Last year’s Harry Potter Halloween event in Scottsville attracted 10,000 muggles, and Om Tattoo became Olivanders.
courtesy Scottsville Ministry of Magic
By Natalie Jacobsen
This year’s Halloween was supposed to mark the fourth, and predictably largest, Harry Potter festival Scottsville had ever hosted. But the magic was quelled with a phone call from Warner Bros. Entertainment citing trademark infringement.
The town’s spellbinding transformation, including businesses and their owners, has transfixed children, students and adults alike.
“Halloween was always a big deal for Scottsville,” says Kristin Freshwater of Baine’s Books & Coffee. “Living in a rural area growing up, we would have to drive to each house to trick-or-treat…to make it easier, Scottsville had its own Halloween: Every shop would hand out candy.” When Freshwater transformed Baine’s into Honeydukes (the fictional candy shop in the Harry Potter series) one year, the spark for a whole festival was ignited. “We ran wild with it—nonprofits, vendors, shops all jumped on board.”
To cope with the burden of planning an annual Harry Potter Halloween, Freshwater formed the Ministry of Magic, a group of a dozen shop owners and creative people in town. Two other festival heavyweights are Chris Hornsby and Nakahili Womack, of Om Tattoo & Massage, which was transformed into Ollivander’s Wand Shop.
Four years ago, Scottsville saw a handful of shops embrace the Harry Potter Halloween theme, with 800 “muggles”—non-magical people—visiting. Last year, 25 shops and locations, not including a marketplace with a dozen independent vendors, joined the fun, and nearly 10,000 visitors poured in, brandishing wands and donning Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry house colors of Ravenclaw, Slytherin and more.
James River Brewery became The Leaky Cauldron, and a life-size dragon sat atop Tavern on the James, aka Hog’s Head Inn. Victory Hall swapped names with the Great Hall, welcoming young witches and wizards to the sorting hat ceremony. The library became Flourish and Blotts Bookseller, and even St. John’s Episcopal Church didn’t want to miss out on the magic: “They researched to recreate the cemetery and look of St. Jerome’s Church at Godric’s Hollow…adding tombstones of Lily and James Potter, even the Peverell family,” says Freshwater. “I was in awe.”
But a few weeks prior to Halloween weekend this year, Freshwater received the call. The Warner Bros. rep was “really friendly about it,” and explained countless festivals across the nation were unwittingly using its intellectual property, says Freshwater.
Warner Bros. representatives told her businesses cannot actively use trademarked Harry Potter-related names but nonprofits, including libraries and churches, can. Without enough time to switch gears for this year’s event, it was canceled. Going forward, Freshwater says the event will be a Wizarding Fest.
“We are disappointed, but now we have an opportunity to create original, inspired names,” she says. “We all love the Harry Potter books, films and J.K. Rowling—we want to respect her intellectual property.”
Other Harry Potter events nationwide have had to evolve or adapt to Warner Bros. guidelines, or face legal consequences. The largest in the nation, the Harry Potter Festival in Jefferson, Wisconsin, has lawyers in constant communication with Warner Bros. to seek permission for certain name uses.
Some Harry Potter festivals in nearby cities, including Staunton and Roanoke, are still “flying under the radar,” Freshwater says.
Freshwater believes the magic will be back in full force next year, albeit with some changes. “You will see new names, some new decorations…but it’ll still be magical,” she says. “Scottsville is a tight-knit community…if anyone needs help or has an idea, we’ll talk about it and make it happen.”
Nic McCarthy was one of nine people to have an obstruction of justice charge dropped after the July 8 KKK rally. Photo by: Eze Amos
In the never-ending string of court cases stemming from this year’s run-ins with white supremacists and neo-Nazis, 15 people went before a judge October 30 for charges brought against them during the July 8 Ku Klux Klan rally in Justice Park.
Approximately 50 members of the Loyal White Knights of the KKK, a North Carolina-based group, dropped by over the summer to protest the tearing down of the General Robert E. Lee statue—and were met by intense opposition in the form of hundreds of angry counterprotesters. Just over 20 people were arrested that day, primarily for obstruction of justice and free passage.
Kandace Baker was among those in Charlottesville General District Court October 30.
After pleading not guilty to obstruction of justice, she testified that she was looking for her husband near Justice Park around 4pm when a Virginia State Police trooper told her an unlawful assembly had been declared and she needed to leave the area. Baker tried several times to turn and walk back through the alley she initially came through, but the officer pushed her and would not allow her to exit the way she entered, she said. He arrested her and another VSP trooper “dragged [her]” to the courthouse to press charges, she said.
Though Judge Robert Downer said he had probable cause to believe she was obstructing justice, he said he’s not sure she’s guilty beyond a reasonable doubt and he let her off the hook.
“Just because you make their job a little more difficult, that’s not enough for obstruction of justice,” Downer said.
He dropped charges against nine counterprotesters who were arrested for obstructing free passage at the rally, likely in a demonstration where several anti-white supremacists linked arms in front of a gate that police planned to usher the robed Klan members through. These people include Kendall Bills, Cameron Bills, Jo Donahue, John Neavear, Nic McCarthy, Jeanne Peterson, Evan Viglietta, Whitney Whitting and Sara Tansey, who wore teal lipstick and matching tights to court in true Halloween fashion.
Tansey was found guilty of destruction of property in the same court October 16 for nabbing homegrown white rights advocate Jason Kessler’s phone while he was live-streaming a Corey Stewart rally in Emancipation Park February 11.
Also on October 30, Morgan Niles and Erika Ries pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice and were both sentenced to 30 days in jail, with all of that substituted for 40 hours of community service.
Three people had their cases continued. Tracye Redd, also charged with obstruction of justice, will appear December 1. Jarrell Jones, charged with assault and battery, and Rashaa Langston, charged with failing to disperse in a riot, will be back in court March 5.
alt-j performs at the Pavilion on November 1. Photo: Gabriel Green
It might come as a surprise to learn that alt-J members conceive of themselves as a folk band. After all, the U.K. trio’s synths, patterns and rhythms don’t conjure the same aesthetic as an acoustic guitar-wielding troubadour. The experimental art-rock does, however, evoke its own brand of folklore. Take “Adeline,” a track from the group’s June release, Relaxer. According to a Tweet from the band, the song is about a Tasmanian devil who falls in love with a woman as he watches her swim. Across three acclaimed albums, Joe Newman (lead vocals/guitar), Gus Unger-Hamilton (keyboards/vocals) and Thom Green (drums) have spun tales that are hushed and atmospheric, or forces to be reckoned with, but never straightforward.
“The fact that we make quote weird, left-field music, but have quite a lot of fans, makes us feel quite free to do what we want because I think people seem to like us for being a bit unusual as a band,” says Unger-Hamilton.
alt-J often relies on literary or cultural references to formulate its mythologies. The debut album, An Awesome Wave, took home the 2012 Mercury Prize awarded for the best U.K. album of the year. The title comes from a line in Bret Easton Ellis’ novel, American Psycho, while its single, “Breezeblocks” draws from Maurice Sendak’s children’s book Where The Wild Things Are. Elsewhere, the track “Matilda” is based on the 1994 movie Leon: The Professional, featuring Natalie Portman as the character Mathilda. Wrought with layers of instrumentation, vocals, and lyrical meaning, some songs can take the group years to complete.
“Often, there’ll be an idea, it might be a bit of a guitar that Joe has had for a long time or it might be, you know, some sort of jam that we’ve done together that someone’s recorded on their phone, and we go, ‘That’s really great,’ we think that at some point we’re gonna use that for something,” Unger-Hamilton explains. “But then also, songs like ‘Hit Me Like That Snare’ and ‘Left Hand Free,’ were written much more spontaneously, really. But then even so, in those places, I think there’s always ideas in there that are really, really old.”
Newman, Unger-Hamilton and Green all met as sophomores at Leeds University in 2007. Newman was studying Civil Engineering, Unger-Hamilton was studying French and Green had taken up medicine. Their friendship led them to form a band.
“When we were finishing University, you know, it was like the height of the financial crisis. There was this general mood going around that there were no graduate jobs,” says Unger-Hamilton. “And we were like, this is actually a good time to carry on doing something we think is really good and we seemed to have just as much chance making it as a band as we would pursuing a more conventional graduate career, I suppose.”
Nearly a decade later, the indie darlings propel ever forward on a third album, Relaxer, drawing just as much on numeric meaning as literature. Earlier this year, alt-j teased the record’s opening track with a video titled “00110011 01110111 01110111,” which is the binary code for 3WW, the song’s actual title. The same code later appears in the lyrics to “In Cold Blood,” which takes its title from the Truman Capote work of the same name. Sonically, the group charted new territory with a session at the historic Abbey Road Studios, where they recorded alongside the lush brass and string sections that accent six of the album’s eight tracks. They even tried their hand at a traditional folk song, “House of the Rising Sun,” albeit adding an original second verse. It wouldn’t be an alt-J song without a fabled twist.
“I think that if we do have a a formula, it’s essentially that we just really enjoy the chemistry that we have when we get together and the fact that we don’t set any limits on what we do musically, that’s our formula,” Unger-Hamilton says. “So, in that sense, we’ve always stuck to that formula of just seeing what happens, let the music take the lead and let’s see how each song turns out.”
If anyone is seeking an excuse to shovel popcorn into their mouth, now is the time. October is National Popcorn Month, and in celebration of America’s favorite cinema snack, we sampled all of the popped corn that Charlottesville’s movie theaters have to offer. Here are our findings.
Alamo Drafthouse Cinema
Rating: 5 popcorns (scale of 1-5)
Appearance: Because the Alamo is both a movie theater and a restaurant, the popcorn here is served not in a bag or a bucket, but rather a metal bowl, elevating the snack to the level of a full-fledged appetizer.
Taste: While the regular buttered popcorn was delightfully delicate and perfectly salted and buttered, the truffled Parmesan buttered popcorn was a truly engaging culinary experience, lighting up both the salt and umami receptors on my tongue.
Overall: The popcorn here was made and presented not as a snack to be mindlessly consumed during a film, but rather a carefully constructed dish that can easily be enjoyed in individual bites—or a heaping, sloppy handful.
Violet Crown Cinema
Rating: Three popcorns
Appearance: Not only does Violet Crown smell overwhelmingly of butter, but the popcorn here was also shoveled out of a quintessential neon-lit popcorn machine, all of which creates a classic movie theater popcorn experience.
Taste: More so than every other location, this popcorn was merely dusted with both salt and butter, gliding right along the periphery of noticeable flavor.
Overall: Although Violet Crown’s popcorn was light on flavor, it could easily be consumed by the bucket without much notice.
Regal Stonefield Stadium 14 & IMAX
Rating: Four popcorns
Appearance: Behind a classically designed concession stand, the Regal’s gargantuan popcorn machine is visible, cluing in visitors that its popcorn has the authentic, rich buttery taste you’d expect from movie theater popcorn.
Taste: The popcorn was considerably heavy on both the butter and the salt, leaving both a delicious salty ring around my lips, and enough butter on my hands to stain whatever I touched.
Overall: When most people imagine a bucket of typical movie theater popcorn, this is exactly what they are thinking of.
Up for grabs
If you’re one of the many people who fondly remembers Flintstone’s Push-Up pops, then you are in luck. A new baking business called UpCakes combines the nostalgic frozen treat with cupcakes. Started by recent JMU grad and operating room nurse Megan Stolte, UpCakes offers custom push-pop cupcakes for any event. Besides evoking pleasant memories of summer treats, the push-pop design also allows for a totally portable and mess-free cake experience. And long gone are the days of flavors like Yabba Dabba Doo Orange: UpCakes offers unique flavors such as dunkaroos, one in a melon and puppy chow. Or you can special order any flavor, complete with a custom label, for events like anti-Valentine’s Day or National Wine Day. For more information, go to UpCakes Facebook page, or email eatupcakes@gmail.com. And if you want just a cake or two, look for UpCakes at the holiday City Market December 9.
Grapes ferment in large tanks throughout the production facility before being loaded into a press. Photo by Paul Whicheloe
He pulls the golf cart onto the right side of the gravel path: “Let me show you some of this viognier.” Carrington King, vineyard manager at King Family Vineyards in Crozet, stops the driver of a Kawasaki golf cart heading in the opposite direction of the tasting room, toward the processing facility, loaded down with bright yellow crates called lugs, each filled with 25 pounds of grapes. The crates are marked with the name Roseland in black, the name of the farm and the name of a chardonnay/viognier/petit manseng blend the winery produces. King plucks a cluster of grapes and holds it up to the afternoon sunlight to show how these berries, part of a second harvest of viognier this season, are starting to raisin and dehydrate.
“See how it’s drying nicely, no rot? And that”—he points to a brown discoloration—“that’s a little sunburn, but it’s perfectly fine.”
He pops a few grapes in his mouth.
“Super, super sweet. A year like this you can do interesting projects like this.”
Steeped in history
Our region is part of the Monticello American Viticultural Area, the state’s oldest AVA, founded in 1984. It’s named for the estate of one of the biggest proponents of American winemaking, Thomas Jefferson, who dreamt his home would be surrounded by flourishing vineyards that could compete with the Old World style of winemaking. Jefferson enlisted the help of notable Italian winemaker Filipo Mazzei, who researched the local terroir and planted thousands of vines around Monticello and at farms nearby. Although the American Revolution cut down Jefferson’s dream, if he walked the Monticello Wine Trail today he might see something closely resembling his vision.
The Monticello AVA, which includes Charlottesville and the four surrounding counties of Albemarle, Greene, Nelson and Orange, is made up of 33 wineries and encompasses 800,000 acres in the area on the eastern slope of the Blue Ridge Mountains. About 30 varieties of grapes are grown here, with some of the most prominent being chardonnay, cabernet franc, merlot and our state grape, viognier.
Virginia winemaking saw a resurgence in 1976 with the founding of Barboursville Vineyards by Gianni Zonin, heir to a family wine enterprise in the Veneto region of Italy. In August, the Daily Meal, which gathers input from wine industry professionals and factors in awards and accolades from wine publications, named Barboursville No. 8 on its 101 Best Wineries in America list (Michael Shaps Wineworks came in at No. 57, Jefferson Vineyards at 94).
What makes it Virginia wine?
Vineyards and wineries in which 85 percent of the fruit comes from the Monticello AVA, with the remainder made up in local grapes from around the state, may enter the Monticello Wine Cup Awards each April.
Statewide regulations are a little less strict: 51 percent of the grapes have to come from Virginia land owned or leased by a winery for that wine to be considered a Virginia farm wine (the label will read American wine).
Some of the larger wineries operate under a different classification: 75 percent of their grapes must come from within the state. And the wines of any winery with 75 percent or more grapes grown in Virginia are labeled Virginia wines.
But Virginia is often overlooked when it comes to making the grade as a top wine region in America, with heavy-hitters like Napa and Sonoma, and New York’s Finger Lakes and Oregon’s Willamette Valley getting all the national headlines. In fact, some wineries in California produce as much wine as all of the wineries in Virginia together. Sadly, in early October, wildfires in Northern California killed 42 people and scorched 240,000 acres, destroying six wineries in the Napa and Sonoma regions.
Locally, we also battle Mother Nature: This fall’s lack of rain caused City Council and the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors to issue mandatory water restrictions earlier in the month—no watering your lawn, take brief showers—to help offset the lower water supply levels (the South Fork Rivanna Reservoir fell to 42 percent capacity in just two months).
But our hot, dry autumn is actually good news for grape growers and vineyard owners. A drier season with more mild temperatures means a longer growing season, which allows the fruit to fully ripen on the vine. That means they are picked at the perfect point of ripeness, when the balance of sugar and acid levels for each variety is at its peak.
This year could not only be a banner year for Virginia winemakers in terms of grape yield, quality of the fruit and thus quality of the wine produced, it could be the year that puts Virginia wine on the map, many say.
Hearty harvest
Emily Pelton couldn’t believe what she was tasting. It was the end of July, and the first sample of sauvignon blanc grapes had just come in from the field at Veritas Vineyard & Winery in Afton, where Pelton is head winemaker.
She expected the berries in a random sampling to be tart, like they usually are, but instead Pelton was hit with a punch of sweetness: “Oh, that’s nice!” she thought.
That was one of the first signs that this year would be “a vintage in our books,” she predicts, up there with her favorite vintages in 2009 and 2010.
Although the area also experienced a drought in 2010, that one caused a surge in sugar in the grapes and fast ripening, which led to a smaller yield, Pelton says. This year, she says they hauled in 382.2 tons of grapes between the 50 acres under vine at her family’s winery and another 50 on farms within 30 minutes’ drive, which will make about 26,000 cases of wine (there are 12 bottles in a case). An average year would yield 15,000 to 20,000 cases for the vineyard.
Emily Pelton, head winemaker at Veritas, helped her parents, Andrew and Patricia Hodson, start the winery in 1999. Photo by Paul Whicheloe
Several factors contributed to this year’s bountiful harvest, says Joy Ting, production manager and head enologist at Michael Shaps Wineworks. For one, there was an early bud break in the spring, which generally makes winemakers and growers nervous, because one cold snap could wipe out their crops. But the milder temperatures held, translating into a longer grape-growing season. Most wineries started picking their first white grape crops at least a week early—Pelton says they started picking August 10, almost two weeks ahead of schedule. King Family picked its first chardonnay grapes for its sparkling wine August 3—a full week earlier than it’s ever harvested. In addition, wineries were still harvesting their last red varieties at normal times (early to mid-October), and were even able to do second-round pickings of certain varieties, such as King’s viognier.
The small amount of rain (our area dodged residual effects from Hurricanes Irma and Maria) meant the threat of disease such as rot was lessened, and it also allowed grapes with more concentrated flavor because the vines could focus on their job—growing fruit.
“I feel like the cabernet franc this year is some of the best cabernet franc that I’ve seen since I’ve been in the industry, about five years,” Ting says. The sauvignon blancs, viognier and rosé don’t need to go through malolactic fermentation, which reduces acidity, and will be released in late summer 2018. Most of the reds like cabernet sauvignon, tannat and petit verdot will continue to age in barrels for another year after being pressed and undergoing malolactic fermentation. They will be available in late 2019. “But I would hesitate to say that, only because I really feel like across the board the fruit was very high quality. From the very early whites all the way through the reds…for Virginia, I feel like it was a really wonderful growing season for us.”
Down to a science
As Carrington King passes by blocks of grapes, he points out their labeling system of using cattle tags on each row: red for merlot, pink for cabernet franc, yellow for petit manseng. We stop near a block of viognier, where people are hand-picking the second harvest of the grape, which will likely be used for a small-batch orange viognier (a method of winemaking in which white grapes are fermented on the skins like a red wine, creating an amber hue and giving the wine “nice tannin”). King’s brother’s father-in-law is out in the field, as is King’s mother, Ellen, picking alongside year-round employees. The vineyard is a family endeavor—David and Ellen King started the vineyard in 1998, and the couple’s three sons now help operate the 327-acre farm and vineyard.
King says all the grapes are handpicked—“It’s hard to find them, you have to hunt way up high,” he says. Gathering berries for sampling (which begins about a week after veraison, when the red grapes go from green to red and the white grapes start softening) is not a very scientific process: Someone grabs a Ziploc bag and walks along a path with a row of vines on either side. While looking straight ahead, he’ll reach in and grab some berries off a cluster, sometimes off the top, sometimes off the bottom, and ping-pong between the two rows to ensure a sampling of berries that get both morning and afternoon sun. By not looking at the berries you pick you’re ensuring as random a sample as possible–our eyes are naturally trained to flesh out the best-looking berries.
“When we’re sampling and trying to get tons per acres we do berry weights and cluster weights. On average our berry weight was lower than most years,” King says. “Typically a winemaker would love to have smaller berries, especially in a red where the ratio of juice to skin favors better color, better tannin, better extraction, because your ratio of juice to skin is higher on the skin side. Now, in central Virginia we don’t know what to call average because it’s been so variable every year.”
Employees of King Family Vineyards handpicked a second harvest of viognier grapes last week. Photo by Paul WhicheloeKing Family winemaker Matthieu Finot and vineyard manager Carrington King sort freshly picked grapes by hand. Photo by Paul Whicheloe
Once the sample comes in the process does turn scientific. The berries are crushed and the juice is strained into a beaker, and a pH meter and a refractometer measure the pH level and percent of soluble solids—the sugar level of the juice. As the sugar accumulates in the grape, the pH level increases. When the grapes are first tested the pH might be 2.8 or 2.9, increasing to 5.3 or 6, as it gets more basic (7 on the pH scale is neutral). But acid is good for wine—if it’s not acidic enough the wine won’t taste balanced. Chardonnay used in sparkling wine, for instance, is picked at a lower pH level of 3 to give the wine an “acidic tingle and freshness,” King says.
“When it gets closer to harvest (three weeks after veraison) we might take samples every few days, to try to say what’s the progression of sugar accumulation and how quickly is the acid going down, to try to find the right balance point of when it’s the right time to pick that grape,” Ting says. “And that’s one of the nice things about not having rain coming. We get to dial that in a little more carefully. If it’s going to rain, we’ll usually pick it before the rain, if we feel like it’s close to ripe. This year we would take samples, and we would almost be able to predict ‘well okay, it looks like it’s gaining such and such sugar per day, so it looks like this weekend it should be right where we want it to get’ and it would be right about where we expected it to be.”
Michael Shaps, which has about 80 acres of vineyard under lease or management in eight counties in the state for its own wines, also does contract winemaking for clients who bring in grapes from their own vineyards, and Ting says grapes from all over the state saw similar consistency this year. Shaps was the original winemaker at King Family, and was succeeded by Matthieu Finot in 2007.
Finot, whose lab is housed in the “newish” production facility at King Family (it’s their fourth harvest in the new building), echoes other winemakers in their love of this year’s crop with good acid, which keeps freshness in the wine and helps it age well.
“I’m very excited with the chardonnay, and the cab franc will just be wonderful this year: good ripening, good color, good tannin extraction,” he says. “I think it’s going to be a key vintage for what we do. We had some rain at the beginning of September, just to give us harvest, then it went back to nice, sunny and dry. On a whole I’m very happy with it. Usually when you talk to the winemaker at this time they’re all depressed…here, it’s like yay!”
Experimental thinking
When asked what her favorite varieties this season are, Pelton lets out a little yelp and squirms in her seat. It’s like asking her to pick a favorite child. She concedes that her sauvignon blanc was “killer” this year—not that the viognier wasn’t—but the sauvignon blanc stands out for its intense aromatics. You can pick out distinct notes of grapefruit and passionfruit, specifically pink grapefruit.
“You can really start diving in there and saying, ‘Ooh, I can smell this!’” she says.
For reds, she names both cabernet franc and petit verdot, but finally settles on cab franc.
King also names their cabernet franc and petit verdot as the red varieties he’s most excited about this year: “The chemistry was amazing,” he says.
King Family hauled in 240 tons of grapes this season from its more than 30 acres, which translates to 12,000 cases. King says demand is going up every year, as is production and new plantings: In 2016 they made 2,200 cases of Crosé, which lasted in their tasting room until July. The year before, they produced 1,800 cases that sold out in September. Each year they’re selling out earlier: They will bottle 4,000 cases of the 2017 vintage of the cult favorite rosé, a staple at summer polo matches at the vineyard.
Although King Family mainly sticks to its stable of wines, it created its small batch series four or five years ago to allow Finot to experiment, and in a banner year like this there’s a little more room to play.
“What’s really fun for us is making these little tiny batches to make very select bottlings,” King says.
Newly released this year for King Family is a wine called Mountain Plains, which was the original name of the family’s property when a 22-year-old Thomas Jefferson, then an attorney, signed the deed. The “super meritage” is a blend of petit verdot, merlot and cabernet franc—two barrels of each.
Currently being processed in King Family’s production facility is a whole cluster petit verdot–pressed with stems and all–much the way they would have done in the Old World when grapes were crushed underfoot. The stems give the wine more tannins, Finot says, but that can be risky. He points to a similar experiment a few years ago with a dry petit manseng that is now being served in the tasting room. When he first tried it he thought it was very harsh and acidic, out of balance, and he considered dumping it. But he kept aging it in barrels, and after two years he ended up with a drinkable wine.
“Now it’s one of the wines I really love,” he says.
Berry good
Although the viognier grape, which has intense, complex aromas of stone fruit with tropical notes, was named our state’s signature grape in 2011 (its thick skin can stand up to Virginia’s heat and humidity), it comes in as No. 6 in grape production totals from a 2016 commercial grape report prepared for the Virginia Wine Board. Here are our state’s top five:
1.Cabernet franc (929 tons)
2. Chardonnay (760 tons)
3. Merlot (620 tons)
4. Cabernet sauvignon (533 tons)
5. Petit verdot (495 tons)
Blenheim Vineyards, which made roughly 4,500 cases in 2016 and will bottle 8,000 cases this year, has added the albariño grape, which generally flourishes in Spain, to its portfolio. Ting points to Bleinheim and Afton Mountain Vineyards as early champions of the grape variety, good for making a fresh white wine. Kirsty Harmon, winemaker and general manager at Blenheim, says both the albariño and sauvignon blanc did well this year, and she made a little wine out of pinot noir, which she hasn’t been able to attempt in years past.
“I’d say that it is potentially the best harvest at Blenheim since I’ve been winemaker for 10 years,” she says.
And Veritas’ Pelton is experimenting too, but less with grapes and more on winemaking styles and the growing process. In 2014 she helped found the now statewide Winemakers Research Exchange in which wineries in Virginia can submit experiments for blind taste tests. Last year the exchange had 10 different tastings; Pelton submitted four or five projects.
The future of local wines
Today there are more than 260 wineries statewide compared with 193 in 2010. In 2015, the wine and grape industry brought in $1.37 billion, and wine production nearly doubled in that time frame from 439,500 cases to 705,200, according to the Virginia Wine Board’s 2015 Economic Impact Study.
Today’s wineries, with careful site selection for plantings and fruit monitoring along with evolving winemaking, are a far cry from the early days 40 years ago, King says. He says he’s often asked who his competitors are. His answer: He doesn’t have any. He says all the winemakers, vineyard owners and grape growers are friendly with one another and eager to share insights to create the best wine and customer experience they can.
“It’s a very intimate thing to sell something that you’re going to imbibe—it’s not tennis shoes or a belt buckle. It’s going in your body,” King says. “If someone has a bad experience somewhere, they might write off Virginia wine.”
Two weeks ago Pelton traveled to Charleston, South Carolina, for a luncheon hosted by Garden & Gun magazine. Only Virginia wines, including Veritas and Early Mountain Vineyards, were served, and guests didn’t know what they were drinking until Pelton walked around to each table to chat with the luncheon’s attendees. Their feedback? They were surprised by the wine’s origins, but they loved it.
“I would just like to point out we have such pride in our Southern food culture,” Pelton says. “I’d like people to start having the same [feeling] about their local brewery, winery and cidery.”
Kara Gloeckner, whose dog, Soleil, accompanies her to work at the group home, says removing administrative offices and adding bedrooms to the house on Park Street will provide a more home-like atmosphere for the girls living there. Photo by Eze Amos
The owner of a group home on Park Street is requesting a special-use permit to double the house’s occupancy from eight to 16 girls, but some neighbors, citing the 51 times police have already been called to the house this year, don’t think it’s a good idea.
“Putting 16 troubled girls into one house is like a pressure cooker,” says Jackie Lichtman, who has lived next door to what’s known as the Structured Therapeutic Adolescent Residential Service house for nearly 20 years. For about 15 of those, the residence has existed as a home for at-risk girls between the ages of 13 and 19.
“With eight girls there, it’s not really a problem,” says Lichtman.
The home, built in 1984, was originally designed to house 16 mentally disabled adults, says owner Kara Gloeckner, who interned there at that time. Allowing that many girls to live there would be fulfilling its intended use, she adds, and because the space at 517 Park St. also houses administrative offices, replacing them with bedrooms would make for a more home-like environment and alleviate parking stress.
Almost as soon as she bought the house in 2003, Gloeckner was denied a request for the same special-use permit, with lack of parking being a main issue.
Though Lichtman says she’s counted as many as 15 spots taken by STARS staff, social workers, tutors and visitors, Gloeckner says the seven staff cars parked in the lot would be reduced to four, with four on-street permits remaining the same.
At an October 12 public input meeting, a requirement for those applying for a special-use permit, Gloeckner addressed safety concerns.
“I think having been your neighbor for 15 years, that the fears of what bad kids moving into the community was going to do—I think we’ve lived in the neighborhood long enough to see that those things didn’t happen,” she said, adding that 41 of the 51 police calls this year were due to missing children.
Only five calls were the result of an incident or disorder within the residence, where at least two STARS staffers are stationed at the house 24 hours a day, and none involved residents and the surrounding community, such as theft or break-ins.
“Anybody still concerned about the safety of the community?” Gloeckner asked the crowded room. Several hands shot up as one voice squeaked, “Everybody.”
Other community members accused her of wanting to profit from serving more kids.
“We’re not trying to expand the business and we’re not bringing more kids to Charlottesville to serve,” says Gloeckner, because her team already serves 16 girls in the community, but they’re currently divided into two homes.
Though Gloeckner says her residents are regularly seen by physical and mental health physicians, some community members worry about how well the kids are cared for.
Will Cooke, a choir teacher at Charlottesville High School, has interacted with many STARS students in his 11 years at CHS.
“They’re kids who are already so massively traumatized because they’re removed from their families,” he says. “Without exception, all the kids who live there have all told the same story, about how they are further traumatized and are not, in any way, given anything therapeutic. It’s just a different kid telling it.”
Adds Cooke, “Upping that number is one of the worst possible things that could ever happen to the children in that house.”
There’s a reason why Charlottesville is prominent on so many “Best Of” lists like 50 Best College Towns,Top 50 Best Cities for Entrepreneurs, Top 100 Best Places to Live and many more. Those of us who live here know it’s an all-round great place to call home.So what to do if you love all that is Charlottesville, but also want to live close to or on a beautiful body of water?
If this describes you, ask your agent about Lake Monticello, a popular gated community in nearby Fluvanna County whose resort lifestyle is accessible to everyone from young, first-time buyers to families needing more space, and professionals, retirees and others who want an elegant waterfront property where they can dock their boat and enjoy the view.
Lake Monticello’s main attraction is the water, but residents also enjoy a world class golf course and plenty of other activities. Swimming, tennis and boating, are allbig draws for families, young professionals, telecommuters and retirees many of whom also rave about two other features of lake living: the laid back atmosphere and the security that comes with being in a gated community.
The lake also attracts its share of second home buyers ready to relax on weekends far away from the day-to-day stress of their lives. It’s not uncommon, though, that once they experience the magic of being at the lake, they end up selling their other home to enjoy their relaxing lifestyle full time.
For those who have office jobs, Lake Monticello is a short commute to Charlottesville and even Richmond is easily accessible.And if you are a buyer that has been looking closer in, you will be thrilled about the home prices at the Lake that compare favorably to what are available in either Charlottesville or Albemarle.
Lake Monticello’s Real Estate Market The third quarter market report from CAAR shows that Fluvanna County home sales are up 2.4 percent over last year, accompanied by a robust increase in pending sales of 32 percent.These results are reflected in the optimism expressed by agents who work the Lake Monticello market.
“The market is still very active in Lake Monticello,” said Patsy Strong, Principal Broker at Strong Team REALTORS®. “We have buyers calling and emailing every single day asking for homes, and they are looking for all types of homes,” she continued indicating the buyers want everything from homes suitable for first timers to luxury homes on the waterfront.
Strong expressed a concern, shared by many REALTORS®, that“inventory is extremely low right now.”And the good news is that there have been 206 homes sold year to date at Lake Monticello with another 40 homes pending a closing. “Last year, we saw 242 homes close in Lake Monticello, so we may very well beat that number this year,” she said.
“First time home buyers can do well [at Lake Monticello] with 15 active homes under $200,000 currently, between $129,000 and $200,000,” said Vicki Wilson, Principal Broker at Monticello Country REALTORS®. The lowest price home to sell this year actually went for $77,500, she explained, adding that it sold “as is,” and needed work.
There are currently 65 homes for sale at the Lake in price ranges from $150,000 to $1 million said Diane Miller, Associate Broker with Long & Foster Real Estate Company.She suggested that while 65 might seem like a lot of options, any given buyer’s choices are restricted to a narrow price range based on what they can afford and what is suitable for their family.She echoed the concern that inventory is limited making for buyer frustration and putting pressure on prices that are “inching up.”
New construction is an option for some buyers not finding what they want in the resale market.“There is building going on at Lake Monticello,” Miller continued, stating that in some cases builders already owned the lots and are now ready to start building while others are scouting out what is on the market.
“There are a handful of waterfront lots available,” Wilson related. “They range from $90,000-$374,000,” depending on how much water access or frontage they come with and how remarkable the view. She stressed the importance of working with “a seasoned, experienced agent that has new construction experience,” when building your Lake Monticello home.
Why Lake Monticello Lake Monticello was originally the brain child of some developers who, back in the 1960s, saw a piece of forested property and envisioned a lake surrounded by homes. The project got off the ground, and soon the Home Owners Association (HOA) took over the community’s management. By the early 1980s, Lake Monticello had become a modest 400 lot subdivision.
The original lake with just 35 to 40 feet of water, got a big boost from torrential rains that came withHurricane Camille in 1969 that in turn weakened a nearby dam and caused an influx of water from another lake. Today the 350-acre lake has 22.5 miles of shoreline surrounded by 4,200 homes and a large cross section of people lucky enough to enjoy a year-round vacation lifestyle.
All Lake Monticello residents enjoy essential services provided by the HOA—of which they must be members—and must pay annual dues to cover amenities such as common ground maintenance, trash pickup and snow removal.Fees also cover the security gate and a full-time police force.
“The Lake Monticello Homeowners Association continues to make nice improvements here, which are attracting new buyers from all over the country. Who doesn’t want to live in a Community where neighbors wave to neighbors and every day feels like a vacation?” Strong concluded, adding that “Lake Monticello has had a phenomenal year with new dining facilities constructed and opened, plus planning set for a new pool complex! The golf course has never looked better, and the summer saw lots of residents enjoying swimming and boating activities!”
In the event of a fire or medical emergency, a fire and rescue squad stands ready to help just outside the gate, and they and the police are quick to respond regardless of the weather. Wilson had an emergency at her home one winter evening that prompted a call to the rescue squad.Help was there within five minutes even though many local roads were closed due to snow.
Affordability is a big draw for people who start their home search in Charlottesville.Maggie Gunnels, with the Lake Monticello office of Long & Foster, once lived in a “70s rancher” in town.Now she lives in a much nicer home at the Lake where she estimates buyers can enjoy as much as two times the square footage for the money compared to what is available closer in.
Recent price increases have also added some nice equity to people’s homes.Gunnels described a 1,300 square foot rancher that a year ago would have sold for under $130,000 and today would be listed in the $150,000 to $160,000 range.
The quality of the Fluvanna County schools is an important consideration for families with children who appreciate the variety of student programs available and, the District reports, a high level of parental involvement.When it comes to college, seniors in the Class of 2017 received an impressive $896,136 in scholarship money.
Second Homes Many learn about Lake Monticello when they enter the second home market. Often, though, after they experience life on the water they choose to move there permanently.
“I have sold several homes in the past couple of years, where buyers have bought a second home with plans of retiring in the future.Most of them have taken an early retirement and moved here permanently,” Wilson said. “They fall in love with the lake and the ‘vacation at home’ feeling, so they move sooner rather than later.”
In some cases second home owners bring work to their weekend home and after they realize they have access to essential high speed internet service and can also enjoy the beautiful views, or walk around the Lake when they are ready to take a break from the job, decide to sell their other house and work at the Lake full time.
“I have seen it over and over again,” Strong said. “Buyers purchase a waterfront home for weekend use, then they start extending their weekends and working there on Fridays and Mondays. Eventually I run into them in the store in the middle of the week and they confide that they have made the move to the water permanent.”She added that they always have a big smile on their faces when they explain why they made the move.
Lake Monticello Buyers Back in the 1980s, the original Lake Monticello developers looked for buyers in New York and other northern cities explained Keith Smith with Roy Wheeler Realty Co. At that time, he and his wife Yonna, also an agent, traveled down from New York City in response to an ad offering to pay visitors $150 to come experience Lake Monticello. Like many others, they fell in love with the area and the lake, bought a lot and relocated.
Although they soon realized they had paid too much for the lot, they urged Smith’s father to join them in their new lifestyle. He in turn invited some of his friends who also settled at the lake after seeing the beauty of an area that was such a pleasant contrast to life in the City.
The trend of lake residents encouraging family and friends to join them continues today.“One of the most interesting things we see is people who move here and enjoy it so much they end up getting family members and friends to join them…it says a lot about the quality of life at Lake Monticello that people would move here, and then convince friends and family to do the same,” Strong said.
Today buyers still come to Lake Monticello from the northeast and from Northern Virginia, Wilson explained.They come for the “low home and land prices, the proximity to Charlottesville and Richmond and the community activities and involvement. Many of my clients get involved in the volunteer opportunities within Lake Monticello and Fluvanna County once they are here,”she said.
Essentials Close at Hand In Lake Monticello’s early days, residents drove to Charlottesville for everything from groceries to medical, dental and vet care and even gas.Today essential services such as medical facilities, dentists, attorneys, veterinary care, a pharmacy, a grocery store and restaurants are all nearby and at Zion Crossroads Lowes and Walmart are popular places to shop.In addition, residents can now jump on the interstate and head west to shop at Wegmans and other great stores, enjoy a nice lunch and even take in a film, all at the new 5th Street Station.
If you love the idea of living at Lake Monticello, now is the time.The market is rebounding strongly, but prices are still reasonable and interest rates remain historically low, which means many great deals.
But don’t wait. Agents are reporting inventory shortages and price increases, all of which will make this vacation lifestyle increasingly inaccessible as time goes by.
Celeste Smucker is a writer, blogger and author who lives near Charlottesville.
Want to attend events in Charlottesville but still see the stars at night?Maybe you love bothprivacy and a laid-back country lifestyle but fear you’d have to go too far off the beaten path to find them.The good news is, when you move to Fluvanna,you can have all of these features and still enjoy home prices more affordable than those for comparable properties closer in.
First time homebuyers can find what they want in Fluvanna as can growing families looking for more space and horse owners looking for acreage.Active retirees who want to be free of lawn maintenance may appreciate Southern Development Home’s Village Oaks and the Villages at Nahor, while buyers who love the water and like living in a gated community should also check out the many options available at Lake Monticello.
Agents are optimistic about the Fluvanna real estate market:“It’s definitely on the mend,” said Maggie Gunnels with the Lake Monticello office of Long & Foster. Inventories are low making this is a good time to be a seller, but buyers will also be happy when they see how much more their money can buy in close-in Fluvanna compared to locations nearer to town.
Fluvanna’s Real Estate Market The recently released third quarter market report from CAAR (Charlottesville Area Association of REALTORS®) showshome sales in Fluvanna County increased 2.4 percent compared to the same time last year.Even better, agents look forward to more closings based on a 32 percent increase in pending sales for the same time frame.
Gunnels described the current Fluvanna market as “very active” stating that 2017 is her best year out of the last ten.“Prices are up, especially in the lower price points,” she added citing sales of acreage as well as homes at Sycamore Square, a subdivision with homes that are less than 10 years old.
“Prices took a big hit,” Gunnels explained “but have come back.”She referenced the “colonial market,” two story homes often preferred by families, as having the best price recovery.However she has observed some significant price increases in entry level homes as well stating that some that might have sold for $130,000 last fall now have prices closer to $155,000, a big increase in just one year.The acreage market is also strong, she said.
First timers can still find homes in Fluvanna, but it’s getting more difficult.Gunnels described one of her listings, a one level home on acreage at $229,000, that she said would be appropriate for retirees and some first timers.Three to four years ago, however, this same property would have sold in the $180,000s.Nevertheless, it’s still a good time to buy, she said, adding that prices are not back to pre-recession levels.
“The Fluvanna market is definitely improving,” said Diane Miller, Associate Broker with Long & Foster at Lake Monticello.She explained that because it is further out the improvement lags behind that in Albemarle and Charlottesville, but is definitely happening.She added that building is going on at Lake Monticello, but even more so in the County.There were lots of developments underway that were put on hold after the market downturn, she continued, but many are now coming back to life.
Buyers Love Fluvanna Part of the reason Fluvanna is popular is its proximity to Charlottesville.The lower prices are also attractive to first timers as well as young families and retirees, many of whom find Fluvanna when they learn about it from family members and friends already living there, Gunnels said.
“You get more bang for your buck than in Albemarle,” said Pam Dent with Gayle Harvey Real Estate, Inc. She finds that buyers like to enjoy a “country feel” but still want to be close to Interstate 64.
Gunnels agreed that Fluvanna buyers appreciate the peace and quiet and slower way of life associated with country living.They also like a location that works well for two career couples with jobs in both Richmond and Charlottesville, retirees who want to be near children located in either or both of these cities and shoppers who want to take advantage of great deals in both locations.
Something for Everyone Home buyers love Fluvanna’s wide range of prices and home styles with something for all ages and income levels.Gunnels has clients who are first timers, young families and retirees and in the latter group, she frequently encounters buyers searching for their fourth home in the county.
While some retirees like the privacy of acreage, others prefer a development such as Southern Development Homes’ Villages at Nahor and Village Oaks both located in Fluvanna.Sales administrator, Andrea Akers explained that these 55+ communities offer easy living design with features such as stepless entries, wider doorways, outlets raised to 18 inches for easier access, rocker switches and open, functional floor plans.
The HOA (Home Owners Association) provides lawn care and optional power washing of the exteriors plus residents enjoy a pool, club house and bocce court, Akers said, all designed to promote easy living and a community feel.
If what you want is a home in the country that is still close to the many amenities of Charlottesville and Richmond, ask your agent about relocating to Fluvanna County.You may be surprised atthe quality and selection of homes there as well as the amount of acreage and square footage your money can buy.
Celeste Smucker is a writer, blogger and author who lives near Charlottesville.
Listen to live music from Gina Sobel while the kids enjoy hayrides through the vineyard and pumpkin decorating (supplies will be provided). Anyone in costume will receive a discount on purchases. $5 wine tasting, $7 pumpkin, noon-5pm. First Colony Winery, 1650 Harris Creek Rd. 979-7105.
FOOD & DRINK
Yappy Howl-o-Ween Sunday, October 29
The last yappy hour of the season celebrates wine and the real reason Halloween is our favorite holiday—dogs in costumes. Costume contest starts at 2pm. Free admission, noon-3pm. Keswick Vineyards,1575 Keswick Winery Dr. 244-3341.
NONPROFIT
Spirit Walk Friday, October 27, and Saturday, October 28
Think you know all the local haunts?Test your knowledge as you hear tales of some of our community’s most memorable residents. $8-15, 6pm first tour, 8:30pm last tour (tours depart every 15 minutes). Meet at Maplewood Cemetery on Friday, and in Court Square on Saturday. RSVP required at 296-1492.
HEALTH & WELLNESS
The Laundry Project Saturday, October 28
Leave your quarters at home this Saturday, because every customer who comes through the door of Express Laundry between 10am and 1pm can do their laundry for free. Detergent included. Free, 10am-1pm. Express Laundry, 121 Maury Ave. 295-2019.
Shakespeare may have formalized the tale of star-crossed lovers on stage, but the heart of tragic romance stretches back to antiquity. Directors Boomie Pederson and Brad Stoller take the Bard’s script and push it forward with Romeo and Juliet—Reconstruction of Love, a modern retelling that pulls from a range of dance styles, accompanied by an original soundscape. The production is intended as a companion to West Side Story, which opens in the spring.
Through November 5. $5, times vary. V. Earl Dickinson Building at PVCC, 501 College Dr. 961-5376.
