Joe Cunningham and his wife Mary Ann were looking for a place to start a brand new life as retirees when they came across a 50-acre farm land in Delaplane that was previously used as a cattle ranch. They both fell in love with the place - it had a breath taking view, with rolling hills and a pond. Joe wanted to try his hand at wine making but only at a small scale. Unknown to them, they would spark an industry in the most unlikely of places to grow wine: Virginia. What was once thought to be an impossible thing to do, became a reality after extensive soil testing. This is the amazing story behind Miracle Valley Winery which was just announced in a listing to be available for $2.4M according to a report in washingtonpost.com.
In a post in realtor.com, the area where the winery was established has been planted with wine grapes before but the yield wasn't so good. After careful testing, they found out that the soil worked for certain varieties and so the Cunninghams pressed on with their desire to put up a winery. It was also a challenge to turn the farmhouse they bought into the charming winery estate that it is today. It was practically abandoned and the vegetation was overgrown. Joe had this to say, "We literally went on every state road in Virginia, but we looked at it again and decided it was the place."
Buyers of the property should consider themselves lucky because Miracle Valley is currently producing about 12 kinds of wines: from chardonnay, merlot to cabernet franc. They produce about 1,200 cases a year which is a good number to have. "We turn down two weddings a week," Cunningham says. "We don't have the facilities for it." Ideally, a buyer could develop an event space to push Miracle Valley to the next level of grape-fueled goodness. Cunningham is selling the property to focus on his next project which is helping veterans.