Along the switchback mountain roads near Salem, Virginia, I had just driven over the highest part of the Blue Ridge Mountains, and I spied a clearing in some trees– an informal look-out over the valley below. Pulling off-road, the wheels slid a bit in the rocky Appalachian gravel, and a precipice lay just beyond some vegetation. There was no guardrail.
Stepping out of the car, sunbeams cut through the gravel dust cloud. A patch of trees emerged ahead, their roots clinging to the cliff’s edge, their trunks bowing down into the abyss before soaring up again into the sky. Peeking between the branches, the sun stings my eyes, and my throat tightens as the full majesty of the Shenandoah Valley spills forth before me. From this perch, the scattershot farms spread out like an antique quilt made of green and ochre cloth. In both directions, the mighty South Fork of the Shenandoah River glints and winks as it cuts through a sea of fields, snaking wide and powerful, flanked by vibrant green fields, villages, and exuberant abundance. This is the Shenandoah Valley: at once peaceful yet ferocious, stingy yet generous, vast yet pinched between a tiny fold in the mountains.
Flanked by the second oldest mountain range on the planet, the Appalachians, the Shenandoah Valley is ancient. The Appalachian Mountain range dates back about 480 million years. When these mountains formed, early shelled organisms and primitive fish swam in the waters, but dinosaurs and sharks had not yet evolved. This was a time of sea algae, but no land plants. Yes, the Appalachian Mountains pre-date trees! After these mountains rose up, they stood for a hundred million years before plants appeared on them. The Appalachian Mountains are eight times as old as primates, twenty times as old as Aotearoa New Zealand, and forty-eight times as old as modern civilization.
The oldest part of the Appalachian Mountains, the Blue Ridge Mountains, lie to the east of the Shenandoah Valley. Just shy of a quarter of the age of our solar system, the Blue Ridge is twice as old as the rest of the Appalachian range and dates back a billion years– but the Blue Ridge looks younger. Its peaks and mounds are rough and new-looking compared to the west side of the Shenandoah Valley. This is because the eastern edge of the Shenandoah Valley is more geologically active than the Shenandoah Mountain and Appalachian plateau on the west side. In the east, the landscape is regularly reshaped by small quakes, uplifts, and mudslides.
The ancient valley soil is full of secrets. There are so many treasures to be found in this valley, it’s almost impossible to believe! The land is peppered with crystal clear underground lakes that lie so still you’ll mistake the reflection of the cave ceiling for the ground. Hidden beneath the limestone hills you’ll find chambers and caves of rock formations that look like scenes from Middle Earth. In the center of the valley, Massanutten Mountain rises up like an island in a sea of patchwork farms, and it’s an area where you can boat on the lake, visit lavender farms, or ski the trails, all in the same day. The foothills of Massanutten are ideal for grapevine growing, and several wineries have planted in this area. To the west, vineyards give way to forests, forests give way to orchards, and eventually you’ll reach the famous geothermal mineral springs of Bath County – a favorite spa for multiple US presidents, and the maple syrup and lamb farms of Highland County. The Shenandoah River teems with trout, and the valley bursts with natural wonders and bountiful farms. You can spend a lifetime discovering the abundance and majesty of the Shenandoah Valley.
Erosion from the Appalachian Plateau, Shenandoah Mountain, and the Blue Ridge flow into the Shenandoah Valley, and the fertile sediments build up atop limestone bedrock. Waters trickle into the valley and feed the North Fork on the northwestern side of Massannutten, and the South Fork on the southeastern side of Masannutten. The forks converge into one powerful Shenandoah River at Front Royal, where the water flows northward to Harper’s Ferry and feeds the Potomac River. Thousands of years of sediments combine with active rivers to create complex and fertile farmland that has attracted people to this valley for at least 12,000 years.
Winegrowers have converted many Shenandoah farms to vineyards over the last 20 years. Vineyards have replaced fruit orchards, wheat farms, and dairies. The steep and rough hillsides in this region are not easy to farm. Winegrower Jeff White, of Glen Manor in Warren County, knows this firsthand. His vines are perched atop a ridge that is exhausting to hike. “This is a mountain farm, and much of the farm is steeply sloped. With less fertile soils, the land was first planted with apple and peach trees. It is high on these mountain slopes above where orchards once flourished that we now grow our wine,” he said. His low-intervention vineyards seem wild and windy, and the winery looks like a small speck in the distance when viewed from the vines. Jeff transitioned his family farm to produce grapes, and he grew the vineyards from about six acres in 1995 to eighteen acres today. Winemakers like Jeff have re-made the Shenandoah Valley for a new generation. They’ve jumped into the fray and made magic happen with the vineyards… with no guardrails.
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