VIRGINIA PASTORAL

IN MIDDLEBURG, THE COMMONWEALTH'S MOST STORIED SMALL TOWN, OCTOBER WELCOMES A HOST OF TREASURED TRADITIONS

- CAROLINE ROGERS

IT'S AUTUMN IN MIDDLEBURG, VIRGINIA, and the landscape is turning itself into a painting. Shades of fire and flame illuminate maples and hickories, while towering oaks and beeches change to copper before emptying their branches. Roads leading to and from this tiny town in Loudoun County are lined with low, gray stacked-stone walls that evoke centuries past. Beyond them, flaxen-tailed horses stand on the rolling hills, which are still green in mid-October. Leafy vines bearing clusters of grapes extend in perfect rows next to picturesque wineries and their tasting rooms, each with scenic views of the Piedmont region.

Long a destination for well-heeled visitors escaping Washington, D.C., this place is called The Nation's Horse and Hunt Capital. Annual events, such as The Virginia Fall Races' steeplechase in the spring and the Theodora A. Randolph Field Hunter Championship in autumn, bring equestrians, trailers of horses, and thousands of spectators to town. Situated in a designated viticultural area with some 30 wineries to choose from, Middleburg has always had a strong sense of both its terrain and its past, but you'll find that there are plenty of new wonders to be found amid the old in this bucolic paradise.

DEEP ROOTS IN HISTORY