Update 10/3/20: We recently spent another few weeks in northern Virginia, so decided to return to 8 Chains North Winery. We’ve therefore updated that section below with more information about what the experience is like during COVID-times (spoiler alert – it’s still great!)
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When looking in the D.C. area for a dog-friendly brewery or winery to visit, I stumbled across Waterford, VA and 8 Chains North Winery.
We made our way to both on the final day we were in the D.C. area and we weren’t disappointed.
Waterford, VA
We started by visiting the town of Waterford, VA and were concerned that maybe we’d made a mistake. But once we parked and walked around, we saw more and more what makes Waterford special.
The town is a historic landmark because of its collection of historic buildings. We started at the Mill and made our way up the street and back.
Because Waterford was founded by Quakers, there’s even more to its history than meets the eye. We came across a church – John Wesley Church – that seemed like it must be important or have some sort of significance. I looked it up and came across this fascinating article about the history of Waterford, John Wesley Church and African Americans. I highly recommend you take a minute to read about this community’s experience when division was the way of the land.
It was time to head to the winery and I was so disappointed after reading the article that I hadn’t seen the historic African-American school. Almost as soon as I said that to Stephen we drove by the school! Second Street School has a driveway, so we pulled in to have a look. It was closed, but I was able to get some great pictures of the inside.
8 Chains North Winery
We arrived for our tasting and found out that there was a Thanksgiving pie and wine pairing happening, so Stephen splurged and got the pairing for $5 extra. The tasting was wonderful, our server was lovely and there was live music to go with the relaxed holiday vibe.
That wasn’t the best part of the winery though. Like some other wineries we’ve been to, they were incredibly dog-friendly. Truffles was living her best puppy life at 8 Chains North. We were able to relax, enjoy the music, atmosphere and Truffles was able to play in their on-site dog park (what!?) and got all the pets inside.
She chose to position herself right by the door to maximize her oppawtunity for pets. She wasn’t disappointed. I mean, watch this video, could you resist this happy pup when you walked in the door!?
After a bit of relaxing I took Truffles outside to have some fun at the winery’s dog park. There’s great, shaded seating outside so you can enjoy the area year-round.
Overall we couldn’t have been happier with our visit to Waterford, VA and 8 Chains North Winery and plan to make a return trip when we’re in the area in the future.
Update 10/3/20
As mentioned at the top of the post, we recently headed back to 8 Chains North seeing as we were in the area. We first visited back in the fall of 2019, so before COVID-19 was a thing. We therefore wanted to update the post to give you an idea of what the wine tasting experience is like now that it’s had to change due to the pandemic.
8 Chains North Winery is still offering wine tasting experiences, but it’s understandably not as personal an experience as it once was. Rather than having one of the winery’s employees pouring the wine for you at the bar, you receive pre-poured servings in small plastic cups which you can take to their plentiful outdoor seating.
Shae and I both did the wine tasting, so they provided two of each type of wine. As you can see in the photo above, the wines had lids on them with initials on each one to indicate which wine was which. There were two whites, one rosé and three reds.
We received another copy of the tasting notes for each one which also helped identify which wine was which. For example, the SB on the lid indicated it was their 2019 Sauvignon Blanc, the CC was the 2015 Cross Country Red, etc.
Don’t worry if it seems like drinking out of small plastic cups doesn’t seem fancy (not that Shae and I are fancy anyway!) Wine tastings still come with 8 Chains North wine glasses and you get to take them home with you.
The winery has a lot of outdoor seating available, so even though there were quite a few other people there when we visited, everyone was still able to socially distance without any issue.
One of the reasons why we enjoyed 8 Chains North so much last time is because not only are they pet-friendly, but they also have a dog park. We therefore sat out there while Truffles ran around chasing after her ball. It was quite warm when we visited this time (it was mid-September), so we all appreciated having a fan available.
The three of us were the only ones in the dog park area at first, but we were later joined by Belle and her cute dog Bobby. It was nice getting to chat to her and watch Bobby running around. Truffles can run fast, but she’s no greyhound!
Although we weren’t getting a wine tasting inside, the staff were all fantastic again. They were friendly when getting the wine upon arrival and when paying for the wine at the end, while another guy checked on us every so often to see if we wanted any more wine. We ended up buying a bottle of Tempranillo to go as it was so good (as were all the other wines we tried).
We were pleased to get to return to 8 Chains North Winery and even more pleased that we had another great experience, so it’s definitely somewhere we’d recommend visiting if you’re in the area, especially if you’re after a pet-friendly activity.
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