A couple realizes their dream of building a vineyard, and a home, far from the madding crowd.
Vintage Ridge Vineyards
Signs directing visitors to the tasting room and winery at Vintage Ridge.
Loft-like space outside the second-floor bedrooms provides relaxing reading nooks while still engaging with the great room below.
The tasting room at Vineyard Ridge is decorated with the same relaxed elegance as the Edmandses’ home.
The ample dining area blends seamlessly with the cozy great room.
Bill and Vicki Edmands.
The first-floor master suite is adjacent to an office and room-sized closet.
Oak barrels imported from France.
The tasting room and its outdoor areas accommodate up to 70 guests.
The cook’s kitchen looks onto the dining area.
The Edmandses’ home, winery and tasting room are situated to maximize harmony with the land.
The pool and surrounding patio and the home’s porches provide outdoor living space.
A covered slate porch overlooks magnificent views of rolling hills and meadows.
Guests enjoy the tasting room’s outdoor areas.
Grape trellises cover seven of the property’s 44 acres.
Fall color.
Tucked away off a winding road in historic Rectortown, just moments from the highways leading back to Washington, D.C., is Vintage Ridge Vineyards. Set back among gently rolling hills are acres of grape trellises in orderly rows, a charming residence surrounded by lush exterior plantings and a functioning winery and tasting room. And like the wine made here, the property and its many features reveal a complexity when you learn the stories behind them. At Vintage Ridge, there is a story behind everything.
Proprietors Vicki and Bill Edmands purchased the property in 1998 as an escape from busy lives in Washington, D.C. At the time, it consisted of an interesting but dated home, constructed by the previous owner from three barns he had transported from New Hampshire to Virginia and reconstructed on the property’s 44 acres.
But the Edmandses weren’t looking to idle their weekends away in the bucolic countryside; their dream was to build a vineyard. From scratch. And this was the perfect site.
“We were very interested in being part of the wine business,” says Vicki, explaining that travels to other wine regions throughout the world, including Uruguay and Argentina, were a big part of their inspiration. The couple also wanted to pursue a project together, merging expertise and talents from their careers—Bill, an electrical engineer and Vicki, who worked in her family’s manufacturing business.
The Edmandses took viticulture classes, studied the industry and talked to other vineyard owners. Then they began the hard work that oenophiles rarely witness, like how to use survey equipment to make straight lines for planting, and how to operate a “ditch witch” to create an irrigation system. “We pounded every post,” says Vicki of the trellises covering seven acres.
At the beginning, the Edmandses had no intention of building a winery and tasting room, but they soon found that simply growing and selling grapes was not fulfilling. “To see our grapes go out that driveway … it was like watching our baby leave,” laughs Vicki. So, in true Edmands fashion, they mastered the process of taking grapes from vine to wine.
Today, Vintage Ridge Vineyard produces seven different handcrafted wines from the 28 tons of grapes grown here each year, including cabernet Franc, syrah and petite verdot. Until recently, Vintage Ridge wines were distributed only through the tasting room; now they’re available at some local restaurants and wine shops, including Forlano’s in The Plains.
The Edmandses would find that their growing business required them to live at the vineyard full time, but they felt they needed to recast the home from a weekend retreat to one that would accommodate their work-hard/play-hard lifestyle.
It was a labor of love, with long, busy days topped off by big, farm-table meals with their grown children and grandchildren, friends and vineyard employees. While they needed more space and plenty of updates, they wanted to maintain the rustic charm that made the home so unique.
Though they came close to abandoning the idea due to the challenges that come with transforming a rustic barn into a luxe home, they found the just-right combination of expertise to make it happen: Middleburg architect Tim Clites and Mike Orndorff and his team at Ilex Construction.
Designer and artist Meredith Brooks of Baltimore was also key in creating the home’s warm, inviting ambience. Wall colors throughout are rich and welcoming, punctuated with elements of interest like medallion stencils and warm washes. Brooks and Vicki, kindred spirits in personality, taste and energy, completed much of the finish work together, including painting the two-story great room.
“We put up scaffolding, and Bill handed up plank after plank as we painted our way around the space,” says Vicki with a laugh.
Custom window treatments in every room—from lush panels in the great room to tailored valances in stylish, but timeless fabrics in the master bath—add warmth and interest without detracting from the spectacular views from every window.
Post and beam construction paired with hardwood floors—some of reclaimed Southern yellow pine—evoke simpler times of life in the country, while providing all the comforts and accommodations of modern-day living. A cook’s kitchen overlooks a generous dining area, which leads to the great room where comfortable sofas and chairs frame the fireplace. A room off the kitchen serves as a butler’s pantry, mud room and laundry, with custom cabinetry providing ample storage space.
On the other end of the house is a master suite featuring a full bath with marble countertops and heated limestone floors, and Vicki’s office, a glassed-in solarium of sorts where the couple’s dogs like to relax. There is also a room-sized closet with built-ins and a granite-topped island, recessed lighting and a petite chandelier.
Stairs wind up to the second floor where two bedrooms each have full baths and their own seating area. In the renovation, the Edmandses decided to open the common space on this floor to look out onto the great room below to give it a loft-like feel, joining the spaces while still providing many nooks and crannies for books and objets.
Outdoor living space is equally important to the Edmandses. Three porches run along the back of the house: a large screened-in porch for hosting big meals; a covered porch for relaxing and admiring the beautiful vistas; and, off the first floor master suite, a smaller private porch where the couple enjoys morning coffee. There is also a balcony off one of the upstairs bedrooms that opens onto the screened porch below where guests can enjoy evening breezes without the irritation of bugs.
Other exterior features include an in-ground swimming pool, clay tennis courts, extensive hardscaping and a bountiful vegetable garden with mature plantings—from majestic crabapple trees to abundant perennial gardens.
For the 10 months it took to renovate Vintage Ridge in 2006, the Edmandses lived in a small cabin (c. 1850) near the property’s entrance. Originally a blacksmith’s cabin, the structure is a piece of local evidence that helped Rectortown earn its designation as a Rural Historic Village, part of the National Register of Historic Places.
Today the cabin features a kitchen, living room, bedroom and full bath, all while maintaining the historical charm of a true log cabin.
History buffs will also be interested to know that this area was said to be part of General Mosby’s encampment during the Civil War. Today, the Edmandses use this renovated treasure as a guest house.
Just steps away from the main residence is the entrance to the winery and tasting room—appearing at first as a tidy outbuilding, perhaps a three-car garage styled and painted the same fresh barn-red as the home. Situated on a slope, however, the building actually encompasses space vast enough to accommodate a fully functioning winery and elegant and spacious tasting room on the lower level. It was completed by King Construction, a company well-known for building top-quality horse barns.
Brooks’ talent is on display in the tasting room as well. Wide horizontal stripes painted in buttery tones decorate walls adorned with oversized art, featuring whimsical scenes of festooned horses and the family dogs dressed as court jesters. Handpainted wooden banners and signs celebrate the wine culture with literary quotes and expressions. Stainless steel tanks, custom-made by Speidel in Germany, create a look of industrial chic. Vicki says that she has had to explain on occasion that yes, indeed, the tanks are functional—not props. Even the drain that runs the length of the floor is beautiful; when not in use during the winemaking process, it is camouflaged with a handpainted harlequin-patterned drain cover.
On weekends, Vintage Ridge is bustling with visitors inside and out, new and returning, coming to enjoy wine, live music, snacks and good company. Up to 65 visitors can enjoy the tasting room at once, and the adjacent patio accommodates up to 70.
One of the best things about operating a tasting room, according to the Edmandses, is the opportunity to build relationships with customers. “Most people who come to a winery are in a good mood,” says Bill.
“We have loved living the whole vineyard lifestyle,” says Vicki. But now, say the Edmandses, it is time to move on to the next chapter, and pass on this well-established legacy.
And now is the perfect time to get into the wine industry in Virginia. The area where Vintage Ridge is located was recently recognized as the Middleburg Virginia American Viticultural Area, making it Virginia’s newest AVA—an appellation bestowed by the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau to wine-producing regions with distinct geographical features.
This designation, registered with the government in September 2012, has increased local and national media attention and attracted even more interest to the area.
After building a successful business and beautiful home, will the next chapter for this motivated couple call for learning a new skill, mastering a new piece of equipment, conquering a new land? We will just have to wait to hear the next story.
Vintage Ridge Winery is for sale for $3,750,000 through TTR Sotheby’s International Realty in Washington, D.C. For more information, please call (703) 863-0077, or visit SothebysRealty.com
This article originally appeared in our June 2013 issue.
