Belle Mount Winery

Ray and Catherine Petrie of  Belle Mount Wineries honored the club with their presentation about the wines produced here in the Northern Neck less than 10 miles from Tappahannock. Belle Mount Vineyards was founded in 2002 and was initially an effort to make better use of the topographically challenged land on the estate originally known as Belle Mount is the "Beautiful Hill" overlooking the Rappahannock River and Cat Point Creek.

Since modest beginnings with the planting of a few hundred vines the current vineyards have over eight acres of vines, Belle Mount has blossomed into a small, super-premium winery that focuses on small lots of handcrafted, vineyard-designated varietals. The tasting room and gift shop opened in 2005 and current harvest levels range between 1,000 to 3,000 annual cases depending on the vintage. The focus at the winery is devoted to the production of high quality varietals beginning in the vineyards with careful, attentive management to achieve mouth-watering, truly physiologically ripe fruit and continuing in the cellar with small lots, minimal handling, and slow fermentation to express the flavor potential of each grape variety.

Over the next several years, Belle Mount intends to maintain production levels at 1,000-3,000 annual cases, the bulk of which will be sold at the winery and a few select wine shops within Virginia. From left to right: John Gregory, Ray and Catherine Petrie, Norman Wood, President - photo by Bill Croxton and Bob Jump.