If there was a prize for great neighborhoods to open a winery, Capstone Vineyards would be in the finalist round. With Crimson Lane Vineyards literally next door and Linden Vineyards down the road, the town of Linden has become a wine tourism mecca.

These wineries all recognized something crucial; these hills have great soil. Capstone’s new owner Theo Smith put it this way; “With dirt like this, making wine is easy. All I have to do is not screw it up.”

Capstone opened in February 2019, although founders Dave Adams and Andrea Baer preferred to stay under-the-radar. That was by design; they only made a small batch of wine from their 2015 and 2016 vintages (produced by Jim Law at Linden Vineyards, no less) and sold all subsequent harvests to Early Mountain Vineyards (EMV). Dave and Adrea only accepted visitors by appointment, slowly selling their remaining stock but not making more.

EMV used Capstone’s fruit to produce a series of vineyard-specific bottles. This is high praise; EMV knew this was a quality vineyard, and these ‘Capstone’ wines were usually gone after their wine club took its share.

Eventually Dave and Andrea decided to move on. EMV was interested in purchasing the vineyard, but the owners decided to go with Theo as they liked the idea of helping a young vintner get his start. Capstone changed hands in December 2022.

The first thing that visitors experience is a long, steep driveway to the small tasting room which overlooks the vineyard. The vines are south facing, which maximizes sun exposure. The steep slope tops out 1500 feet, so it has excellent drainage. Right now, they have 12 acres of mostly Bordeaux varietals planted (with room to expand), plus some rows of Roussanne, Chenin and Muscat Ottonel.

The tasting room is tiny, but some improvements have been made. One of Theo’s first moves was to install a new deck and put some tables outside. Now it’s a lot easier to take in the fantastic view, which includes a look at Avenius vineyard just a few hills over. Theo expects to eventually build a new tasting room further up the hill, but a wine production facility takes priority.

Theo greeted me and poured a glass of sparkling before running off to take care of another customer. Eventually things settled down enough to take me through a tasting, where I was able to pepper him with questions. Turns out that he’s from Nova Scotia and originally had a job in the cancer research field. But Theo wasn’t so keen on office life and eventually made his way into winemaking.

Local winelovers may recognize his name; until very recently Theo was the winemaker at nearby Rappahannock Cellars for over a decade. Theo described his time there as a fantastic learning experience, overseeing its transition from a 6,000 case/year facility to one making over 30,000 cases/year (plus adding a sparkling program).

But being a winemaker is one thing; becoming an owner seemed the natural evolution. So when Capstone became available, he jumped at the opportunity.

Right now Capstone only serves 4 wines; two of the original 2016-vintage red blends (one Cabernet Franc-heavy, the other Merlot-heavy), a sparkling he made from Monticello fruit, and a still-unlabeled Chenin-Chardonnay blend.

Of the lineup my favorite was the Chenin blend, which had a delicious creaminess to it. The runner up would be either the 2016 Fielder’s Choice or sparkling.

As 2023 will be his first vintage using Capstone fruit, it will likely take a while for Theo to make his own estate wine. But the Chenin blend was promising, and I’m hopeful Capstone will have some great whites coming out in another year.

Theo seemed especially psyched about his future sparklings. Rappahannock had a great sparkling program and he learned directly from Claude Thibault. With a background like that, things seemed really promising.

Right now Theo is running the entire tasting room by himself, so things were a little hectic. But he knows he has a great location, so he’ll get more help as the word gets out.

* This is an update to my January 2020 blog on the same location, but with the previous owners.