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WINVIAN: Some Things in Life You just Need to Experience…

from Ink Magazine - March 2019

by Ink Publications

from Ink Magazine - March 2019, page 50

CT Cancer Foundation - On a Mi...

By Susan Cornell

Just under a decade ago, this armchair traveler clicked on the old Travel Channel series Extreme Mind Blowing Hotels when a Connecticut destination popped on the screen. A cottage with a fully restored 1968 Sikorsky Sea King Pelican HH3F rescue helicopter? A secret society cottage? A lighthouse? A beaver lodge? A library? A greenhouse? Eighteen unique, themed resort cottages including a treehouse.

Winvian Farm is a luxury resort like no other, hidden away on 113 acres in Litchfield Hills, down a long rural road where one really

wouldn’t expect much except...rural. Around the resort are woods, lakes, open countryside – wonderful for hiking, snowshoeing, leaf peeping, hitting the wineries, antiquing, and celeb seeking (Litchfield has been called the “Beverly Hills of the East”). Two thirds of Winvian borders a wildlife sanctuary. On site is five star farm-to-table dining, a luxury spa, organic gardens, and a swimming pool in a green meadow.

Accommodations are in any one of 18 individual, whimsical, and very private cottages, as well as in a 1775 manor, the original estate built on the land. What’s amazing is that 15 different architects designed the cottages. What they do have in common, however, is that each has a private porch, a fireplace or two, wet bar, extra large whirlpool bathtub, walk-in steam shower, and radiant floor heating.

Dinner is served in the main farmhouse. The French inspired food comes from chef Chris Eddy, who worked with both Daniel Boulud and Alain Ducasse. It’s good, seasonal, simple food, much of which comes from Winvian’s private garden. In fact, Winvian is the New England’s only luxury resort with a working farm onsite.

Across the road the sign reads “Vineyard” as the property once was a vineyard; today, however, it is now the farm where during warm seasons fresh items are picked every day. Fortunately there are many vineyards within a few miles of Winvian. And just as fortunately, the wine cellar is packed – that is, curated with 500 labels from 37 regions and 13 countries.

If you stay on a Monday night, for example, you’ll be served the “Chef’s Set Menu” (kind of a Chef’s Surprise), which consists of five courses, none of which are terribly large: for example, Winvian Beet Salad with pecans and fresh herbs; Hand Rolled Spaghetti with razor clams and garlic; Striped Bass with cold grown spinach and Meyer lemon; Braised Short Rib with Beluga lentil ragout; and Milk Chocolate Namelaka, a chocolate cake with pineapple ice cream.

Even the history of this place is a bit off the wall. In 1775, Dr. Seth Bird, an eccentric physician known for bringing a coffin on house calls, built the original home. In 1948, the Smith family bought the Bird estate and named it Win-Vian, a combination of the first names of Winthrop Smith and his wife Vivian. They raised their son, fruits and vegetables, and livestock. Today the spa is located where pigpens once were and offers, ironically, a mud treatment. When Win died, Vivian married Charles McVay, captain of the USS Indianapolis, whose story is in the book “In Harm’s Way.”

Vivian passed in 1998, and Winvian Farm passed to her son’s family. The family brainstormed how to preserve the property, which eventually led to the resort idea.

Maggie Smith, who married Winthrop and Vivian’s son, Win, owns the property. She and Win started the Winvian project together but divorced a couple of years into the planning. (Maggie Smith kept the name as Smith is her maiden name). Along with Winvian, she runs the Pitcher Inn in Warren, Vermont with her daughter, Heather. It was in 2007 that she reopened the property as a “destination getaway” with the newly built cottages; and soon thereafter, Winvian was featured on Extreme Mind Blowing Hotels. Since that time, Winvian has received many awards, including the most recent 2017 Condé Nast Traveler Readers’ Choice Award.

“Winvian Farm’s genesis dates back to the late 1940s when my children’s paternal grandparents, Winthrop and Vivian Smith, purchased the 113-acre farm and renamed it Winvian. My children grew up visiting Grandma Vivian and have many fond memories of life on the farm,” Maggie explains adding, “Happily for me, my oldest daughter, Heather, (Managing Director) and my oldest son, Win, (formerly Director of Sales & Marketing) have both been integral members of the Winvian Farm Team.”

Maggie says, “I fell in love with Winvian as a teenager, and after Grandma Vivian died, I felt it was important to preserve the property and honor the Smiths’ legacy. Using the template from my hotel property in Vermont, the Pitcher Inn, Heather and I decided to site and build individual cottages on the Farm for guests to enjoy. Fifteen architects were hired to design the eighteen accommodations and Spa. The main homestead, the Seth Bird House which was built in 1775, was historically restored and provides a suite of guest rooms and intimate dining spaces.”

According to Heather, the immediate future holds promise of building more and more programming for guests. “We hired a concierge to build different types of events from a yoga retreat, to author visits, to essential oils, health and well being,” she said. will be on the website as well as through the concierge who will reach out to guests once activities are established. Heather notes, “A wine tasting will most likely have an additional fee, but other new activities, such as movies on the lawn, most likely will not.”

Currently, Winvian offers wine tasting courses and Photo courtesy Winvian pairings. Heather explains, “So, a guest can request that all wines be While one can certainly opt to simply enjoy paired with the generalized menu. Or, if they’d the peace and privacy, for the more adventurous, like to sit down with the sommelier and have Winvian offers everything from biking and more of a one-on-one course, we can do that.” canoeing to hot air ballooning and snowshoeing. And, for the truly gutsy woman,

Winvian expects to have more wine education programming in place soon. This information there’s the new Women at the Wheel Driving Experience at the nationally renowned racetrack Lime Rock Park.

“Our mission for this program with Lime Rock Park is to present women with the opportunity to learn to empower their lives through learning one of the most challenging sports in the world,” Heather says. “Truly one of control that will help lead to selfempowerment and determination in other aspects of life and making it an equal world for women.”

Maggie sums up Winvian succinctly. “We can describe it until we’re blue in the face, but you need to experience it.” She calls Winvian “one of the loves in my life.”

There are 18 cottages, themed around places and things that tie into Connecticut. Rates range from $695-$1,499, plus tax and service charge. Phone: 860.567.9600 www.winvian.com Winvian 155 Alain White Road, Morris, Connecticut

This article is from:

Ink Magazine - March 2019

by Ink Publications