Kilaurwen Winery

Great experience!
My fiancée and I stopped by the winery and tasted some of their wines (they are open Friday, Saturday and Sunday). We fell in love with Kilaurwen 2014 Rosé! Their Three Sisters Red was delicious also. Didn’t get to try the Riesling. I bet it’s good too. Will have to go back there and taste that soon.
Overall an excellent experience. And it wasn’t hard to find the winery at all. My GPS took us straight to their main entrance. And the ride was gorgeous!

Hidden gem. We were really pleasantly surprised by their wines which were very good! They make some great, not sweet Rieslings. The couple that owns the property and produces the wine served us and we’re a delight. They have a very nice tasting room and several tables outside for picnics. Don’t miss this place!

Fabulous wines and good conversation. Unilocal’s directions did lead us right past the winery and took us up the road another mile or two to a cemetery and declared «Your destination is on the left.» Scary. Turns out that we’d passed the winery (on the right) some mile and a half back down the road (on the left now as you head back down from the cemetery).
We’d just come from a very large winery with very sweet wines (not my type at all!) and were happily surprised by the quality of both Kilaurwen’s reds and whites. We bought two bottles happily.

A small off-​the-​beaten-​path winery that delivers with high quality whites and reds (but especially the reds).
I have never said to myself «geez I regret driving out of the way to this winery.» For a little bit of the drive, I thought maybe this would be the first one as I drove 40 minutes around winding back roads with little to no cellphone reception. However, coming up on Kilaurwen’s gravel road to its modest tasting room, I had a feeling I made the correct choice. Surrounded by the Blue Ridge Mountains, Kilaurwen is a family operated winery that you may have only seen at local wine festivals. Upon approaching the tasting room, a man mowing the grass saw us, got off the tractor, and did the tasting for us — turned out it was the owner (gotta love these small places).
I was very happy with the quality and selection of wines here as well. With the VA Wine Pass my girlfriend and I got two complimentary tastings and two free wine glasses. Kilaurwen has an excellent selection of both whites and reds to try, including tasting Riesling from two different years (2012 and 2014). The standout from the whites was the Fiesta White, a very fruity wine with flavors of pineapple, peach, and citrus. The reds are where this place really shines in my opinion — the Rose went down smooth, the Three Sisters Red was bold with earthy flavors of wood and coffee, and the Fiesta Red was very smooth. The 2012 Cabernet Franc stole the show — it was one of the best I’ve ever tried, with a mix of vanilla and cherry that made the wine very smooth and not overloaded with a peppery taste. The tasting list is apt is describing the finish as «smokey.»
All in all, Kilaurwen was worth the drive and the getting lost coming back due to lack of cell phone service (just head south for a bit you’ll pick it up again). With a nice balance of whites and reds, and that extremely tasty Cabernet Franc, you won’t regret visiting.

A very small winery but well worth the visit. Stumbled upon this little gem and bought more wine here than all of the twenty other wineries I’ve visited in the area. Love the Fiesta Red and Riesling

Their tasting room may be new, but they’ve been growing grapes here since 1994 (selling to nearby spots like Stone Mountain and Afton Mountain), and making wine since 2009. The wines, like the location (rustic, quiet), are second to none. You will have to use a map to find this spot, but I’m beginning to prefer these locations vs. wineries with highway signs. We welcomed the lack of party buses and limos here. And the lack of a live band. The only sounds here came from the cicadas in the trees.
The tasting room seems rather stark; probably not the best spot for cold months. But plenty of outdoor seating in the garden, using trees for shade vs. unpredictable (during windy weather) umbrellas. The winemakers know what grows best in this soil — Cab Franc. They have three currently available. They are also perfecting a Riesling, which is not quite bone dry but as close to Finger Lakes-​esque dry Riesling as I’ve had in Virginia.
There is a path that goes through the trees to the sloping vineyards. A LOT of room to spread out in this picture perfect setting. Some improvements to the interior set up and Kilaurwen Winery (named after the three daughters of the owners) will be five stars for sure.