Expanding palates since 2018.

There’s a reason we’re called a lab and not a bar. It’s all about education and expectations. Let’s talk about expectations first. The word “bar,” conjures images of the local watering hole or a place to catch a game with a friend over a few casual beers. From the earliest days of their vision for the Blacksburg Wine Lab, John and Katie wanted this to be a completely different experience for everyone who walks through the door. But to understand why we’ve got to take you back more than 20 years to a time when John was putting up flyers around the campus at Virginia Tech, trying to garner interest in a geography of wine course he planned to teach.

Education and a passion for sharing the world with others have been a driving force in his and Katie’s lives for a long time, and what better vehicle to do so than wine? Reflective of the cultures from which it’s born in how the grapes are grown, harvested, and eventually turned into wine, the process alone offers teaching moments galore before you ever even get to the tasting notes of any given bottle. Eventually, that little class that John got 16 students to register for grew into a 1500-student online course he still teaches every spring. They’ve even taught their class while traveling around the globe, delivering lectures from some of the most well-known wine regions in the world. Now, they’ve poured all of that experience into creating a unique and welcoming space for you to explore and enjoy all that the world of wine has to offer.