Candlelight in the Barn

An Evening in Early Virginia

EVENT DATE: 18 July 2026 (Sat), 7PM-9:30

It’s America’s 250th anniversary. We invite you to join us for an evening that celebrates not only our nation’s history, but the lives of the ordinary people who built it.

On July 18th at 7PM, Hiddencroft Vineyards will launch our America 250 series with Candlelight in the Barn: An Evening in Early Virginia, a relaxed gathering of food, wine, and local history.

Guests will enjoy colonial tavern-style fare inspired by the foods commonly found on Virginia farm tables during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Fresh hearth breads, hand-churned butter, colonial cheeses, smoked meats, pickles, preserves, seasonal fruits, nuts, and traditional desserts will be served throughout the evening. Wines from Hiddencroft Vineyards will be included as guests explore the flavors and traditions of an earlier time.

The evening will also feature three short interpretive presentations that connect the food on the table to the historic buildings that still stand on the property today.

For the Bread & Butter course, guests will view our Springhouse presentation and discover how cool spring water preserved food long before refrigeration.

For the Smoked Meat course , our Smokehouse presentation will explore one of the most important structures on any nineteenth-century farm and the role it played in providing food through the winter months.

As the evening draws to a close, guests will see a special presentation of Many Hands Shaped This Land, the story of the people who have occupied and cared for this property across more than two and a half centuries.

From the Fairfax Proprietary and the first colonial leases, through the Axline, Everhart, Kalb, Compher, and Hetzel years, to the creation of Hiddencroft Vineyards, the presentation traces the remarkable history of the land beneath our feet and the generations whose stewardship made the present possible.

More than a dinner. More than a wine tasting.

It is an opportunity to experience the sights, flavors, stories, and traditions that shaped rural Virginia.

We hope you will join us as we begin a year of commemorating America’s 250th anniversary—one story and one glass at a time.

Limited Seating • Make Reservations here…