THE WASHINGTON POST.
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 23, 2021EZ
4“She was so proud of him and
wanted him to continue his career
as an engineer. We named the
winery after her in honor of the
sacrifices she made, without
which nothing we have today
would have been possible.”
Narmada Winery has won
more than 650 medals for its wine,
more than 200 were gold or better.
Like choosing her favorite child,
Sudha said choosing her favorite
wine is impossible. But one wine
holds a special place in her heart.
“Our Bordeaux-style Yash-Vir is
named after my grandchildrenchemistry background. After
speaking to our neighbors at Gray
Ghost Vineyards and Barrel Oak
Winery we decided to make our
own wines. I started taking wine-
making classes with Jim Law of
Linden Vineyards.”
They named the winery Nar-
mada after Pandit’s mother. When
he received a scholarship to study
in America, she sold her jewelry to
buy his plane ticket.
“Education was very important
for her since no one in the family
at that time had gone to university
besides Pandit,” Sudha wrote.Yash and Vir (meaning “success”
and “bravery”),” she wrote, “and
has won gold in both the San
Francisco Chronicle Wine Com-
petition and the Governor’s Cup, a
prestigious wine competition
held each year in Virginia.
A long driveway leads to a four-
bedroom, six-bathroom, 5,700-
squa re-foot house, which is se-
cluded from the winery for priva-
cy. It has several outdoor spaces,
including porches, patios and
decks. There’s also an elevator in
the house and an outdoor swim-
ming pool. Sudha’s favorite room
is the light and airy breakfast
room.
“You can’t beat the view of the
sunrise over the vineyard,” she
wrote.
In addition to tastings, the Pa-
tils have hosted events at the win-
ery such as weddings and Indian
heritage festivals. Their daughter
Prema’s wedding was the first
event they held there.
The 51-acre property includes a
20-acre vineyard, pond and sev-
eral buildings in addition to the
main house. The winery building
has an upstairs tasting and sales
area and a lower-level processing
area with a barrel room. Custom-
ers can sit inside or on the terrace
or patio overlooking the vine-yards while enjoying a bottle of
wine. There are two equipment
garages, one of which has a man-
ager ’s apartment. An inventory of
bottled and bulk wine, winemak-
ing equipment, and vineyard
equipment conveys. The property
is for sale for $6 million.
[email protected]BY KATHY ORTON
Some people take up golf in
retirement. Pandit and Sudha Pa-
til took up winemaking. Now they
are looking for someone to take
over their vineyard and winery in
Rappahannock County, Va.
“As we were planning our re-
tirement, we were thinking, what
is it that we want to do?” Sudha
wrote in an email. “We both have
farming backgrounds in our fam-
ily, so farming is in our blood.
Virginia wines were beginning to
be known and respected. We liked
the idea of fresh air, working out-
side, and being physically active,
and with our passion for wine
from our travels all over the world,
we decided to start a vineyard and
sell grapes to local wineries.”
It began in 1999 with a dinner
at the Inn at Little Washington
celebrating their 29th wedding
anniversary. On the way to dinner,
the Patils noticed a property for
sale in Amissville, Va. It was a
hayfield with no utilities or drive-
way, but they saw the possibilities.
The next week they bought it.
Sudha said the rolling hills were
perfect for planting vines.
“Rappahannock County also
had several other vineyards that
were producing outstanding
wines, which made us more confi-
dent that we could establish a
vineyard on this land,” she wrote.
After buying the property, the
Patils worked with architect Dick
Manuel to plan the landscape and
the buildings. The barn was built
around 2002, the house in 2005
and the two-level winery building
in 2009. Graystone Homes was
the builder of the house and the
winery. The vines were planted in
2004.
Although the plan had been to
sell grapes to other wineries, the
Patils eventually began making
their own wines. Learning how to
make wine was a natural exten-
sion of their scientific back-
grounds.
Pandit studied engineering at
the University of New Mexico and
Carnegie Mellon and received a
doctorate from the University of
Pittsburgh. After graduating with
a chemistry degree from George
Mason University, Sudha received
a doctor of dental surgery degree
from Georgetown and a certifi-
cate in endodontics and a master’s
degree in oral biology, both from
the University of Maryland.
“In 2007 we had our first crop;
however, the value of Virginia
grapes was quite low at the time,”
Sudha wrote. “We knew a winery
was how we could eventually re-
cover the vineyard’s expenses. I
had also been curious from the
start about winemaking, with myHouse of the Week
Home-winery blend has some very good y ears
PHOTOS BY ANNETTE LABROZZI
ABOVE: The four-bedroom, 5,700-square-foot house is set apart from the winery for privacy. It has several outdoor spaces and a
swimming pool. BELOW: T he barrel room on the winery’s lower level. The property sits on 5 1 acres in Rappahannock County, Va.43 NARMADA LANE,
AMISSVILLE, VA.
$6 million
Features : The property includes a
20-acre vineyard, pond and several
buildings in addition to the main
house. Narmada Winery has won
more than 650 medals for its wine.
An inventory of bottled and bulk
wine, winemaking equipment, and
vineyard equipment conveys. The
house has an elevator and an
outdoor swimming pool.Bedrooms/bathrooms : 4/6
Approximate square-footage :
5,700
Lot size: 51 acresListing agent : Roy Melloni, TTR
Sotheby’s International Realty For more photos of this house
and other homes for sale in the
area, go to washingtonpost.com/
realestate.