An eager crowd of more than 300 people gathered at The Wool Factory’s Wine Fest in late January. The ambitious tasting connected a broad range of Virginia’s smaller producers to the public over the course of five hours, as part of the venue’s mission to further establish a community around Virginia wine.
Kylie Britt, The Wool Factory’s wine director, says the overall intention of the hospitality site is to highlight local craft products, and offer a curated selection to its guests. Wine Fest addressed that mission by giving lesser-known beverage makers an outlet to expand their reach, and by offering customers a tasting experience not normally available. Sixteen producers from as far away as the Shenandoah Valley and northern Virginia poured and discussed their products at the event. “When wine drinkers can directly talk to and learn from winemakers, it enhances understanding and appreciation of the craft,” says Britt.
Even before opening, the WF team began collaborating with Joy Ting, a local independent winemaker (who is married to this writer), to produce a line of small batch, locally produced Virginia wine under The Wool Factory label. The discussions with Ting were also the genesis for The Workshop, an onsite boutique that includes a retail wine store that not only champions Virginia wine, but highlights smaller producers and winemaker side projects that often don’t have their own locations for tastings and sales.
Kathy Wiedemann, who drove two hours from northern Virginia to attend, says it was a unique opportunity. “I looked at the lineup of producers that were going to be pouring and I just knew I had to attend. I opted to stay overnight … so there was some additional cost to it for me, but it was well worth it.”
Patois Cider’s Patrick Collins served his own products at Wine Fest, and says he observed one of the most diverse groups he’d poured for in Virginia. “The producers, all with their own creative perspectives and intentions, presented their work themselves, divorced from serene tasting room vistas or other distraction,” says Collins. “We were all there to focus on what was in the glass and why.”
Wine educator Reggie Leonard attended Wine Fest as an enthusiast, and says he loved seeing friends from Charlottesville, Richmond, and northern Virginia all under the same roof. “This event felt very emblematic of some of my hopes and even some of the best ways I’ve experienced Virginia wine as a whole—warm, inclusive, interesting, and well done,” says Leonard, who was also impressed with the creativity and new ideas. He says he tasted wines that ranged “from reds and whites, and grapes and peaches, to dry and sparkly, and sweet and herbaceous.”
Britt agrees that this type of event is a great forum for winemakers to flex their creative skills and push the boundaries of wine and cider as we know it.
It also shows how far Virginia wine has advanced, says Domaine Finot’s Matthieu Finot, who sees a place for his own wine craft in the small producer movement. “It is the crowd that I like to be associated with, the trailblazers of the indie winemaking scene,” says Finot. “Not sure how to describe us, but definitely slightly outside the norm.”
The takeaway for producers and consumers is a unique view of the current state of Virginia wine, and a glimpse of what things might look like going forward. As he was making plans to attend, Leonard says, “I couldn’t wait to be in the room where a renaissance was happening.”
Learn more about the producers featured at Wine Fest:
Blenheim Vineyards blenheimvineyards.com Bluestone Vineyard bluestonevineyard.com Dogwood & Thistle Wine dogwoodthistlewine.com Domaine Finot lofiwines.com Early Mountain Vineyards earlymountain.com Guide Wine instagram.com/guidewines Jake Busching Wines jakebuschingwines.com Joy Ting Wine instagram.com/joytingwine Lightwell Survey Wines lightwellsurvey.com Midland Wine instagram.com/midland.wine Patois Cider patoiscider.com R.A.H. Wine Company rahwineco.com Quartzwood Farm quartzwoodfarm.com Star Party Winery starpartywinery.com Walsh Family Wine walshfamilywine.com Wool Factory Wine thewoolfactory.com