John Kiers

Coming Up

At Ox-Eye Vineyards in Shenandoah Valley, Virginia from 1999, the grape grower’s work gave John Kiers a ground-level education in site, fruit, and season. That early stretch set the terms for the rest of the operation: quality was first measured in the vineyard, before anything reached the cellar. By the time he became winemaker at Ox-Eye Vineyards in Staunton, Virginia from 2010, the frame of the work had widened from cultivation to conversion. The move from field to cellar did not replace the grower’s eye; it carried it forward, keeping the same attention on fruit quality, timing, and the slower decisions that shape wine. Since 1996, the owner & operator role at Ox-Eye Vineyards has required the long view that comes with continuity. In John Kiers’s hands, that means reading the site over years, not weeks, and making choices with the vineyard’s rhythm in mind.

Where They Are Now

At Ox-Eye Vineyards in Staunton, Virginia, United States, the owner-and-winemaker role keeps vineyard work at the center of the house style. John Kiers’s stated view that good wine starts in the vineyard is less slogan than operating rule, and it places the burden of quality where the crop first forms. That approach keeps the craft rooted in the field before fermentation enters the picture. For Kiers, the raw material matters first: the texture of the fruit, the condition of the vines, and the care given to them in season.

Signature

The signature wines attached to John Kiers show a range built from the same underlying discipline. NV Daily Bubbles, 2022 Riesling, 2024 Shy Ox, 2022 Lemberger, and 2022 Cabernet Franc each sit inside a method that ties vineyard work to cellar work, rather than treating them as separate crafts. Taken together, those wines point to breadth without breaking the throughline. NV Daily Bubbles sits alongside the varietal focus of 2022 Riesling, 2024 Shy Ox, 2022 Lemberger, and 2022 Cabernet Franc, and the set reflects a winemaking voice shaped by the same long attention to fruit and site that has marked Kiers’s career.

In Their Words “His ideology is that good wine starts in the vineyard.” “I had no intention of making wine when we started. We didn’t build the winery until 2009 and 2010. The genesis of why I got into it was to sell fruit and grow grapes.”