Knight’s Gambit for LobsterFest and Out and About Visit

We had a gorgeous fall Saturday yesterday with temperatures in the high 70s, sun, and clear skies. We scheduled our October Out and About visit for this date and it was to be my first visit to Knight’s Gambit Vineyards. It was also the winery’s first Lobsterfest, with Salty Bottom Blue on board for raw or grilled oysters and/or lobster roll sandwiches. It was the perfect day for all of it to come together!

Knight’s Gambit is a closer-in winery in the Charlottesville area. It’s very close to Stinson, Grace Estate and Oakencroft, and close really to other wineries in Crozet. The setting is amazing, close to Lake Albemarle, and amidst a larger farm. While we enjoyed wine and music on the porch, horses came up to the fenceline to greet us.

You have the wonderful mountains in the background and a great sense of stillness and quiet here. This is my favorite kind of winery setting – you get to truly relax and unplug.

I shared a flight of their tasting menu with a friend, and the flight was quite nice and very representative of Monticello AVA wines. The 2022 Pinot Grigio was the first wine on the list, and while this had 1% residual sugar, I didn’t get any sense of sweetness from it at all. This shocked me, because I tend to be very sensitive to sweetness in wine, and reject the sweet flavors. This was crisp and great, and would pair amazingly with the raw oysters! The 2022 Chardonnay was a little oakier and more buttery than I tend to favor, but for fans of California-style Chardonnays, they would love this. The 2022 Rosé was also crisp, pleasant acid, and very accessible. This is a good hot day Rosé as it would refresh. Some of our group had a few glasses and even a bottle and thoroughly enjoyed it.

Switching to their reds, their 2021 (I think I have the year correct) Merlot was fresh and pleasant and representative of our region. I liked this best of the reds offered. The Meritage was enjoyable – it didn’t have as many layers to it as I tend to enjoy – if I remember correctly we were drinking a 2021 Meritage – a good year across the state, but the wines from that vintage don’t typically pop as much as 2017 (or as much as the 23’s will in a year or two more!). The final wine, the 2021 Petit Verdot, was a good ending to this tasting flight.

I ended up buying a bottle of the Pinot Grigio to share, and it appeared to be the favorite wine of the day for our group. A lot of our crew also enjoyed lobster rolls with their wine (Salty Bottom Blue is one of my favorites). The winery also sells some local ciders to enjoy if you prefer those, along with light fare (cheese and crackers).

What I enjoyed most about our time here is that the vibe was just great. The live music was really enjoyable, and there were many different spaces to enjoy across the property, although we largely stayed on the shaded deck. The winery is dog-friendly, and some of our group brought their dogs, and the team happily brought bowls for water for the dogs to enjoy (and more wine for all of us).

I’d recommend Knight’s Gambit for a quiet, friendly place to go and unwind. The views are spectacular and the vibe is great. I look forward to seeing what other releases they’re going to bring in the future! Hope to see you at our next Out and About winery visit!