 stars).

Quality is a regular feature of Rappahannock's wines and many of their wines have a consistent full body character that, for a local wine enthusiast such as myself, would make for identifying the wine in a blind tasting easier than not. This quality has only increased over the past two decades.

The winery is popularly known among locals for its welcome of families as well as for its Catholic ownership, making it particularly attractive to adherents of the Catholic Faith who want to see their community grow.

Given the above reputation, where things break down for Rappahannock Cellars is in the area of hospitality. The thing that sucks is that I actually want to like and support the establishment, both for the craftsmanship of its wine and avowed Catholicity. However, I have been to the winery several times over the past two decades and the semi-unwelcoming vibe with treatment has always been congruent. I thought perhaps that it was just me, but my latest visit, which prompted this review, made me determine that it's not.

The winery has added on numerous rooms for enjoying the establishment and its ambience, but none to accommodate families who are not part of the 59/month wine club when the weather is bad....

In those situations, you can either stay in the small, loud main tasting room (which only has a handful of tables with high bar-seating for four at each) or be sent out into the weather to enjoy the rain and cold under the porch or the facility's covered pavilion or grounds.

This past weekend, this is exactly what happened to me and my family who I brought in from out of town...after spending $150 on wine and a tasting.

Given the large area of seating which is visible from the road and lauds from locals with families, it never occurred to me that most of the facility would only be welcome to club members. Since it was slow at this time of day, we asked for a variance to sit inside. The wine stewardess who conducted our tasting was great from A to Z, and although she took our request to sit inside to her manager, she came back and politely informed us of the policy and thus her manager's decision to tells us, effectively, to go pound sand.

So my elderly parents, wife and 5 kids, wrapped ourselves as best we could to go enjoy the bottles of good wine we just bought out in the weather. Unfortunately, the quality Rappahannock worked so hard to produce in its wine was, with their level of hospitality, now given a cast that made it more difficult to enjoy and did not deserve.

Having worked in high end wine and food, I have seen the best and the worst, the snootiest and the humblest. The best in the industry work hard to welcome you, to seek to make room for you at the inn whenever the opportunity arises.

In this instance, it would not have been much of an accommodation to allow my family some un-utilized indoor space to drink our beverages and begone, especially if they were looking for some new club members and a glowing Google review.

I also later heard from my 15-year-old daughter that she was rudely scolded by a staff member not much older than herself for walking into an undesignated area with a well-behaved but inquisitive 4-year-old.

Reputation is a curious thing. I submit this review knowing that others have regularly had better experiences, but I am sad to report that mine have been repeatedly poor even when there is so...

My wife and I have been patrons since 2005, when we stumbled upon this place after a visit to Oasis. Back then, the owner used to do the tastings in person on the weekends. I was NEVER charged for a tasting, but I guess things are busier now. Happily, the winery has been tremendously successful, and has grown into what it is today. We joined the wine club a few years ago and have found tremendous value in our membership. This is a family run operation. The children (and there are many of them) work here, and you can meet them, talk to them, and in turn see their little children from time to time. As such, this operation is child friendly, and that's a good thing. People here are friendly. The atmosphere in the tasting room, and the member area is wonderful. There is nothing better than a view of the mountains (regardless of season), and a fine glass of wine. Their wine is OUTSTANDING. Key to their success in my opinion....they plant what works in Virginia. Cab and Merlot....tough to do well in Virginia, so guess what? They don't do it, or they acquire the fruit from a family vineyard in California (where it's not tough to do), and drive it across. The Cab Franc is outstanding. A perfect grape for Virginia. Problem is, there's not enough of it. Do yourself a favor and check this place out. My recommendation, do it during the week, so you really get a personalized experience. This place IS NOT a Barrel Oak, which is set up for the masses, tour buses, and limo circuit. It's a smaller winery, and capacity is what it is, but they've built it up from the original tasting room, which is now the general tasting room. Give this place a shot, and you won't be...

If you're looking for bluegrass bands and scenic overlooks and dog parks and picnic grounds, you can find better elsewhere. If you're looking for great wine at a fair price, this is the place to go. The challenge with VA wine is that it is usually reasonably priced and mediocre- to poor-tasting OR pleasant to drink but priced way too high. We've found very few drinkable $10-15 bottles and very few $25-35 bottles that could stand up to similarly priced west coast or European wines at the same price point. After tasting VA wines at dozens of wineries, Rappahannock Cellars is the shining exception to this rule. My wife joined the case club after tasting the first two reds, and case purchases make these excellent wines a very good buy. These are VERY good wines, period -- as opposed to being pretty good for VA wines. We'll keep searching but doubt that we'll find another winery with such consistently excellent wines at reasonable prices, and I know we'll keep going back to...