WELCOME FROM THE OWNERS

Welcome to The Vineyards & Winery at Lost Creek!

We have been avid wine lovers since we honeymooned in Bordeaux, France in 1998. Throughout our 23 years together, we always knew we would someday own a winery and vineyard. We started exploring opportunities in the wine industry in Napa Valley and were later introduced to Oregon’s Willamette Valley in the mid-2000's. We loved the idea of growing a business in an emerging wine region. The thought of being part of a transformation was exciting, but Oregon was still not the right place. Too much rain!

In 2007, corporate jobs brought our family to Virginia where we were introduced to “DC’s Wine Country”. We were surprisingly impressed with Virginia’s wine quality and since that time we started watching the Virginia wine industry grow and transform.

In April 2012 we found our opportunity to "jump-in" to the Virginia wine industry. While traveling back from a day of hiking with the family near Charlottesville, we stumbled onto Lost Creek and were instantly drawn to its charm and beauty. We purchased the property in September 2012. 

Aimee’s passion for wine and Todd’s love of business made all this possible and we are very excited to introduce everyone to our vision for Lost Creek. Great wines, casual elegant atmosphere, delectable food & superb service. Please come out and join us and discover for yourself why we love Lost Creek.

Aimee & Todd Henkle
Owners, The Vineyards & Winery at Lost Creek

WINEMAKING & VITICULTURE PHILOSOPHY

VITICULTURE PHILOSOPHY

Our philosophy at Lost Creek is to let the fruit speak for itself. We seek to make our wines from the fruit of the vineyard and minimize as much intervention in the cellar as possible. We focus on sustainable vineyard practices that utilize organic and minimal environmental impact practices to promote sustainable farming and living soil. We meticulously prune the vineyard through the year to optimize fruit characteristics and ripeness depending on weather conditions during the growing season for each vintage. 

Winemaking Style

Lost Creek's winemaking style is focused on showcasing the local fruit of Loudoun County and using high quality winemaking techniques to produce elegant and complex wines with acidity and fruitiness.  Our Chardonnay is whole-cluster pressed and barrel fermented in French Oak barrels. Our red fruit begins with a 3 day cold soak, followed by a natural primary fermentation and extended maceration. We believe in long slow fermentations, therefore we perform whole berry fermentation so at press time we are still experiencing low levels of fermentation in the French Oak barrels. The wines are barrel aged for 18 months and bottle aged between 6 to 12 months prior to release.

100% LOUDOUN COUNTY, VIRGINIA WINES

All wines from Lost Creek are produced on-site in our winery and hand crafted from 100% Loudoun County, Virginia grapes. Our fruit is harvested from our 16-acre Estate Vineyard as well as from fruit on Short Hill Mountain and in Bluemont, Virginia.

THE LOST CREEK TEAM

TOdd Henkle, Owner, WINEMAKER & VINEYARD MANAGER

Owner, Todd Henkle, is an accomplished operations and finance executive with 19 years’ experience at large, multi-national corporations, global mid-market companies, and small, entrepreneurial firms. Todd is the winemaker at Lost Creek. His career started at Intel and expanded into driving growth for start-up companies. Todd holds a BSME from Colorado University, a MS in Manufacturing Systems from UT Austin and an MBA from Babson College. His passion for growing small start-ups has driven him to dedicate his time fully to Lost Creek.