Flying Fox Vineyard

Split between two cellars

Emily Pelton tastes for structure as winemaker at Flying Fox Vineyard in Afton, holding Cabernet Franc, Merlot, Petit Verdot, Pinot Gris, Viognier, Vidal Blanc and Malbec inside the same working vocabulary. Her training at Virginia Tech gave her the technical base for cellar decisions that need to repeat cleanly, even when the bottlings move across red, white, rosé, orange and fortified lines. Since 2001, Pelton has made wine at Veritas Vineyard and Winery. Since 2018, she has also carried co-ownership and winemaking at Flying Fox, a smaller Afton address in the Monticello AVA. That split matters here. Flying Fox does not read as a side note to a larger estate program; it gives Pelton a narrower room for choices that can feel less fixed, including bourbon barrel-aged Cabernet Franc, orange wine, and seasonal vermouth. The lineage that can be named is practical rather than ceremonial: Virginia Tech, time in the cellar at Veritas, and the work of shaping a small winery where the maker can test range without losing the discipline of blend.

Cabernet Franc beside vermouth

The program at Flying Fox moves through Virginia varieties with a hand on structure rather than category. Cabernet Franc sits close to Merlot, Petit Verdot and Malbec; Pinot Gris, Viognier and Vidal Blanc carry the white side of the bench. The house also works beyond still wine, with fortified bottlings and orange wine in the frame. Pelton’s named releases give the clearest measure of that spread: Fall Sweet Vermouth No. 18.03, Winter Sweet Vermouth No. 18.04, Spring Sweet Vermouth No. 19.01, Trio 2015, and Rose 2018. Those names are useful because they show a cellar willing to number a season, not just label a style. Flying Fox is small in scale and conventional in production philosophy, with the craft emphasis on selection, blending and the decision to place familiar Virginia fruit in less expected vessels. Bourbon barrel-aged Cabernet Franc is not a neutral choice. It asks the fruit to hold its line against wood that brings its own memory.

Leather, firelight, and the tasting room

The tasting room keeps the work close to the body. Leather sofas, a fireplace, taxidermy and modern decor give the room a lounge and industrial register rather than a polished estate hush. It is intimate, quiet, and a little whimsical, with indoor seating, a patio, and vineyards nearby in the Monticello AVA. Flights carry the wines to the counter without turning the place into a classroom. The room’s scale helps the more experimental parts of the program land plainly: a glass of orange wine, a fortified pour, a Cabernet Franc marked by bourbon barrel, all served in a space that feels built for lingering rather than spectacle. Pelton’s next work here is best read through the bottles that keep the seasonal method visible, especially Spring Sweet Vermouth No. 19.01.