Our Story

Founded in 2007, Michael Shaps Wineworks is located twelve miles south of Charlottesville, Virginia. Within the first year of our opening, we developed Virginia’s first contract winemaking operation. The customer base grew to over twenty wineries and Wineworks quickly became a regional leader for contract winemaking, serving clients from Tennessee to Delaware.

Over the years the winery facility grew to increase production capacity to 30,000 cases of wine and changed the name from Virginia Wineworks to Michael Shaps Wineworks. Of our 30,000 case capacity, we produce approximately 5,000 cases of Michael Shaps named wine from 50-80 tons of grapes from our vineyards.

In 2015 Wineworks acquired Avon Street Extended as a warehouse and bottling facility. Wineworks Extended also built a second tasting room, with a private room for up to 50 guests. This tasting room is designed to be a neighborhood wine bar and taphouse—it features six different taps for growlers, carafes, and wine by the glass. Bottle sales include Michael Shaps wines, Wineworks bag-in-box wine, imported French wines from Maison Shaps, as well as additional French imports.

In the summer of 2022, Michael purchased the former Thatch winery. This beautiful property offers a spacious tasting room with expansive outdoor seating areas, manicured landscaping, and much-needed production space for our growing operation. This new site can accommodate our growing and evolving operation.