New Winery to Open in Centreville

As Jon Hickox turned off Lee Highway and into the driveway of an abandoned, overgrown farm next to the , a powerful sensation came over him.

"When I came down the driveway, I envisioned what this place would look like in the Civil War," Hickox said. 

It was the fall of 2008. The real estate market had just fallen apart. No one knew if when, or if, it would fully recover. The land was overgrown with grass and weeds and there was no building of any value on the property—only the burnt-out remains of the old Entwisle house. But Hickox couldn't shake the feeling that he had to take a chance on the estate that was known as Hillwood a century ago. 

"There was just an aura to the place," said Hickox, 36, an Arlington-area resident who works in construction and remodeling. "I said, 'I gotta get it.'"

On Saturday, June 2, from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m., Hickox and his wife Kimberly will hold the grand opening of a new winery on the old Hillwood estate, which they've named . It is .

Hickox paid $900,000 for about 21 acres, according to Fairfax County property records. It was taking a chance, to be sure. But Hillwood was a unique place in modern-day Centreville. 

"I grew up in Fairfax County, and this is the Western Fairfax County I remember, that slowly disappeared," Hickox said recently, as he stood out in the expansive front yard, located next to a 200-acre horse farm.

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Hickox said he didn't start out with the intention of building a winery, but he had noticed how they were taking off in nearby counties. Over 200 wineries have opened up in Virginia in the last 30 years—a trend that a Founding Father like Thomas Jefferson, an avid wine-grower himself, would have appreciated. Yet a winery also seemed like it would fit in well with the modern-day, suburban economy. 

"That's really the only kind of agricultural businesss I think would be viable in this area," said Hickox, who studied history, math and business at .  

It took two years before Hickox—a newcomer to the wine-making business—could save up enough to make substantial improvements on the place. He spent a year and a half testing different types of grapes, and finally settled on the Norton grape, a Virginia wine-making staple. If all goes according to plan, within the next few years the plants will produce about 5,000 bottles of wine a year from two acres of land. is currently working with other Virginia growers to produce nine signature wines. 

As a boy, Hickox spent a great deal of his time at a family friend's farm in Chantilly, and scouring local development sites for Civil War relics. So it shouldn't come as a surprise that he went to great pains, and expense, The new winery is on the site of an old barn, and is partially built with pieces of old barns from the same time period in Ohio and South Carolina. Outdoors, staff from the Manassas Battlefield showed the workers how to build the type of split-rail fence that was common around the time of the Civil War. 

The indoor lounge area is decorated with antiques he's collected over the years, and relics that were found as the site was developed. Directly over the bar, there's an enormous painting of the battlefield and Centreville as it was in the Civil War era. Members of the Prince William County Historical Society tracked down Mr. Entwisle, a previous owner of the property—now 98 years old and living in Kentucky. The family sent in a portrait of Entwisle, drawn by his wife, which now overlooks the bar. 

As for the ruins of the old mansion house, Hickox left it up—then built a deck over the middle with lounge chairs.

"I couldn't have lived with myself if I took it down," he said. 

This article is part of an ongoing series, "Dispatches: The Changing American Dream."

Correction: an earlier version of this article incorrectly stated the number of bottles of wine the Winery at Bull Run will produce.