Clarence Greenwood has built a fervent following performing under the stage name Citizen Cope.
PUBLICITY PHOTO
Behind the music
You might call Citizen Cope a maverick. A one-man singing, songwriting, producing, DJ-ing, collaborating, genre-defining, Renaissance man with more than a decade of touring and recording under his belt, he’s a rare example of self-determination in an industry notorious for homogenization. In testament to his chops, his music has been covered and recorded by Carlos Santana, Sheryl Crow, Slipknot, Dido, and Richie Havens, to name a few, and his songs have been featured in dozens of T.V. shows and movies. So, even though you might not know it, you’ve almost certainly heard some of his tunes.
Wednesday 1/30 $25-27, 8pm. Jefferson Theater, Downtown Mall. 110 E. Main St. 245-4980.
First Friday is a monthly art event featuring exhibit openings at many Downtown art galleries and additional exhibition venues. Several spaces offer receptions. Listings are compiled in collaboration with Piedmont Council for the Arts. To list an exhibit, please send information two weeks before opening to arts@c-ville.com.
First Friday exhibitions: February 1
BozART Gallery 211 W. Main St. Paintings by Carolyn Rathbun George. 6-9pm.
The Bridge PAI 209 Monticello Rd. “Man vs. Nurture,” a showing of pencil portraits by Spriggan that feature nurturing Charlottesville men. 6-8pm.
Chroma Projects 418 E. Main St. “The LOVE Show,” featuring artwork appropriately sized to send in the mail by 25 artists. 5:30-7:30pm.
CitySpace 100 Fifth St. NE. An exhibit by the Charlottesville Area Quilt Guild. 5:30-7pm.
C’ville Arts Cooperative Gallery 118 E. Main St. “Flowers from the Earth,” featuring works by gem artist Claire McIlvain. 6-8pm.
FIREFISH Gallery 108 Second St. NW. “Lost and Found,” a show of found objects by Sam Pagni. 5:30-7:30pm.
The Honeycomb 310 E. Market St. “Let’s Get Weird,” new artwork by Daniel Suter. 5-9pm.
Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Collection 400 Worrell Dr. “We Bury Our Own,” a series of photographs and video works by artist Christian Thompson. 5:30-7:30pm.
McGuffey Art Center 201 Second St. NW. “Birds of the North American Prairie,” watercolor paintings of birds by Salena Hitzeman alongside poems by Tracy Zeman in the Sarah B. Smith Gallery; “Intimacy Theories,” a series of mixed media paintings by Polly Breckenridge in Lower Hall South; paintings by Nathan Motley in the Lower Hall North; and artwork by the Beverley Street Studio School in the Upstairs Galleries. 5:30-7:30pm.
New Dominion Bookstore 404 E. Main St. “The Shape of Space” showcases paintings by David Cook. 5:30-7:30pm.
Second Street Gallery 115 Second St. SE. “In Lightning, Thunder, or in Rain,” a solo exhibit by Clay Witt. 6-7:30pm. Artist Talk at 6:30pm.
Spring Street Gallery 107 W Main St. “From Realism to Abstractions,” paintings by Gwen Hoyle. 6-8pm.
Studio 500 500 West Main St. Suite D. “Dancing in Stilettos,” oil paintings by Sarah A. Weber. 5:30-7:30pm.
WVTF and Radio IQ Study Gallery 216 W. Water St. “BUSHES/HILLS” a multi-media exhibit involving prints, drawings, and video by Hannah Barefoot. 5-7pm.
WriterHouse 508 Dale Ave. “Momentum,” featuring landscape paintings by Laura Edwards Wooten. 5:30-7:30pm.
OTHER EXHIBITS
Angelo 220 E. Main St. “Honeyvine,” a group of Giclée prints of mixed-media collages by Loes van Riel.
Hotcakes 1137 Emmet St. Lee Alter student teen show.
Jefferson School African American Heritage Center 233 Fourth St. NW “Jefferson Pinder: Civic Meditations,” is a series of video work that begins with Passive/Resistance (2008).
Les Yeux du Monde 841 Wolf Trap Rd. “Layers,” paintings by Kiki Slaughter.
Maya 633 W. Main St. “Paradise Revisited: A Glimpse into Polynesian Culture,” photographs by Abe Costanza and Karine Morgan.
Warm Springs Gallery 103 Third St. NE. “Museum Studies” featuring paintings by Bradley Stevens.
UVA’s Fralin Museum of Art 155 Rugby Rd. “Becoming the Butterfly: Landscapes of James McNeill Whistler,” featuring Whistler’s etchings and lithographs from the late 1850s; “STrAY: Found Poems from a Lost Time,” featuring work by the contemporary artist Suzanne McClelland; “Corot to Cézanne,” featuring French drawings from the collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon; “Traces of the Hand: Master Drawings from the Collection of Frederick and Lucy S. Herman.”
UVA’s Ruffin Gallery 179 Culbreth Rd. “Terrestrial Transmissions,” an exhibition of recent videos by artists who play with the tropes of science fiction in relation to femininity.
Check out PCA’s Google Map of local galleries and cultural hotspots to plan your visit.
Virtuoso pianist Misha Dichter performs with the esteemed St. Petersburg Quartet at Old Cabell Hall. Image: Stefan Cohen
The Tuesday Evening Concert Series has long held a reputation for setting a standard for chamber music performances, but tonight’s concert at Old Cabell Hall may move the bar to new heights. The performance features a collaboration of two of the medium’s biggest names in what amounts to a highly elite line-up of internationally acclaimed luminaries playing some of chamber music’s most complex and expressive composers: The St. Petersburg Quartet, mixes it up with a preeminent pianist still at the keys, Misha Dichter, for a rare evening of intimate works by Borodin, Shostakovich, and Schumann.
To say Misha Dichter is a living legend would actually be an understatement. The first major accolade of his five decade-spanning career came in 1966 at the tender age of 20, with a surprise silver medal at the 1966 Tchaikovsky Competition as a virtual unknown, and on that day his star began an ascent that would include international critical acclaim, prestigious honors including the hallowed “Grand Prix International du Disque Liszt” for his Liszt piano transcriptions, various influential recordings, and collaborations with essentially every major orchestra on the planet. He’s also a highly respected illustrator, and recently e-published a collection of his black-and-white work in a collection entitled, “A Pianist’s World in Drawings.”
If that weren’t enough by itself, the St. Petersburg Quartet appears in perfect compliment to Mr. Dichter. Founded in 1985 as the Leningrad String Quartet, hundreds of concerts throughout North America, Europe, and Asia’s most prestigious series and festivals have established them as a compelling foursome. Their work has netted Grammy nominations, “Best Record” accolades from both Stereo Review and Gramophone, a distinguished opening set at Lincoln Center’s Mostly Mozart, a five-year residency at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, and a small mountain of awards including first prize and the “Grand Prix Musica Viva” at the Melbourne International Chamber Music Awards, as well as first prize and both special prizes at Vittorio Gui International Competition for Chamber Music Ensembles in Florence.
1/29 Tuesday Evening Concert Series featuring St. Petersburg Quartet with special guest Misha Dichter, piano
Ruffin Gallery’s “Terrestrial Transmissions” traces outreach efforts to our alien neighbors in a group exhibition that includes work by Julia Oldham (above).
Julia Oldham
Man needs space
Floating around on our little rock in big, empty space, it’s only natural that the human race gets a little lonely. “Terrestrial Transmissions” is a gallery show inspired by this intergalactic longing for company, examining and interpreting the various attempts throughout history to communicate with the “alien other” through not only technology, but also telepathy (hey, it’s worth a shot, right?). The exhibition features artists from around the world and explores some of the earmarks of science fiction through video, giving viewers the opportunity to observe them in a gallery setting.
Through 2/22 Free, 5:30pm. Ruffin Gallery, 179 Culbreth Rd. 924-6123.
View an excerpt from artist Julia Oldham’s “Radioactive Fairytail.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JTlxP83N_Nk
Jayson Whitehead (left) and Jason Lappa team up to help small filmmakers break through at the Bantam Theater. Image: Elli Williams
For years, the number of small, independently owned movie theaters in Charlottesville has been in decline, as is the national trend. But, as recent entries in the Virginia Film Festival have shown, there are now more aspiring, amateur filmmakers here (and everywhere else) than ever. So, where can their films be seen?
Jason Lappa and Jayson Whitehead hope to provide an outlet through the Bantam Theater, which opened in the Michie building’s Market Street courtyard, a space recently occupied by Club 216 (and before that, the original location of Live Arts).
“Jayson and I have been working together for years, since Gadfly magazine,” Lappa said. “I had recently bought a Super 8mm projector, and an old print of Star Wars. I was shopping around for a place to have a party, where we could just hang out and watch it with our friends, and I also had a 16mm projector, and a print of Alien. I was thinking it was something we could do regularly—we couldn’t charge for it, but I was thinking we could have popcorn and beer. I kept talking to Jayson about it, and he said, ‘You know, we could really do that.’”
The Bantam Theater is an inauspicious space, but a large one. Keeping the bar and chandeliers from Club 216, the new owners have redesigned it as a theater, retaining a bar and an assortment of café tables and chairs, while adding a number of cozy couches. “The couches are all donated,” Lappa said. “Some of them we donated ourselves.”
They’ve also done minor, but crucial, renovations to transform the space into a theater. “The screen and curtains we put together ourselves,” Lappa said. “We ordered some material, and had it cut for the size of the screen we wanted. We stapled the curtains to the plywood and hung it ourselves. We had to tear down a little barrier that was in the space, but we used all the wood from that to build the platform for the projector mount. All the stuff that came from 216 was repurposed; the wood, and the stage. All the A.V. equipment is ours.”
Rather than focusing on well-publicized features that will run for weeks at a time, like Charlottesville’s two chain Regal Theaters, or at locally-owned Vinegar Hill Theatre (full disclosure: this writer is an employee at Vinegar Hill), the Bantam Theater will show smaller, less famous independent productions; films that might not be screened elsewhere in Charlottesville.
The Bantam opened its doors on January 19 with The Battery, an independent horror production described as “Old Joy meets ‘The Walking Dead,’” a film without support from a distributor, but one that Lappa and Whitehead were excited about.
“We didn’t have huge expectations, but we had high hopes,” Whitehead said. “Thirty minutes before showtime, we only had a handful of people. And then with about 10 minutes to go, they suddenly started showing up. We were hoping for about 30 or 40.”
“When we had about 30 people, I was thinking ‘O.K., we’ve got it,’” said Lappa. “And then every other couple who came through the door after that…it was amazing, it was great that so many of them were showing up.” Ultimately, they drew a crowd of almost 100.
“We spent a lot of time thinking about how big the screen should be, where we wanted to put it,” Whitehead said. “There wasn’t a bad seat in the house, we got a lot of compliments.”
After the screening, the film’s writer and director, Jeremy Gardner, participated in a question and answer session, which began as an interview with Whitehead and eventually turned to a discussion with the audience. “We had a lot of people say they actually preferred the Q&A to the film,” Lappa said. “The response to the film was mostly positive, but the Q&A was really interesting to them.”
With one successful event under their belt, Lappa and Whitehead are looking forward to future events. Rather than using a booking agent for week-long engagements, Lappa is hoping to book a schedule of one-time events himself. “That’s how we’re doing it,” he said. “If there’s something we like, we’ll reach out to the filmmaker every time. And if they tell us to talk to their producer, or their distributor, that’s how we’ll do it, but we’ll always go to the filmmaker first.” They began by scheduling a second weekend of The Battery. “We always give a percentage to the filmmaker,” Lappa said. “So the more screenings, the more money thrown their way.”
“We’re sort of making it up as we go,” Lappa said.
“We put so much into that first event, Whitehead said, “and it went so well. But we’re only just now looking ahead to the next part, trying to build that momentum.”
“People have been supportive, but how do you keep them interested?” Lappa asked. “You keep showing great films, but we’re going to have to be really smart about how we run the place financially, because the rent ain’t cheap!”
As for their next step: “There’s nothing confirmed for the rest of January,” said Lappa, “but we’re lining some things up for the start of February. We’re looking to do another ‘Bantam premiere,’ where someone involved with the film will come and answer questions. We’ll probably have the premiere events once a month, but as far as week-to-week goes, we’re going to try to show different things Thursday, Friday, Saturday every week, once we get going. We’ll probably only do one-time shows unless something really resonates with the audience.”
In terms of the type of films they’re likely to bring to Charlottesville, Whitehead says, “There’s a level below like what [Vinegar Hill] shows—films that never get seen.”
Share your thoughts on Charlottesville’s independent film scene. Post your comments below.
The newly approved expanded boundaries of the Charlottesville-Albemarle MPO, which now includes Crozet—but stops at the county lines. Image courtesy of Thomas Jefferson Planning District Commission.
The Charlottesville-Albemarle Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) Policy Board voted unanimously last week to redraw its boundaries to include Crozet, an expansion officials say could mean more federal dollars for public transit linking Western Albemarle to the area’s urban core.
Like its nearly 350 counterparts across the country—cross-governmental organizations tasked with long-term regional transportation—the MPO was tasked with reassessing its scope in the wake of the 2010 census, and was encouraged to fold in nearby growth areas. According to a proposal from the Thomas Jefferson Planning District Commission (TJPDC), the new census data showed concentrated growth in four clusters, all about equidistant from Charlottesville’s urban core: Crozet, Lake Monticello in Fluvanna County, and Twin Lakes and Ruckersville in Greene County.
Staff initially intended to annex all four of the clusters, growing the MPO beyond the borders of Albemarle County for the first time. But Greene and Fluvanna said no thanks. In the end, the MPO Policy Board unanimously agreed to expand the planning area only within the confines of Albemarle’s borders. Its new map closes the gap between the county’s central urbanized area and Crozet and includes almost the entire length of I-64 through Albemarle. Two new sections also flank the 29 corridor to the north.
“The boundary extension is more a bureaucratic thing than anything else,” said TJPDC Director Steve Williams. Expanding the map isn’t going to have a direct affect on development or county policy, he said. But it means the new areas will get a seat at the table, so to speak, when the MPO plans for long-term transportation projects.
For the urbanized center of Crozet, whose only direct link to Charlottesville is scenic Route 250, that’s unlikely to mean road improvements, Williams said. What it could mean is more chances for federal money to support public transit in western Albemarle. The area currently sees only two JAUNT shuttle runs a day. “We think as Crozet continues to grow, there will be a growing need for transit there,” Williams said, and the first step is putting it on the map.
Tom Loach says he’ll believe it when he sees it. Loach represents the White Hall district on the Albemarle County Planning Commission, which he chairs, and was closely involved in the creation of the Crozet Master Plan.
“I think it’s a reasonable approach because of the growth in the western part of the county,” Loach said. “But there’s a big difference between planning and reality. You wonder what’s going to come out of including us in the MPO when essentially, there’s no money for transportation.”
And what of Ruckersville and Lake Monticello, both of which have populations exceeding Crozet’s? The federal government created MPOs to encourage a regional approach to transportation planning, but for now, the rapidly expanding communities just over the county line won’t officially be part of the conversation.
Williams said the MPO is headed in that direction, but the wheels of cooperative government processes move slowly. “We’re going through the same process with those areas as we’ve gone through with Crozet,” he said, which became a bigger part of the regional planning process more than a decade ago. “We’ll start more actively engaging with them over the course of the next 10 years.”
Lok Pyakurel, from Bhutan, and Raymonde Mbahonankwa, from Burundi, come to the Jefferson School City Center each week to work on conversational English with the Literacy Volunteers. Photo: Christian Hommel
Maria Rodriguez, a 25-year-old au pair from Panama, found herself wondering what the heck she was doing here when she arrived in Charlottesville last spring. She knew nobody, and with an English language background limited to written words and no verbal skills, she had to constantly ask her host family to repeat themselves. She felt useless.
Literacy Volunteers Charlottesville/Albemarle (LVCA)—a local nonprofit that provides English education on every level for adults—paired Rodriguez with a tutor. After seven months of intensive one-on-one training and a daily mantra that fluency would further her career, Rodriguez can now carry on a conversation and is learning complex grammar and sentence structures that many American high schoolers still can’t grasp.
For Rodriguez, language means opportunity. “With English, you can go to anywhere,” she said.
When the organization was founded in the early 1980s, LVCA’s main focus was teaching illiterate American adults who had somehow flown under the educational radar and managed to get by for years without high school reading and writing skills. Thirty years on, most of LVCA’s efforts go toward helping a steadily growing population of immigrants learn the English they need to become citizens. The organization recently moved into a bigger and better space at the Jefferson School City Center. But even as it’s expanding, the organization is seeing state funding evaporate, and hoping local donors step up to help address a constantly growing need.
According to the National Assessment of Adult Literacy from the U.S. Department of Education, 13 percent of Charlottesville’s population and 8 percent of Albemarle’s—including both foreigners and Americans—lack basic prose literacy skills.
Executive Director Ellen Moore Osborne said nearly 90 percent of the hundreds of students LVCA accepts yearly are from a foreign country and need to learn English to advance academically or professionally. She said students typically remain in the program for a year or two, and last year alone, 59 students advanced to a higher education level, 12 obtained U.S. citizenship, and 16 were promoted or found better jobs.
“We’re really looking for students who are willing to do the work and put in the time,” Osborne said. “It’s no longer little old ladies who want to learn to read the Bible. It’s people who need this for their jobs. For survival.”
Osborne said the organization is almost always at capacity, but its limited resources force a certain amount of selectivity. The state recently reduced its funding for literacy programs, providing LVCA about $7,000 per year—$13,000 less than in the past.
The money shift was a hard hit, but Osborne isn’t concerned about keeping LVCA afloat.
“I just have to do a lot more fundraising and grant writing now,” she said with a shrug. “And hey, it’s our 30th anniversary —If everybody just gave $30, we’d be in great shape.”
Monetary needs aside, Osborne said LVCA simply can’t serve everybody. Prospective students are evaluated to determine whether they’re a good fit, and staff need to know that they’ll put in the effort so volunteers’ time is put to good use.
Volunteer tutor Kathy Santon has a master’s degree and 15 years experience teaching English to non-native speakers. She also has first-hand experience as a foreigner struggling to learn another language. Santon spent years living in France and Belgium, and quickly learned how essential—and challenging—it was to pick up French.
“If you’re just studying a language in school, that’s one thing,” she said. “But if you’re living in the country, and you need this language to function, that’s something else.”
Santon taught English as a second language in Pennsylvania before retiring in Charlottesville, where she spends several hours each week tutoring foreign students working toward U.S. citizenship. She’s helped groups of Bosnians, Turks, and Koreans pass the rigorous test, and currently works one-on-one with a man from Mexico and a Nigerian nun.
When the end goal is citizenship, Osborne said, the sessions are about much more than learning the language. Students read American history books and discuss current events—in English.
“It’s all in the context of making them better citizens,” she said.
LVCA’s students range from visitors like Rodriguez to resettled refugees trying to piece together new lives. Osborne said the success of the organization has always been in the hands of the volunteers, most of whom are retirees. But now, as the program celebrates its 30th anniversary, Osborne said she wonders what the future holds.
She and her three paid staff were one of the first groups to move into the refurbished Jefferson School City Center last year, and are now surrounded by seven other nonprofits in the building. The proximity to organizations like the African-American Heritage Center and Jefferson Area Board for Aging (JABA) will open doors to new collaboration, she said. As long as the tenants can fundraise enough money to pay off the $7 million in loans in the next five years, sharing the space with fellow nonprofits can only bring good things—and new volunteers—to LVCA.
Joint math classes with Thomas Jefferson Adult Career Education and civics programming with the heritage center are on the horizon, but Osborne admitted that she can’t even imagine what else could be in store for LVCA.
“We’ve already come across opportunities we’d never thought of before,” she said. “So being here is a big unknown for us.”
A discard bowl is an essential component in any whisky tasting, but it's a little bit heartbreaking to pour out the good stuff. Photo: John Robinson
Rick Wasmund and Dan FitzHenry sit at a small table in a Stay Charlottesville rental house arrayed with plastic cups holding fluids of hues that range from clover honey through amber to the color of cherry juice, a natural reddish brown. You’ve heard about the surge in the craft distillery movement? Now you’re in it.
Wasmund, the owner/distiller/barley malter at Copper Fox Distillery in Sperryville made the pages of The New York Times early last week for the American single malt that’s in the cup in his hand. FitzHenry, marketing manager/whisky nose/describer-in-chief at Virginia Distillery in Nelson County, spent the week hitting the pavement in D.C. with his Virginia Highland Malt Whisky, a 6-year-old Scottish vatted whisky finished in Virginia wine casks. His job is to sell to a group of people who think they know everything about a subject that is curiously subjective. This goes well with cigars. Oh, that’s perfect after a steak. Asian food? No problem.
Now the two of them are elbow to elbow, sticking their noses in cups, participating in an informal blind taste test of about 15 different whiskies.
Wasmund sniffs his own whisky. He’s just sipped Corner Creek’s light colored bourbon and one of the star performers of the evening, a subtle Islay single malt called Jura.
“Not overly oaked. Used barrels. I like it,” he says. “I want to say Few.”
FitzHenry doesn’t hesitate.
“Wasmund’s Single Malt. This is yours,” he says.
Wasmund: “Well, I said I liked it, didn’t I? Batch 78. This must be Batch 78.”
It is. He knows it because he malted the barley, which only one other distiller in the country does, and he distilled the spirit, and he put it in the barrels with the apple wood chips, and he tasted it until it was ready, which took a year.
Dan FitzHenry (top), director of marketing and sales at Virginia Distillery Company, takes a whiff of whisky during an impromptu tasting conducted at a Stay Charlottesville rental home last week. Photo: John Robinson
The room is full of foodies, drinkies, distillers, and aficionados. I’m an amateur, but because I’m drinking whisky, I’m having fun. Lots of people drink whisky, but not everyone tastes it.
“Wasmund’s Single Malt has an incredible mint note in the background. It sneaks up on you just after you swallow, right as you breathe out,” FitzHenry wrote in his tasting notes. “You get a mouthful of grass and mint. It’s really interesting.”
In the background, Daniel Page, longtime bartender at Hamiltons’ restaurant, circles a table covered in whisky bottles. He has seen the landscape change. The craze for single malt scotch gave way to small batch bourbon. Now rye is edging in. Can the local fever take hold in the world of spirits, where freshness isn’t an issue and where, let’s be honest, most consumers are trying to get drunk without looking stupid?
NoVA trailblazers Originally from upstate New York, Rick Wasmund worked in the insurance business, which led him from Florida to Middleburg in the late ’90s.
“It wasn’t so much that I was whisky-obsessed. I was at a whisky tasting and the idea came into my head and I thought it was a good one,” Wasmund said of his decision to become a distiller. “The more I explored it the more I believed we could have a niche that no one was filling.”
In 2000, Wasmund did a stint at the Isle of Islay distillery Bowmore, learning the traditional art of making Scotch whisky, which accounts for his encyclopedic knowledge of Scottish single malts and his obsession with malting his own barley. When he returned, he created Copper Fox LLC, putting a business plan on paper and looking for a quick way to get into the market by partnering with an existing Virginia distillery to create a new product, which he called Copper Fox whisky. But the idea was to run his own operation, so Wasmund kept looking for the right property in Fauquier County, close to the D.C. retail market. He ran into zoning issues there and ultimately settled on Sperryville in Rappahannock County in 2005.
Wasmund’s notion, then and now, was to make a uniquely American drink that could compete in the high-end spirit market quickly.
“We wanted to make it from the ground up. It’s Virginia barley, developed at Virginia Tech, grown on the Northern Neck and we do our own malting,” Wasmund said. “There should be a great variety of flavors of American single malt coming.”
And there are. Craft distilleries from New York to Oregon, Waco to Chicago are producing American single malts with a wide variety of flavor profiles that originate with distinctive distilling practices. Wasmund is Virginia’s torchbearer in the category, and he hangs his hat on his malted barley.
Malting barley involves partially germinating the grain, which changes starch into sugar. The barley is soaked for three days through three changes of water. Then it’s dried on a floor and raked over and over again for five days before being moved into a kiln room, where it’s dried out over a low temperature smoke. Copper Fox malts 1,200 pounds of barley at a time, a tiny amount compared to the big industrial malt houses that supply beer giants and make up to 80 tons at a time.
So unique is his product that it caused confusion when he took it to the Virginia ABC. His single malt is aged in barrels and infused with apple wood chips, which add color and flavor that layers with the distinctive taste of his barley malt.
“Bourbon’s a known product. But American single malt… the ABC didn’t even know where to put it,” Wasmund said. “There’s sections in their stores for scotch and bourbon. They tried putting us both places. Ultimately they told me I could go where I wanted and I told them to put us with the American whiskies.”
Copper Fox produces 6,000 12-bottle cases of spirits per year and Wasmund would like to push the number to 10,000. The economics are tough. He makes a single malt that goes for $36.90 and a rye that costs $45. At those price points, the state takes a little over half of the money straight off the top and the feds take another $3 per bottle in an excise tax. That leaves about $15 to cover the bottle, labels, fuel, grain, and labor.
The ABC sales model is the best route in Virginia, since technically restaurants and bar managers can’t even taste his whisky if Wasmund brings it to them. The state control system in Virginia can be a blessing and a curse.
“It’s not always easy to sell in Virginia. Part of our benefit is that we’re an hour and a half from D.C. There we can self-distribute. I can have a bar owner taste my stuff and if they like it, I can take an order and bring them cases the next week,” Wasmund said.
These days Wasmund gets a couple calls a week from people interested in starting their own distilleries. He has seven people on his team, and he’s just about ready to release a single malt gin with a heavily botanical flavor profile. His measure of success?
“I like the engineering challenges. The physical production challenges of making great whisky. We’re always trying to stretch ourselves and make it better but we’re also trying to make more of it. That’s fun,” he said.
Scott and Becky Harris are already making gin at their Catoctin Creek Distillery in Purcellville. And rye. And brandy. And a new-mix white spirit. While Wasmund’s process took almost a decade, from notion to fruition, the Harrises moved breathtakingly fast.
“It was a bit of a mid-life crisis. I was like I’ve got to get started on this now or another 10 years passes, I’ll be too tired,” Harris said.
Scott Harris, a onetime NoVA government contractor, has an engineering degree from Georgia Tech and his wife, Becky, a chemical engineering degree from the University of Wisconsin. They conceived of their distillery in February of 2009 and, after taking some distilling courses, started hammering out a business plan, getting feedback from local entrepreneurs. In less than a year, their stills were cranking out Catoctin Creek Roundstone Rye, their signature spirit, which won a gold medal at the 2013 Good Food Awards.
Their secret? Like Wasmund, they were able to make a brown whisky nearly right away. Whisky gets its color, character, and flavor from the aging process. Traditional scotch must be at least three years old. Bourbon four.
At the Copper Fox Distillery in Sperryville, Rick Wasmund makes American single malt and rye varieties that get their character from barley malted on the premises. Photo: John Robinson
“One of the things they say about craft distilleries is that we fake it til we make it,” Harris said. “We do the white whisky until we can get the old stuff out to the public. And that’s a flawed business model in my opinion. The white whisky is at best a novelty. We make a beautiful white whisky but it just doesn’t sell. People in America like brown spirits. So coming up with a brown spirit that was relatively youthful but tasted amazing was a big part of us being able to grow quickly.”
At the height of the financial crisis, the Harrises got a small business loan and by year’s end 2010, all of their federal and state licensing was in place. Their first customer was Virginia ABC.
The Harrises released a local craft rye right as the old timey spirit was making a profound comeback. The company’s marketing schtick draws on local history.
“It was rye whisky country. People weren’t drinking corn liquor here until the Civil War,” Harris said.
The branding worked, and now Catoctin Creek is moving from strength to strength. The distillery is producing 40,000 bottles per year, over half rye.
“Basically when we started out the liquor we were putting out was very, very young. It has gotten older as we’ve gotten older. The spirit is just about two years old and it’s a type of spirit we like that was a style that was common during Prohibition,” Harris said.
Catoctin Creek’s gin is made from the same mash as the rye, using the tails of the rye cuttings. It’s double distilled, then infused with botanicals, distilled again and turned into gin. The Harris’ success story is the stuff distillers’ dreams are made of. Like Wasmund, they get two or three queries per week from people who want to emulate their model. There’s still room in the game, but Harris has some words to the wise:
“People don’t realize how much physical labor is involved. It is a tough, blue collar job. We’re not sitting in the office in the air conditioning,” he said. “You’re out here in the 100 degree heat pouring this boiling mash into the still.”
Then there’s the door-to-door salesmanship, the relationship building in an industry with high turnover. And the competition from giant brands.
“We work almost every hour of every day on this job,” he said. “But we love making whisky. I get to go to a party and tell people I make whisky for a living. It is really gratifying to make something with your hands and go to a nice restaurant and see that bottle on the shelf.”
Oh and one more thing to keep in mind: Being close to D.C. matters.
“We sell more liquor in D.C. than we sell in the entire states of Virginia and Maryland combined,” Harris said.
Every Monday, the C-VILLE team compiles a list of the previous week’s most important stories that didn’t make it into the news section. Be sure to check in each week for all the news you need, in full-length stories and briefs.
Student shot with pellet gun on city school bus
A Burnley-Moran Elementary student was shot with a pellet gun on a city school bus last week, according to police and school officials.
The incident happened after hours Tuesday, but on Wednesday, school spokeswoman Jane Lee told reporters only that there had been “a reported incident on the school bus involving a minor child,” and that an investigation was underway. Parents weren’t alerted until later that day, when Superintendent Rosa S. Atkins notified them by letter. The letter made no mention of a student being hit, but said a student “reportedly discharged” the replica firearm. The parents of the 9-year-old boy who was shot told the Charlottesville Newsplex they learned what happened when the school called Wednesday and left a voicemail. They said their son was hit in the back of the head and that he’s “still upset” after a hospital visit.
Lee said the student who fired the gun has been suspended, and the school board will hold a hearing on whether to expel him within a few weeks. Lieutenant Ronnie Roberts of the Charlottesville Police Department said police began investigating as soon as they learned of the shooting Wednesday, and that a case is moving forward in Charlottesville Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court.
New allegations as Dumler heads to court
Christopher Dumler, the 27-year-old Democrat representing Scottsville on the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors, will appear in court Thursday, January 31, for a preliminary hearing on one charge of forcible sodomy. He was arrested last October and accused of forced anal intercourse by an anonymous victim, and now, days before his court date, he could be facing additional sexual charges.
According to a Friday report from CBS19, newly filed court documents reveal a second alleged victim has come forward, accusing Dumler of repeated sexual assaults.
The alleged incidents took place between September and December of 2006, when the accuser said Dumler raped and sodomized her multiple times. The investigation is ongoing, the report said, and special prosecutor Jeffrey Haislip said it is not yet determined whether the victim will testify about similar conduct, or whether a second charge will be filed against Dumler.
Forcible sodomy is a felony offense punishable by up to a life in prison. In a statement released October 25, Dumler said he intends to plead not guilty, and “will offer a vigorous defense.” According to CBS19, Dumler was unaware of the new allegations and declined to comment until he got in touch with his attorney, K. Andrew Sneathern.
Huguely appeals conviction with new attorneys
George Huguely is appealing his second-degree murder charge, claiming he was denied his right to representation during his trial last February in Charlottesville and citing a number of other objections.
According to The Daily Progress, Huguely has hired a new team of lawyers. Attorneys Paul D. Clement of Washington, D.C.—a well-known litigator and former U.S. Solicitor General—and Craig S. Cooley of Richmond filed on his behalf with the Court of Appeals of Virginia, instead of Charlottesville lawyers Francis McQ. Lawrence and Rhonda Quagliana, who represented him here last year.
Huguely was found guilty of second-degree murder and sentenced to 23 years in prison in the 2010 beating death of Yeardley Love, 22, when both were senior UVA lacrosse players just weeks from graduation.
In an Associated Press story carried by multiple news outlets, Huguely’s mother Marta Murphy issued a statement saying the family “has faith in the legal system and looks forward to the appeals process ahead.”
Prosecutors have 30 days to respond to the appeal.
Cav Daily to go to twice-weekly print publication
UVA’s student newspaper, The Cavalier Daily, is shifting to twice-weekly print publication and is adopting a “digital-first newsroom” format, according to a press release issued last week.
Starting next semester, a newsmagazine version of the Cav Daily—one of the oldest student newspapers in the country—will hit stands Mondays and Thursdays.
“From a literary perspective [restructuring] will allow us to cover breaking news the way it should be covered—fast,” Kaz Komolafe, the paper’s managing editor, said in the release. “We will also be able to offer more in-depth coverage of events, which we are currently prevented from doing because of the time limitations of producing a daily print newspaper.”
With the help of a $20,000 grant from the UVA Parents’ Committee, the editorial staff will also expand the papers’ online offerings, with mobile and tablet apps, an e-newsletter and more emphasis on social media. The changes will be accompanied by a rebranding effort, including a new marketing push and a logo redesign.
Jefferson Vineyards and Andy Reagan parted ways last week. Reagan is working on his own venture, to be called AJUDE Wine Company. Photo: Ashley Twiggs
Moving on
Andy Reagan of Jefferson Vineyards is moving on in his winemaking career after helming the vineyard and cellar, and acting as its general manager since 2005. According to a press release, Reagan wants to start his own winery and create his own “vision of Virginia wine.” A difference of opinion with the owners coupled with a desire to build his own brand is the reason for the split, said the release.
His new venture, AJUDE Wine Company, to be based in Charlottesville, will produce limited quantities of high-end wines. He is currently searching for a site and financial backing.
Jefferson isn’t the only Virginia wine spot to lose its winemaker within the last year. That list also includes Rappahannock Cellars, Boxwood, Chrysalis, and Ingleside Vintners.
A taste of luxury
Join acclaimed chef Aaron Silverman, a guest chef at Glass Haus Kitchen, on Wednesday, January 30 as he serves an inventive six-course tasting menu paired with wines. Silverman has worked stints in renowned kitchens such as Sean Brock’s McCrady’s in South Carolina, and David Chang’s Momofuko in New York City. Glass Haus will donate $1 from each dinner to the Virginia Institute of Autism. The price per person is $85, and reservations can be made by calling 244-8439.
Valentine’s field trip
Chef Melissa Close Hart of Palladio Restaurant at Barboursville Vineyards will serve a six-course Valentine’s Day dinner beginning at 7pm on Thursday, February 14. Hart often features food grown on the estate as well as locally grown delights from farmers nearby. Dinner is $150 per person (all-inclusive), and reservations are required. Call (540) 832-7848 to reserve your spot.
If you choose to stay home on February 14, but still want to celebrate with Barboursville Vineyards, take a trip to Lansdowne Resort in Leesburg on Sunday, February 17. Hart and winemaker Luca Paschina will host a five-course wine dinner representing all aspects of their Barboursville estate. Dinner begins at 6:30pm, costs $95 per person, and reservations can be made by calling (571) 291-7649.
