Bozzo is owned by a ‘retired’ lawyer who loves wine. I say ‘retired’ in quotes because wineries are labor intensive businesses to manage, so he must be a true workaholic to want to do this in retirement!

I visited on their opening day, and it was packed! But having a lot of people waiting in anticipation of your opening day must be a good thing. I actually found them by accident a year ago, and had been on their mailing list since then.

The tasting room is small-ish, at least compared to some other wineries nearby. But that’s not a bad thing at all. The place was still new-ish but everything was running smoothly.

Unlike some newer wineries, Bozzo invested heavily in their wine production before they opened up – they were already on their 2nd or 3rd vintage (depending on the grape) of several wines, all from locally sourced fruit. But their 9 acres should soon yield enough fruit for them to produce 100% estate wine.

They had 5 wines for their tasting, all named for family members. What I tried:

Louise (Petit Manseng): Made in a dry style, although the grape’s natural sweetness still shone through.

Murph (Chardonnay): Made in steel. Very clean, some citrus. Great hot weather wine that I enjoyed a lot.

La Famigila (Merlot heavy red blend): Favorite of the lineup. Plumb notes came out nicely. At $25 this is a steal.

Anthony (Cab Sauv): Only one I wasn’t in love with, although to be fair I seldom find VA Cabs that I really like.

2nd Act (Cab Sauv heavy red blend): Another winner. Incredibly long finish. Snagged a gold at the Virginia Governor’s Cup competition this past year – which says a lot for the owner, who got gold his first try!