Charlottesville 🍷 Wine Tours / Hill Top Berry 🍒 Farm & Winery

Hill Top Berry Farm and Winery is appropriately perched on a hill top in the rolling hills of the Rockfish River Valley. Surrounded by the Blue Ridge Mountains, there are spectacular views of Pilot Mountain, Three Ridges and the ski slopes of Wintergreen Mountain. Hill Top was originally a pick your own berry farm which became the fifty first winery to open in Virginia. Here at Hill Top, you have the opportunity to taste “True to the Fruit” wines and “Authentic 🍯 Honey Meads, which are handcrafted in small batches by owners/winemakers Gregory and Kimberly Pugh and assistant winemaker, Matthew Wyant. These “other than grape” 🍇 wines are unique and delicious and range from dry to sweet. Hill Top uses natural cork on all 32 varieties of fruit wines and meads which are made and bottled on the farm.

Pick your own blackberries are still available during summer months but keep in mind, we are open all year! When the berry patch, bluebirds and pollinator 🐝 gardens are just a sweet memory, you can still taste the the products of our growing season when you sample the wines and meads available in our tasting room. Every season is beautiful at Hill Top and during winter months, you are often welcomed by a cheery fire burning 🔥 in the patio fire pit. The farm has a small herd of registered Scottish Highland Cattle 🐄 which roam the property and can often be seen from the covered pavilion adjacent to the main tasting room. Because of their long hair, winter time is actually the best time to see these beautiful Scottish cattle because they are out in the open enjoying their favorite time of year. Right now we are expecting calves to be born any time! You are even welcome to bring your own picnic which you can enjoy in our Mead Hall with it’s tapestry covered walls if the weather isn’t perfect for sitting outside. Local artisan cheeses and snacks are available in the winery gift shop!

Our “True to the Fruit” wines are made from various fruits such as blueberries, blackberries, plums, 🍎 apples, 🍑 peaches, elderberries, cantaloupes and 🍒 many others. These wines represent the fruit from which they are made so if there is a certain fruit you really like, you will also like the wine made from that fruit! There is also a bottled sangria called “Madison” which is made from peaches, concord grapes and other fruits fermented together.

Hill Top is also known for producing top quality, handcrafted, meads which are ancient alcoholic beverages made from fermenting honey. At Hill Top, you can experience and savor the drink of your ancestors and during your tasting, you will learn a little about their history and how we recreate them. We make Viking style mead, also called the “Nectar of the Gods” 🔱 by the Greeks, Cyser once enjoyed by the Anglo Saxons, a Roman style pyment, along with other meads such as Perry, Metheglins, and Melomels from all corners of the ancient world. We have just bottled a new blood orange mead called Matador, which has been a big hit with our customers. Join us for a tasting and step back in time. Come experience the ancient drinks long associated with love, poetry, sex and religion that were held in high esteem by your ancestors!

We also host several events every year. The Annual Blackberry Harvest and Music Festival takes place every year on the first Saturday in August and Sweet Hearts Weekend in February is close always close to Valentine’s Day. We also have periodic live concerts. Hill Top offers a 10% discount on wine purchases to veterans, members of the military and Law Enforcement because we are thankful for what they do for us every day. Tasting fees are only $5 per person and that even gets waived when you purchase a bottle! Come see us, do a tasting and see why Hill Top is such a special and unique place to enjoy drinking outside the grape. #mead #meadery #vawine #honeywine #nectarofthegods