Category: 2021 Best of C-VILLE Staff Picks

Joy Ting made the first barrels of her own wine in 2014. She wanted to experiment with crushing and fermenting grapes still on the stem—a technique called whole-cluster fermentation, common in Cru Beaujolais (which Ting loves) but less common in the U.S. How would it work in Virginia?

Ting was still very new to the world of wine. Leaving behind the life of a science teacher (she has a Ph.D. in applied biology), she had started running the lab at Michael Shaps Wineworks just a year earlier. “I could do the lab work, but I didn’t have much background in wine at all,” Ting says. “I was an avid admirer of wine, and I’d always been interested in wine production. But Michael was willing to take a chance on me.”

Not many wineries in Virginia are big enough to need someone to run the lab full time. The winemaker usually does the analysis, or calls in an outside company. But the position was tailored perfectly for an applied scientist. Ting became lead oenologist at Michael Shaps within a year, and winemaker not much later. She kept experimenting with her own small barrels whenever she could find the time.

It must have been her passion for experimentation that attracted the attention of the Virginia Winemakers Research Exchange. 

The WRE is a grassroots research cooperative for Virginia wineries, started in 2014 in the Monticello wine region. Local growers “would go to conferences where they would hear about some new product, and they would taste it on California fruit,” Ting says. But when they came home to try it, it wouldn’t work. The fruit is different in Virginia. Funded by the Virginia Wine board, the WRE arose to help coordinate “structured, practical experimentation” focused on the unique dynamics of Virginia winemaking. 

In 2018, Ting became the coordinator and research oenologist at the WRE. Every year, she travels to wineries across the state to discover what they need, what problems they’re facing, what they’re curious about. Then she designs rigorous experiments, in consultation with a number of local experts, to be carried out by the wineries themselves. At the end of those experiments, she collects and parses the data to see what they’ve learned. Finally, Ting gathers winemakers together to taste the wines they have produced—and only after they’ve experienced the wine does she reveal the results of the experiment. 

What makes for a true “Virginia wine” has not yet been settled. “If you’re in Napa Valley and you start planting something other than cabernet sauvignon, people are going to start looking at you funny,” she says. “We just don’t have that yet in Virginia. We’re still defining what the middle-of-the-road feels like. And we’re doing that by testing out the whole road.” That makes for a culture of experimentation and collaboration—one that has made possible the stunning speed of Ting’s ascension, and one that she helps build up through her work with the WRE. 

She’s still doing her own experiments, of course, currently crushing grapes at Fifty-Third Winery and Vineyard in Louisa County. This year, she’s hoping to make barrel-fermented chardonel.

Want to be queen for a day? Dinsmore House gets us one step closer, with its two-hour afternoon tea. Offered for parties of eight, the elegant affair includes charming tea sandwiches, housemade scones and pastries, all with a pretty pot of tea in the West Main inn’s tasteful dining room. Pinkies up, y’all.

Said with complete seriousness: The Bread Basket English muffins will change your life. The Floyd-based bakery (Integral Yoga has the local hookup) makes each of its products from scratch, and while area restaurants often feature its twisty baguettes, our money’s on the muffins. Stick one in the toaster and you’ll hear the dense slice sizzle with buttery grease. Use them for a homemade breakfast sammy, or just load one up with butter and jam.

Ever noticed the big chalkboard at Decipher Brewing? It’s called the Dead Drop Board, and it’s filled with the names and industries of folks who someone thinks deserves a beer. To add your friend’s name (or an occupation, like “teacher” or “first responder”), just buy an extra pint and have them add it to the list. That’s what we call beering it forward.

No judgment if it’s your style to buy the whole cake and eat it yourself, but for those with a little more, shall we say, restraint, Albemarle Baking Co. has finally answered the call. Now serving: cake by the slice, from carrot cake to chocolate torte.

When Marian Bayker got into breadmaking, she knew she’d be milling her own flour as part of the process. “It seemed like an obvious choice,” says the Althea Bread owner. “My mother had been doing it for years. She used to buy big five-gallon buckets of wheat and milled them on a little steel burr Nutrimill.” 

Bayker wanted to create a product no one else had, so she started working with a local farmer growing grain to make beer. Many trials later, she realized that specific wheat wouldn’t produce the product she had in mind.

“As it turns out, the particular properties of a batch of wheat have an enormous effect on the resulting flour,” she says. “Even the same variety of wheat grown by the same farmer on two different fields can have different properties.” A good bread flour, Bayker says, needs strength (to hold up during a 24-hour fermentation cycle) and flexibility (to shape properly and expand in the oven during baking). When a loaf uses only flour, water, and salt—as Bayker’s country bread does—the flour is a crucial component.

Bayker gets bread wheat from a nearby farmer and uses two small stone mills and a sifter to make her flour. Sifted flours, or high-extraction flours, are similar to those produced by small community stone mills in Europe and America before the rise of modern industrial roller mills. 

One of two local bakeries milling its own flour, Althea (and, thus, Bayker) strives to utilize everything available to make the best bread possible.

One way to be sure your wedding photos are tops? Take your party higher—to Raven’s Roost overlook on the Parkway. A $60 permit will afford you westward views of the Blue Ridge and Shenandoah Valley, and a romantic spot to say “I do.” Bonus for adventurers: Hike up to Humpback Rocks post-ceremony.

Some of the best business ideas begin as a “What if?” For tellAplay Entertainment owner Aaron Hale, that was, “What if we had a karaoke party bus?” 

At the time, tellAplay was expanding. Originally a theater company with a DJ arm, the music side was taking off and Hale and a manager began to brainstorm. It didn’t take long for the possibility to become reality. 

A 14-passenger bus with limo-style seating, the Cville Party Bus goes wherever its passengers request (mostly breweries and wineries, Hale says). Book the adventure package for a musical ride to your destination, or book the party package for a full-on karaoke experience.

“One of our DJs sits on the bus with the group and hosts [karaoke] as we put the lyrics up on the TV,” Hale says. “We also have a wireless microphone to sing into. It works just like you would find at a karaoke bar, but it’s on a bus!”

Book a five-hour tour and visit three locations for an hour each, but Hale says that because the trips are private—unlike other transport options where you might have to sit with strangers—the itinerary is fully customizable. That’s what we like to hear.

Keswick Hall is no stranger to accolades—the luxury hotel and golf course has received the Forbes’ Five-Star Award, Golf Digest Editors’ Choice Award for Best Golf Resorts in the Americas, and the AAA Four Diamond Rating for its Fossett’s restaurant. But three years ago, the property’s ownership group set out to take it to the next level with a soup-to-nuts renovation. And General Manager John Trevenen says when the public sees the fruits of their reno, everyone will know why the painstaking process took so long.

“It is arguably one of the nicest resorts on the eastern coast of the United States,” Trevenen says. “We see ourselves positioned as one of that extremely small group of fine resort hotel experiences. We have put together a very beautiful product.”

Already a beautiful product, the new Keswick boasts an expanded guest wing (bringing the property to 80 total rooms), an infinity pool and cabanas, red clay tennis courts, and fully reimagined resort grounds. Fossett’s is replaced by Marigold, a fine-dining restaurant led by culinary icon Jean-Georges Vongerichten. The entire guest space has been redesigned from the studs, according to Trevenen, as the project was “an undertaking that no one could have imagined.” That means everything—plumbing, electrical, every non-structural item—was stripped from the facility and recreated from scratch.

The hotel now offers four signature suites, including the two-bedroom Hardie Suite. The guest rooms are decorated subtly, featuring white, blue, and cream shades, as well as light wood, elegant furniture, beds with Duxiana mattresses, and Frette sheets and bath linens. Each guest room includes a smart television and Lutron lighting, and local photographs decorate the walls. The Hardie Suite is fitted with a kitchenette built around Viking appliances and a wet bar.

The general design style, according to Trevenen, is to ensure form follows function. Because Keswick intends to be among the best hotels in the world, its service must be at the highest level. Personnel must predict guests’ needs and meet them before they know they have them themselves.

“We have a tagline of ‘redefining the art of American hospitality,’” he says. “We are reestablishing a style of hospitality that we think is a little different from what is on offer in other properties. We are trying to do it in a more gentle and relaxed manner.”

Trevenen offers Marigold as an example. All resort meals, from breakfast, lunch, and dinner during the week to weekend brunches, are served in the restaurant, a departure from Keswick’s previous approach where different meal seatings were at multiple restaurants. According to Trevenen, the change means the restaurant’s servers will quickly become experts at doing a simple set of activities to the absolute best of their abilities.

According to Trevenen, Keswick owners Robert and Molly Hardie have always treated the century-old resort property as a passion project. “Molly and Robert have had a love of Keswick since Robert was studying at the university. I think it’s just a special place to them,” he says. “They have been terribly good about maintaining the building, the culture, and the DNA within a new structure. It was a labor of love. It might have been easier to start again, but they really wanted to make sure it was given back to the community better than it was before.”

Adding a few plants can work wonders for a room. They not only add beauty and charm, but help absorb outside noise, regulate humidity and temperature, and filter the air of common toxins and pollutants. Being around greenery has also proven to reduce stress levels, improve concentration and productivity, and boost your mood. And with many plants being easy to care for, it’s no wonder more and more people are growing their own indoor jungles.

But for those of us who know absolutely nothing about plants, choosing the right one—and keeping it alive—can be a huge challenge. We asked Charlottesville nurseries to tell us about their favorite beginner plants, and share some tips on how to care for them.

ZZ plant: This glossy, oval-leafed tropical beauty is one of the most popular low-maintenance plants. “It’s super easy,” says Catherine Konvalinka of Ivy Nursery. “You don’t really have to worry about it. It gets big.” Though it grows best in bright or moderate indirect light, it’s fine in extremely low light (like a windowless room). It typically needs watering every two to three weeks—but if you forget to water it for a while, no worries! ZZ can survive for several months without water. 

Corn plant: Long and narrow, this classic house plant can grow up to six-feet tall indoors. It thrives in bright locations away from direct sunshine and cold drafts, such as near a curtained window. “I can’t tell you the last time I watered mine,” says Pam Scott of Fifth Season Gardening. “They always look good.”

Peace lily: This tropical favorite needs plenty of indirect light and high humidity to grow its stunning white flowers. Pay attention to its leaves—they will begin to droop when it’s thirsty. 

Snake plant: With its tough, pointed leaves, this desert plant is virtually indestructible. It can survive in most light levels, even in shadowy corners. It only needs water when its soil is completely dry, which varies from every few weeks to every one to two months.

Baby rubber plant: This compact, shiny plant—a favorite of Be Just’s Shawn Cossette—grows best in moderate to bright indirect sunlight, and can handle dry climates. It typically needs water once or twice a week. “They’re easy and fun,” she says. “I find them really cool looking.”

Devil’s ivy: This trailing evergreen vine earned its name for being nearly impossible to kill. It thrives in both bright and low light, and it’s well-suited for places with high humidity, like bathrooms. Ranging from six to eight feet in length, it’s perfect for hanging baskets. While it usually needs watering every one to two weeks, don’t stress if you forget to for a few weeks.