Enjoy the rich history of Virginia and the rich taste of the Virginia wines at TWABR

Seldom does one finds a place where one can sit and relax with serene nature all around him and the noise of just the air brushing past the leaves on the trees. And if amidst such a setting one can get some great wine to taste or savor then nothing can beat the experience. Well if you had been looking forward to spend some time at such a place then The Winery at Bull Run (TWABR) would be your ideal choice. It is at this place that you would find the surroundings that are filled with the aroma of the times long gone by and the times that you really long to revisit. The place has an ambiance of the mid 19^th century Virginia and is close to the 5,000 acres of historic Manassas National Battlefield Park where one of the historic battle was fought during the times of the civil war.

It is at this place that you would be introduced to some fine wine tastings of the delectable Virginia wines with a glimpse of rich Virginia heritage with wine making techniques from the Civil War Era, historical buildings & artifacts. If you are planning an outdoor wedding in Virginiaand are on a look out for a place that would offer you the most serene surroundings, vast open space along with some good music, food and of course wine then TWABR is the best option for you. The winery is available for such events and in fact is the most suitable place if you are a lover of the outdoors and love American history. 

 

The winery is owned by the Hickox family who have worked tremendously hard to make sure that every bit of the Virginia history and the richness of the Virginia Wine are synergized together to give the guests a time of their lives. No doubt their hard-work has paid and now the winery is a great success. There are some real gem of the people working here dedicated to the specific functions at the winery. As far as events such as the marriages are concerned the people who have already enjoyed the hospitality of the winery have only great things to say about it.

A blend of history, splendid wines and the great outdoors all make the TWABR one of the best places to organize your outdoor wedding in Virginia. It is the closest winery to the Washington DC and has all the trappings that one can expect from great outdoors and exquisite vineyards. Organizing a wedding at TWABR would be one of the finest things that you would be doing in your life. Each and every detail of the event would be taken care of and no doubt it would be the best wedding that you have organized or attended in your life time.

A Striking Winery in Va that offers Prize Winning Wines and Great Memories

Spend an Enjoyable Day 

To spend an enjoyable day all one needs to do is to drive less than 30 min from Washington DC and just 2 miles off Route 66. You will reach an exquisite winery in Va where you can savor some of the finest prize winning wines and go back with great memories. This is no ordinary winery. The Winery at Bull Run will take you back in time because of its authentic 1860s setting although today it is a scenic, working farm vineyard. What makes the winery charming is that it is conveniently located right next to 5000 countryside acres of the very historic Manassas National Battlefield Park. The area is breathtakingly beautiful and provides the visitor with an impressive panorama of a preserved 19th century farmland. It is here that you will enjoy wine tasting sessions of some of the finest Virginia wines even as you view the rich Virginia heritage with the winemaking techniques from the Civil War era as well as well-preserved historical buildings and rare artifacts. 

Taste Prize-winning Wines 

At the amazing winery in Va one can taste some fine wines from the winery’s growing collection. In the wine listings one will find award winning wines that include gold medal winners such as 2012 Chardonnay that was also adjudged the best of category at the 2014 Tenth Atlantic Seaboard Wine Association Wine Competition. There are several other award winners too and these include the 2012 Petit Verdot, 2012 Delaney, 2012 Cabernet Franc and 2013 Petit Manseng. The 2012 Cabernet Sauvignon was selected Gold Medal Winner in 2014 while the 2012 Lilly’s Viognier won the Gold Medal the same year in another wine competition. If you wish to enjoy sipping these excellent wines at exclusive rates, you can do so by joining the General’s Club which will also give you a VIP Status. 

Great Location as a Venue 

The winery in Va is also a great location as a venue for weddings, parties and meetings besides reunions, anniversaries, birthdays and graduations as well as fundraisers, seminars, client hospitality and product launches. If you want to celebrate a wedding, this is the perfect venue full of Virginian charm and country splendor for wedding showers, bridesmaid parties, bachelor parties and rehearsal parties. The wines are splendid while the winery is one of the most enchanting venues in Northern Virginia. What makes the winery special is that it is co-located with the Manassas National Battlefield Park. It is here that two of the bloodiest battles of the American Civil War were fought. Visitors can explore these hallowed grounds where men of valor fought and died more than a century ago. Today the park has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

The Season of Celebrations Approaching Near ! Enjoy This Christmas at TWABR

Historians note the fact that several traditions related to the season of joy & happiness initiated around the Civil war era. A simple reason cited for this is that people wanted their spirits lifted and at such a time of doubt and uncertainty, Americans got a valid reason to celebrate in the form of Christmas. A number of our customs like festive foods, Christmas cards, Christmas trees and caroling date back to earlier 1850s. Its from this period only that we got many of the songs we sing on Christmas at present like "Oh Come All Ye Faithful," "Deck the Halls," and "Hark the Herald Angels Sing and "Jingle Bells". 

It was during the Civil War that families set a vacant place at the dinner table for their family members who could not attend the Christmas dinner. Nowadays, same tradition is followed in military families to honor their family members who are away for the cause of serving the nation. From the bottom of our heart, we would like to salute these brave men & women who have sacrificed a lot to protect our freedom. In the year 1862, a Christmas dinner was hosted by Stonewall Jackson celebrating his last Christmas at his winter quarters. Robert E. Lee was one of the attendees at this Christmas dinner.

Later, Lee sent a letter to his beloved life following the Battle of Fredericksburg. In this letter, Lee describes war as a cruel thing that separates & destroys friends & families and takes away joy & happiness. He also prays to God on Christmas to fill better thoughts in the hearts of their nation's enemies so that they turn towards peace rather than taking the path of devastation. It was also during the 1800s that drinking mulled wine became popular as a tradition. Charles Dickens has the credit of making this drink popular as he mentioned about it in his creation "A Christmas Carol". 

When you visit TWABR, you will get to relish our version of Mulled wine. Most recipes of mulled wine include use of a red wine along with brandy or port, citrus fruits and spices like ginger, nutmeg, cloves and cinnamon. Honey or sugar is added normally to increase the sweet taste. For our version of Mulled wine, we use Merlot. We hope that you will visit us this Christmas to relish our tasty mulled wine. Our Virginia winery will serve as the perfect place to offer you the ideal refreshment and joy with your family & friends.

Reasons for Bringing the Nice New Look for TWABR

Yes, its true that we listen to what our loving fans & followers say about us. It was on account of several reasons that we decided to bring in some reconfigurations in our property. Firstly, we reconfigured our Adults 21+ section. After completing the process, we swapped this section with our Adults & Children section. We had to go for this as unattended children running into our driveway were at potential danger of getting injured; also this was moreover becoming a reason of worry for their parents who would try to keep an eye over their child but would forget later on account of being too busy. 

Unattended children would also climb with utter joy on our historical ruins, not knowing that it could cost them some serious injury in case they fell. Another reason behind the re-configuration was the limited amount of lawn space available in the Adults with Children area. This available lawn space would reduce more at the time when there were wedding ceremonies on Hillwood. Pretty much decided on the areas where the change was actually required, we built a new outdoor bar. Built almost to perfection, this outdoor bar features restrooms, thus eliminating the need for one to go outside to find a restroom or bar. Most importantly, this bar plays a crucial role in splitting the Adults 21+ section from the Adults with Children section. 

Overall, the major modification was the swapping of the Adults 20+ section to the property's front, at the exterior of the main patio, and placement of the Adults with Children section to the property's back portion that was at the back side of the General's Club Deck. This new configuration gave us the opportunity & space to make Civil War era winter cabins, where children will feel free to play at will. With all these modifications going along, we are now capable of using the extra lawn space on the property without confining the children and also allowing adults to have the grand view without experiencing any trouble. In addition to these modifications, we added 30 more picnic tables to our existing inventory.

So, the next time you visit our winery with your friends or family, do explore our new layout. We hope these modifications will add to your experience at the winery. During your visit, you can also enjoy the interesting vineyard tours in Virginia while relishing the best of VA wines.

A Flashback of the First-ever Bluebell Music Festival Held at TWABR

It was on May 18 when the first-ever Bluebell festival was organized at The Winery at Bull Run. It was quite a cool weather due to few rain showers that day. Amazing food & wine, entertaining music and a lot more was arranged for the visitors who took out some time to raise funds & awareness for three local charities - Manassas Battlefield Trust, Final Salute Inc., and NPLB Operation Second Chance. TWABR's owner Jon Hickox said at the occasion that he holds a special affinity for these charity groups as these have strong bondage to the battlefield and veteran's aid.

As per Hickox " I had made a pledge that I would organize a fundraising event for the purpose of benefiting three local charities before TWABR celebrated its one-year anniversary. Two causes that I specifically wanted to support were the Manassas Battlefield and local veteran's support". Besides Hickox, there were other prominent people also present at the occasion, one of them being Robert Bartlett, representing NPLB Operation Second Chance. Robert spoke openly about the efforts their charity group puts up for the rehabilitation of veterans returning from Afghanistan and Iraq. “Our noble charity aids the injured service members recover by engaging them in activities like fishing, hunting etc.,” as per Robert Bartlett. 

 

Another charity group benefiting from the event was Final Salute Inc., that helps the women veterans who don't have any home in D.C by providing them transitional housing, rent & utility assistance. As per Gail Paige, the executive director of Final Salute Inc., “Though there was a cold rain here, yet this event was a grand success. We feel immensely proud to be benefiting from the first Bluebell Music Festival, and we look positively to attend it next year too”.

Plenty of entertainment was on offer to the visitors with performances from jazz band Sonyx; R&B and pop singer Andrea Pais; Indie folk rock group “The Dreamscapes Project” and cover band Livin' the Dream. Delicious food was served by Purple Onion, Amphora and Bad to the Bone. Colonial Remodeling & Restoration, PrintFalcon.com, John Marshall Bank, Meant 2 Live Foundation, IMPACT Marketing & Events were some of the other sponsors that made the event turn out to be a huge success.

We celebrate such events and wine festivals from time to time. All you need to do is to visit our winery. You can visit our winery to take a tour of the best Virginia vineyards while sipping exotic VA wines served in beautiful glasses.

Understanding the Process Involved in Making Tasty Wines at TWABR

The winemaking process has been in existence since quite a long time. A lot of people may consider that there may have been huge advancements in the process with the passage of time. However, the truth is that the basic process has remained the same except that few modifications have come in it over the centuries. It was in the early 1600s that Virginia's first settlers made attempt to cultivate grapes. At The Winery at Bull Run, we don't follow the conventional approach to grape cultivation. 

At the initial stage of the process, we de-stem the grapes with help of a de-stemmer machine. Further, the grapes are crushed properly in our clean wine cellar. With stems removed, the fruit is kept in big size T bins to allow initiation of the fermentation process. During the fermentation process, several changes occur in the structure of the fruit. Within a few weeks time, the fruit skin as well as its seeds get separated and fall to the bottom. 

After that, we clarify the wine in a large capacity stainless steel tank and finally move the filtered wine into French Oak barrels. The wine remains in the barrel for about a year and during this period it ages considerably. When the aging process is over, we transfer the wine into suitable bottles. It simply means that the grapes harvested this year will only be made available next year for tasting. We use Merlot and Norton grapes for winemaking; lets know more about these varieties in detail. 

Merlot features a dark blue color and finds use for varietal wines. Typically medium-bodied, Merlot based wines have hints of berry, currant and plum. This excellent grape variety is quite soft and has tendency to ripe early. Its owing to this softness and early ripening ability that Merlot is extensively used for effective blending with Cabernet Sauvignon. 

Cultivated in Richmond for the first time, Norton got its name from Dr. Daniel Norton, the person credited with the development of this brilliant grape variety. Features that make Norton a hot favorite for winemaking include its blue-purple color and red color juice. At TWABR, you will find our Norton to be a rich, robust wine that is prepared to impress. Besides Norton, you will find a lot of other wines to taste when you come and visit our winery. TWABR is a great winery to relish tasty wines besides being one of the prominent wedding reception venues in Virginia. So, come and have a great time at TWABR.

At TWABR, We Do Take Care of Our Fans & Followers

The Winery at Bull Run is not just about tasty & delicious Virginia wines but also about caring for the people who admire and love us. It has been the main reason why we went for re-configuring our Adults 21+ section, swapping it with the Adults and Children section. Visitors to our winery were quite nervous seeing their cute little children running into our driveway as there was high probability of a tragedy happening in such a case. Children would also climb on our historical ruins, thereby increasing the chances of falling and getting injured. 

Also, the size of lawn in the Adults and Children section was not enough, especially on the days when there were wedding ceremonies organized on Hillwood. Working on the modifications, we built a new outdoor bar with facility for restrooms. The bar will effectively split the Adults and Children section from the Adults 21+ one. Hence, there will also be no further requirement to go to a distant place to find a restroom or bar. By doing this, we have also got the space for building Civil War era winter cabins where children will have the absolute liberty to play with ease. We also added 30 picnic tables to expand our current inventory size. You can visit our winery to take a look at the modifications while enjoying our tasty wine.