Ankida Ridge

High time: The start of something new for Virginia winemaking

At the end of May, as Virginia businesses moved into Phase One of reopening, 12 Ridges Vineyard started welcoming visitors back to its tasting room, which overlooks, wait for it…12 acres of vineyards. Like many wineries, 12 Ridges, formerly Skylark Farm and, until now, best known as a Christmas tree farm, features incredible views, outdoor seating, and availability for weddings and events. What gives this new winery distinction is that the vines are planted at approximately 3,300 feet, making it the highest altitude vineyard site in the state of Virginia.

At higher altitudes, cooler temperatures allow grapes to express themselves differently, with generally less sugar and more acid, producing wines lower in alcohol and brighter and livelier in taste. And there are other benefits to high altitude winemaking (like more direct and concentrated sunlight, larger differences between daytime and nighttime temperatures, and slopes allowing cool air and water to drain), but there are also challenges. Some sites are on the edge of being too cold for vines to grow. And steep slopes can make farming difficult, requiring manual labor and increasing costs.

Still, it may be worth the risk. Joy Ting (this writer’s wife), research enologist and coordinator of the Winemakers Research Exchange, explains, “Virginia is a big state and we are still a wine region that is exploring as we evolve and mature. Are we planting in the right places? Are we ignoring areas that don’t fit preconceived notions and missing out on quality wine?”

Jake Busching, who has grown grapes in Virginia for over 20 years, was responsible for planting 12 Ridges. He’s also the consultant at Stone Mountain Vineyards, where he was hired to replant its vineyards in 2017. Stone Mountain sits at an elevation of 1,750 feet and was initially planted in the mid-1990s with French varieties, the fashion at the time. Some of these did well, but others struggled in the cooler climate. So Busching worked with Stone Mountain owners Jim and Deanna Gephart to put in pinot noir and pinot gris, varieties known to thrive in cooler conditions.

Busching says, “I’ve been steadfast about not putting red grapes (cabernet sauvignon, cabernet franc, merlot) above that. But at that elevation, as Ankida Ridge has proven, you can do pinot noir…and chardonnay is beautiful.”

Also at 1,750 feet, Ankida Ridge has earned a reputation for perhaps the best pinot noir in Virginia. Owners Christine and Dennis Vrooman, who first planted in 2008, recognized their site would be well-suited to pinot noir and chardonnay. 12 Ridges owner Craig Colberg draws inspiration from them, “I’ve tasted pinot noir from Ankida. It’s excellent. I aspire to pinot like theirs.”

For 12 Ridges, Busching worked with Colberg to develop a vision of what would be possible at his extremely high site. Busching focused on cold-hardy varieties like chardonnay, pinot gris, riesling, and pinot noir, and he says he planted intentionally for sparkling wine. Most agree sparkling wine has great potential for Virginia, and Busching sees it as a unique opportunity for 12 Ridges. “Sparkling wine could be a game changer because it’s a largely untapped market with high consumer demand,” he says. “12 Ridges has the potential to be the best sparkling wine in Virginia.”

Among those on Colberg’s team are winemaker Ben Jordan, whose labels include Early Mountain Vineyards, Lightwell Survey, and his family’s Midland Construction. In addition, Tim Jordan, who grows grapes on the Jordan family farm, will be the vineyard manager going forward. Jordan says he embraces the challenge of learning about growing at 12 Ridges. “What remains to be seen is whether they are too high and too exposed to winter cold…What ripens and when it ripens will be fun to find out.”

Busching similarly notes the unique challenge of the site, requiring cold-weather vineyard management in winter but hot-weather management in summer. For example, soil is mounded up around the vines in winter to protect them, a process that is reversed in summer, when rainfall and humidity require disease prevention and, despite the shorter growing season, there is still vigorous growth from the fertile soil that requires careful pruning.

Colberg seems well-informed about both the risks and rewards. “It’s my goal to become the premier cool climate vineyard in the state,” he says. I think there is a demand for something that is still high-quality, but a different experience on the palate.”

Meanwhile, Christine Vrooman at Ankida Ridge is advocating for a new American Viticultural Area to recognize higher altitude vineyards in Virginia. If she succeeds, this would be the first new AVA approved in Virginia since 2012. Vrooman is modeling her plan after the Mendocino Ridge AVA in California, which has boundaries defined by elevation. It includes only vineyards higher than 1,200 feet and therefore currently holds the distinction as the only non-contiguous AVA. The AVA Vrooman is proposing would be the second.

As the Virginia wine industry matures, there are risks and unknowns, but there is also vision for the future and a desire for the new and unique. Here’s hoping that the combination of high altitudes, better winegrowing techniques, and a willingness to take risks results in another exciting chapter for Virginia wine.

The sweet spot: Zeroing in on special vineyard sites

Several decades into Virginia’s booming post-Prohibition wine economy, we are starting to home in on some special vineyard sites throughout the state. In France, you’ll find heavily protected and coveted grand cru and premier cru sites; in other wine-centric countries you’ll find similar infrastructures protecting the best vineyards. What sites are emerging as Virginia’s equivalent to grand cru vineyards?

A straightforward answer is much more elusive than you might think, because the question is being asked, perhaps, a bit too early. Learning the land takes time because agriculture takes time. The search for quality in the wine business is an especially drawn-out process because, though grapes are an annual product, a grape vine plant has a similar lifespan to a human, and grape vine roots can take decades to reach the depth and maturity they need to truly express their place. Only when the vines are echoing their environment can the influence of special sites shine their truest. This clarity of site quality can take decades and generations to discover. You just can’t rush it.

“I’d say for the most part that we are so young as an industry that most of our best sites are unplanted and yet to be discovered,” says Early Mountain Vineyards’ Ben Jordan. “I’m not the first to say so, but I think the best is yet to come.”

As the industry grows into its next phase, it’s helpful to revisit some vineyards that seem to have that “special something” in the hopes that we can glean a bit of experiential knowledge.

“There are a few characteristics that make Ankida Ridge a great site for growing quality wine grapes,” says winemaker Nathan Vrooman. “The elevation and relative altitude of the vineyard allow for excellent drainage of cold air, which helps to mitigate our risk for spring frost.” Additionally, the slope of the vineyard, combined with the loose rocky soil, allows for water drainage, so the plants are forced to send their roots deeper into the ground. Being on a mountainside, there’s almost constant air movement, so the plants and the fruit tend to dry very quickly, which results in lighter fungal pressures.

Barboursville Vineyards

Barboursville winemaker Luca Paschina is always reevaluating his vineyard blocks for the highest quality material to make his Octagon blend. Among the vineyard’s 900 acres, there is a particular area that the wine team has designated “santa,” as if holy. For the past 18 years, it has been producing, with almost impeccable consistency, its prized merlot, which is the starting block of the winery’s Octagon blend.

“Many elements make the block special,” Paschina says, “starting from the medium vigor red clay soil to the gradually steep slope facing to the east, which allows for a nice early morning dew-drying sun and for a cooling during the late summer afternoons.”

Michael Shaps Wineworks

For Michael Shaps, who produces wine from grapes grown on various properties, three special vineyards stick out in his mind: Carter Mountain for its cabernet franc, the Gordonsville’s Honah Lee Vineyard for its petit manseng and Loudoun County’s Wild Meadow vineyard for its chardonnay.

“What makes Wild Meadow so special is not one particular variable, but how all the elements come together,” Shaps says. “The soil is lighter, loamier with less clay and with good drainage. But that in conjunction with the slope, exposure and its northern Virginia location, which provides cooler nighttime temps during the critical last two weeks of ripening, help to produce very balanced chemistry, which in wine vocab means fresh fruit.”

Veritas Vineyards

Emily Pelton, winemaker at Veritas, loves the new vineyards her family has planted. She works mainly with the vineyards from Veritas’ first plantings in 1999, but says the newer ones—planted in the last four years—are quickly gaining her favor.

“We cleared 30-odd acres on the top of our ‘saddleback’ and we have planted it to viognier and cabernet franc,” she says. “I think it may be the promise of the future that makes my heart skip a beat every time I visit these vineyards, or it may be the view, I’m not sure. This vineyard would be my first site that has considerable elevation and gorgeous aspect. Fingers crossed!”

Jake Busching Wines

Winemaker Jake Busching is currently focusing on 800- to 1,000-foot elevation sites with clay-based soil: Honah Lee, Carter Mountain, Wild Meadow and similar vineyards that are slowly being tuned in vintage after vintage.

“Monticello reds and Northern Virginia whites stand out to me, just as the Shenandoah Valley has so much to offer,” Busching says. “But like all of the sites, we need more time to suss it all out. We are headed into greatness. Patience seems like our best ally.”

Erin Scala is the sommelier at Fleurie and Petit Pois. She holds the Diploma of Wines & Spirits, is a Certified Sake Specialist and writes about beverages on her blog, thinking-drinking.com.m.