Brew Ridge — Wintergreen, Crabtree Falls & the Nelson 151 Corridor

This unhurried three-day loop trades the interstate for the winding two-lane roads of Nelson County, the stretch of Blue Ridge foothills that has quietly become one of Virginia's great craft-beverage regions. Day one climbs to the mountaintop village of Wintergreen Resort and settles into the Brew Ridge Trail, tasting through Devils Backbone Brewing Company's Basecamp and Blue Mountain Brewery with the ridgeline as a backdrop. Day two slows further still: a morning at Crabtree Falls — Virginia's tallest cascading waterfall, tumbling more than a thousand feet in a series of ledges — followed by an afternoon drifting between the cideries and vineyards of the Rockfish Valley, from Bold Rock's cavernous cider hall to the estate slopes of Veritas. Day three ambles down the Nelson 151 corridor to the tiny hamlet of Schuyler, boyhood home of author Earl Hamner and the setting for The Waltons, before the easy drive back to Richmond. Throughout, the pace is deliberately gentle — long tasting-room afternoons, porch dinners, and mountain nights at Wintergreen.