Great beef and great wine are two of the culinary world’s brightest stars and biggest draws. Ovoka Farm, a Virginia farm celebrated for its F1 wagyu, has decided to join the two in a memorable dining experience, set to begin welcoming guests next month.
Future customers will be able to stop in for a sip and a bite in a sprawling and historic manor located at 750 Gap Run Road. Ovoka Farms Director of Agritourism & Operations Melanie Freshwater was kind enough to speak with What Now DC about this new venture and how it came about. She explains: “We primarily raise wagyu beef and we also do agrotourism so we do a lot of different farm tours, tasting tours. We have a culinary program as well, different ways for guests to visit and taste the beef. The next logical step was wine.”
Wine allows Ovoka to continue its rich tradition of hyper-local sourcing. The team hopes to add to an already vital winery community. Freshwater states: “For a while we partnered with different local producers and eventually decided we should try making our own. We’re all about farm to table and connecting people to their source. It’s sort of an addition to everything we already do. We’re surrounded by so many awesome wineries in the area and we’re not trying to be like everyone else. It’s part of a larger piece.”
The tasting room is not a new construction. “Not a new structure.” Freshwater says. “It’s going to be inside the manor home. We will be reservation-only at first. Our goal is to provide a one–on-one direct experience for visitors and provide that level of hospitality where they come and it’s going to be a full experience.”
Ovoka’s amazing dining program is well-suited to wine-pairing. Visitors will be able to enjoy superior cuisine made from some of Virginia’s best ingredients, alongside carefully curated wines. Freshwater describes what’s in store, saying: “Our chef does a lot of sourcing and works with other local producers to always be featuring seasonal veggies and flavors, so it will always be dynamic and changing. We just released our first wine, a lighter bodied red. We will be doing a ‘taste of Virginia’- we’re curating a menu of all different wines from throughout Virginia that share the values we do and the flavor profiles that pair well with our foods.”
Of course, cultivating a vineyard is a time-consuming process, and Ovoka plans to approach it with precision and care. Freshwater explains: “We have a longer-term plan. We hope to accommodate walk-ins eventually. We’re growing slowly and organically. Our plan to grow our own grapes here is coming along. It’s a pretty long process so right now we’re sourcing grapes locally. We’ll have 2 more reds coming out this year. We do plan to have some whites and other varieties out after this year.”
Reservations are live on Ovoka’s website with a beginning date of June 13, running through weekends moving forward. It’s bound to book up fast; as Freshwater states, the experience will be “A celebration of all things local-good wine and good food.”
