Cardamon Family Vineyards

Wonderful place. Very friendly owners. They treat everyone like family and love to talk about their love of wine and life in general. Great picnic spot.

Stopped by here after calling ahead to ask if the Vineyard could accommodate a Bachelorette Party of 9 ladies. Arrived only to have the owner come in and extensively discuss why he hates hosting Bachelorette functions. Well, nice to meet you too, sir. We had our tasting — didn’t enjoy a single wine and left quietly. There are so many other places in within a 10-​minute drive that have better wine and are nicer to their customers.

The owner, Chuck, was so fun to talk with and a great host, loved every single wine. Lots of white wines here, as this is a young winery, and Chuck doesn’t want to serve the Reds too soon. We loved the pairing of salsas with wines! Chuck makes all the salsas himself, and even has a cookbook for sale, in which some of the proceeds go to a non-​profit. Certainly a VA gem, and would highly recommend for a great and unique experience. Very Fairly priced at five dollars for a full tasting.

Like drinking wine in your own driveway. No way Jose. Too many decent places around, go somewhere else.

SALSA and Wine??? A wonderful combo. Chuck and Ana do a great job at both! They’re working on their tasting room right now and we will for sure be back! They mentioned having wine tastings dinners when it’s up and running and we definitely want to attend. This husband and wife team are obviously doing what they love to do. Chuck is a retired Navy Seal who later went to culinary school and has now added wine making to his skill set. Ana walked us through our tasting while telling us the story of their family business and introducing us to three different salsas that we just couldn’t leave without. We’ll revisit this review once the tasting room is up and running and can’t wait to give them the extra star!

A great find that we had previously driven by. The place is small, but what it loses out on by size, it more than makes up for in character!
Chuck is a great character, humorous & welcoming. The wines that he personally makes, can rival any other. That fact that he pairs them with his home made salsa is unusual, but shows how wines interact with food. Better than chocolate & cheeses. You can buy these salsas either along with his fine wines or just to eat with chips.
Also he has dogs on site that you are free to pet. Any business that has a dog on site gets a plus from me.

Some of the nicest people you will meet if you are out wine tasting. They spent so much time telling us about the wine and everything. They pair each wine with a salsa that they make and they were all amazing. I look forward to the tasting room opening up soon and it sounds like they have some great things ahead. This is one of my favorite wineries now in Loudoun, not just based on the wine, but on the overall experience of visiting with them.

Saving one star for the new tasting room. I suspect, based on my experience here, it will be an easy upgrade to five stars. As others have indicated, the tasting here is more personable, educational, and pure Virginia than a few other huge, events-​driven, impersonal and commercial wineries in the county. Luckily, with the openings of Cardamon, Maggie Malick’s Wine Caves and Two Twisted Posts (all three wineries are about ½ mile from one another), more intimate places are opening where you have great opportunites to talk to the owners/​winemakers themselves.
Chuck is proud of his salas and equally proud of his wines. Currently he offers an Rkatsiteli (another northern VA winery now offering this unusual varietel — nearby North Gate now has one, and Horton still has his «Rkats,» which you can actually buy at Total Wine), a slightly oaked chardonnay (not overpowering oak), a Meritage-​like blend of Merlot, Syrah and Cab Franc, and a crisp, totally dry apple wine. All three are dry, and he also acquired several cases of wine from the sadly defunct Above Ground winery, including an off-​sweet table red. He matches the wines with his salsas, and although I’m not a huge fan of salsa, I have to say that the salsas introduced notes you don’t sense on the first pouring (the method here, similar to the wine and cheese tasting process at Fox Meadow: Take one sip, eat the salsa and cracker, and take another sip to see how the salsa changes the taste of the wine).
Like Two Twisted Posts, the tastings are currently being offered in a tent near the driveway. The location is very close to the road (route 9), but far enough up an incline that the road isn’t a distraction. It was a picture perfect day when I visited but the bugs were out in full force (they love low humidity summer days as much as humans). Not the fault of the winery, of course. There are picnic tables set up between the rows of vineyards. This is an excellent northern Loudoun County spot that should please all palates.

This place is not getting a 5… Yet. Their tasting room was not finished yet when I went early June. Had a lovely time chatting with the owners. Pairings went with amazing, perfectly paired homemade salsas.
We were the only customers so they had the time to tell us all about their history, knowledge of wine making, their family and how they incorporated all that into even the labels names, and on and on :)
Brought home a vino di melli and a my shells along with 2 salsas.
Can’t wait to go back for their grand opening with street tacos, honey mead (!), and more wines!

My husband and I visited Cardamon on a recommendation while at another winery. What a treat to get to talk to the owner and winemaker himself! Chuck and Ana were extremely personable, friendly and interesting. They run the whole winemaking business from their home and are building a tasting room that they said will open in the summer.
We tasted four different whites which are each named for their children. Hearing the stories and explanations of each wine was amazing! Chuck also makes a salsa to go along with each wine that you can buy if you like. We really enjoyed the RKATZ wine and ended up with a bottle of it.
If you are used to going to some of the larger wineries in Loudon County, you should treat yourself to this quaint and educational experience at Cardamon!

I have known Chuck for over 15 years. He is a retired Navy SEAL, a father of four, an entrepreneur, a handyman, an expert hunter, and an all around great guy. He moved out here about five years ago and the improvements to his place and the projects he has done are incredible. He started the winery from scratch, planted his own grapes (as well as other fruit trees), and presses his own wine. He is takes his business seriously, but it is his passion and the love for wine that drives him to the perfection you will experience in his cozy winery.
When you come to the Cardamon Family Vineyards, you will experience not only wonderful wines, but you will get an education in wine making and how he does his masterful work. He additionally pairs his wines with different homemade salsas that he makes from scratch (and are for sale). They are from a cookbook he sells that he developed over the years. You will experience how food and wine complement each other and learn how your palate experiences the subtle changes when the two come together.
You get to meet and interact with the owner, wine maker, and culinary expert (yes, he is a chef too). You can pick his brain and learn as much as you can handle. The winery makes small batches, so if you like a wine, get a case. While other wineries might have lots of selections, the choices you get from the Cardamon Family Vineyards are hand made with love and expertise. You’ll see some fun names on the batches… usually after a child or grandkid… and you will be treated like a longtime friend.
Do yourself a favor and give them a try. You will be happy you did!