Dover Hall vineyard adding new tasting room on Goochland mansion’s grounds

7LV Exterior Tasting Room

Mock-up of the new 7 Lady tasting room. (Images courtesy Dover Hall Experiences)

The winemaking side of a sprawling Goochland estate is adding some upgrades.

7 Lady Vineyards, which resides on the grounds of the 38,000-square-foot Dover Hall mansion in the county’s Manakin-Sabot area, is moving ahead with plans to build a new wine tasting room and a waterside pavilion event space. 

The new, open-to-the-public tasting room will be around 3,500-square-feet, with an enclosed terrace that will fit around 60 guests. It would be the first tasting room for 7 Lady Vineyards, which planted its first vines in 2018. Since 2021, the vineyard has been supplying wines to events at Dover Hall and sister event venue Bartizan in Short Pump. 

The tasting room will be housed in an existing barn, which has been gutted to make way for the renovations. There will be further construction on the barn, including an addition for restrooms, a kitchen and a dining area.

The vineyard also plans to have a food concept within the new tasting room. Guests will be able to visit the tasting room and create their own basket of meats, cheeses, prepared salads, pickled items and other options for an on-site chef to assemble into a charcuterie board. 

Along with the tasting room space, a new, 2,000-square-foot waterside pavilion event space will accommodate around 75 to 125 guests, with additional seating and pergolas around an existing pond on-site. The pavilion will be housed in a brand new structure. 

“It’ll be neat to where people can rent out specific spaces or they can just come for a tasting,” said Jamie Ashenburg, vice president of operations at hospitality company Dover Hall Experiences, which manages the estate. 

Dover Hall Vines

Vines at Dover Hall, with the mansion in the distance.

Ashenburg said the vineyard plans to provide a more hands-on, personal experience than might be typical of a vineyard tasting room. 

“A lot of tasting rooms, you go in and, for lack of a better word, it’s like a cattle call…we’re going to try to make the experience a lot more intimate,” he said. 

7 Lady Vineyards started a wine club in April of 2023, which has grown to almost 200 members. Ashenburg hopes those numbers will grow to at least 350 before the tasting room opens. 

In addition to its own wines, 7 Lady’s tasting room will serve wines from all over the world, such as the Napa Valley region, Argentina and Moldova. It has around 35 wines in its portfolio.

Plans for the tasting room and pavilion were approved by Goochland County in November. Ashenburg said the vineyard has started moving some earth around and anticipates construction on the project to officially begin in the next four to eight weeks. 

Engineering firm Youngblood Tyler & Associates, P.C. is listed as project engineer, according to Goochland records.

Estate at Night

Dover Hall was built as the residence for the family of Dennis Pryor and later sold to become an events venue.

If all goes to plan, construction should take seven to nine months for a tasting room opening in late fall or winter, though the timeline is subject to change, he said. 

The vineyard originally planned for a Jan. 13 groundbreaking ceremony, but due to inclement weather, decided to postpone such a ceremony until sometime in March. 

Dover Hall was built on 55 acres at 1500 Manakin Road as a residence for Dennis and Cindy Pryor. Known colloquially as the “castle in Goochland,” the English Tudor-style house was completed in 2000 and the Pryors sold it in 2013 for $5 million to James River Capital executive Kevin Brandt. It was then converted into an events venue, management of which was taken over by Jeff Ottaviano and Chad Hornik in 2017, who launched Dover Hall Experiences

7LV Exterior Tasting Room

Mock-up of the new 7 Lady tasting room. (Images courtesy Dover Hall Experiences)

The winemaking side of a sprawling Goochland estate is adding some upgrades.

7 Lady Vineyards, which resides on the grounds of the 38,000-square-foot Dover Hall mansion in the county’s Manakin-Sabot area, is moving ahead with plans to build a new wine tasting room and a waterside pavilion event space. 

The new, open-to-the-public tasting room will be around 3,500-square-feet, with an enclosed terrace that will fit around 60 guests. It would be the first tasting room for 7 Lady Vineyards, which planted its first vines in 2018. Since 2021, the vineyard has been supplying wines to events at Dover Hall and sister event venue Bartizan in Short Pump. 

The tasting room will be housed in an existing barn, which has been gutted to make way for the renovations. There will be further construction on the barn, including an addition for restrooms, a kitchen and a dining area.

The vineyard also plans to have a food concept within the new tasting room. Guests will be able to visit the tasting room and create their own basket of meats, cheeses, prepared salads, pickled items and other options for an on-site chef to assemble into a charcuterie board. 

Along with the tasting room space, a new, 2,000-square-foot waterside pavilion event space will accommodate around 75 to 125 guests, with additional seating and pergolas around an existing pond on-site. The pavilion will be housed in a brand new structure. 

“It’ll be neat to where people can rent out specific spaces or they can just come for a tasting,” said Jamie Ashenburg, vice president of operations at hospitality company Dover Hall Experiences, which manages the estate. 

Dover Hall Vines

Vines at Dover Hall, with the mansion in the distance.

Ashenburg said the vineyard plans to provide a more hands-on, personal experience than might be typical of a vineyard tasting room. 

“A lot of tasting rooms, you go in and, for lack of a better word, it’s like a cattle call…we’re going to try to make the experience a lot more intimate,” he said. 

7 Lady Vineyards started a wine club in April of 2023, which has grown to almost 200 members. Ashenburg hopes those numbers will grow to at least 350 before the tasting room opens. 

In addition to its own wines, 7 Lady’s tasting room will serve wines from all over the world, such as the Napa Valley region, Argentina and Moldova. It has around 35 wines in its portfolio.

Plans for the tasting room and pavilion were approved by Goochland County in November. Ashenburg said the vineyard has started moving some earth around and anticipates construction on the project to officially begin in the next four to eight weeks. 

Engineering firm Youngblood Tyler & Associates, P.C. is listed as project engineer, according to Goochland records.

Estate at Night

Dover Hall was built as the residence for the family of Dennis Pryor and later sold to become an events venue.

If all goes to plan, construction should take seven to nine months for a tasting room opening in late fall or winter, though the timeline is subject to change, he said. 

The vineyard originally planned for a Jan. 13 groundbreaking ceremony, but due to inclement weather, decided to postpone such a ceremony until sometime in March. 

Dover Hall was built on 55 acres at 1500 Manakin Road as a residence for Dennis and Cindy Pryor. Known colloquially as the “castle in Goochland,” the English Tudor-style house was completed in 2000 and the Pryors sold it in 2013 for $5 million to James River Capital executive Kevin Brandt. It was then converted into an events venue, management of which was taken over by Jeff Ottaviano and Chad Hornik in 2017, who launched Dover Hall Experiences

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Bruce Anderson
Bruce Anderson
20 days ago

Congratulations, Jeff! Can’t wait to see this happen!