Grapes – C-VILLE Weekly

Take your pick: Facing early harvest, local vineyards seek harvest volunteers

Ready to pick some grapes? Awesome. But before you tap the date into your iCalendar, there’s something those feisty, ripening clusters want you to know: Your schedule means nothing to them.

“One year we picked vidal with a 30-minute advance notice,” says Karl Hambsch, the winemaker at Loving Cup Winery in North Garden. “When I woke up, the forecast had suddenly changed to boatloads of rain, so I called the family and said, ‘We’re picking nowAs a volunteer, you probably won’t be rousted out of bed, but wineries will appreciate it if you keep your schedule flexible as they determine the window of opportunity to harvest, often just a few days in advance.

Pitching in to pick grapes loosely reflects the rural European tradition of villagers helping with—and then celebrating—the harvest. This is still common in many wine-producing areas, notably in Italy and France, and popular enough to support its own category of tourism.

In Virginia, sustained heat this summer has led to early ripening, so picking will commence at some wineries one to two weeks earlier than usual. Many producers rushed to rent refrigerated trailers—to store the fruit before the crush—as early as August 19, according to Steve LeSueur of Worldwide Trailer Rental, which supplies Horton, Jefferson, and Barboursville vineyards, among others. “Last year, they wanted them just before Labor Day,” he says.

Regardless of the weather, picking schedules vary. Debby Deal, owner of Palmyra’s Cunningham Creek Winery, says she’s looking for volunteers now through the end of September, while David Foster, owner of Mountain Run Winery, in Culpeper, needs help September 1 through early October.

The tangible rewards vary—a meal with wine is often served—but the real payoff is bonding with others who pitch in their time for a unique agricultural experience.

Five Oaks Vineyard, Barboursville

The winery is a relative newcomer to the area, but owner Robert Shepard’s vines date back to 2011. Volunteers will be picking medal-winning chambourcin, as well as traminette, vidal blanc and cayuga. Breakfast is provided, and pickers take home a bottle or two of wine. Contact: info@five oaksvineyard.com.

Glass House Winery, Free Union

Owner Jeff Sanders jokingly calls his volunteer opportunity a “hard-labor fantasy camp.” But there’s always plenty of interest, so while all are welcome to apply, Glass House Wine Club members get first dibs. Picking starts between 6:30 and 7am, and shifts run three to five hours. The winery provides snacks, cold drinks, and usually lunch and wine. Bottling volunteers are also needed during the year. Contact: jeff@glass housewinery.com.

Loving Cup Winery, North Garden

Plan ahead if you want to pick grapes at Loving Cup Winery, the sole organic vineyard and winery in the state. “Only our Wine Club members get to work harvest, and you can’t buy your way in—you have to work your way in,” Karl Hambsch says. Eight hours in the vineyard, usually completed in two four-hour shifts, get you into the club. Volunteers can pitch in year-round with everything from shoot thinning to picking. Shifts often end with a cold glass of sangria on the veranda, shooting the breeze with Hambsch. Sign up at lovingcupwine.com/wineclub.html. Contact: info@lovingcupwine.com.

Mountain Run Winery, Culpeper

At Mountain Run’s three vineyards—in Aldie, Hume, and Fredericksburg—grape gathering starts just after dawn, and shifts last as long (or as short) as you’d like, followed by a light breakfast. Ever wanted to foot-stomp grapes? You’ll get your chance here, and home winemakers can even purchase fruit to bring home (BYO buckets!). Contact: mountainrunwinery@gmail.com.

Cunningham Creek Winery, Palmyra

Owner Debby Deal has two jobs for harvest volunteers: picking and sorting. Picking generally starts soon after dawn, depending on the weather. Sorters work inside, assembly-line fashion, separating the good grapes from the detritus. Plan to spend two to three hours as a sorter, or about four hours as a picker. Volunteers get a special harvest T-shirt and a bottle of wine after six volunteer hours. Contact: debby@middleforkfarm.net.

Volunteer tips

Picking: Wear comfortable closed-toe shoes or boots, dress in layers, and bring a hat, gloves, and a water bottle (it gets hot among the vines).

Sorting and bottling: Mostly done under cover or indoors; wear comfortable shoes and clothes you won’t mind getting stained, and carry a water bottle.

Growing interest: Shenandoah Valley’s unique climate spurs its wine resurgence

Today, we’re seeing a wine renaissance in the Shenandoah Valley. But the history of wine growing in this region goes deeper than you might suspect.

As early as the late 1700s and early 1800s, Samuel Kercheval described how privacy-seeking neighbors obstructed horse paths by tying grape vines across them. These were likely wild grape vines growing up trees.

Kercheval also described wedding traditions in early 1800s Rockingham County, which included luxuries like fatted calves, lambs, and “wine, if it could be had.” A common wedding tradition involved stealing the bride’s shoe. And if a guest managed to get the shoe, he’d be paid a “bounty of a bottle of wine.”

Some 19th-century records in Harrisonburg, circa 1826, note that women washed their clothing in a popular spring, and hung it to dry on grape vines that had been trained as clotheslines. Distraught neighbors passed a law making this illegal.

When Abraham Scherdlin emigrated from France to Rockingham County sometime around 1813, could he have known that the vines he planted on a hillside east of Harrisonburg would kick off a pre-Prohibition zeal for Virginia winemaking in the Shenandoah Valley?

By 1866, Hockman and Forrer planted six acres (5,000 vines) on or near the Scherdlin site. In 1867, two companies planned large vineyards at or near Mount Clinton, and by 1868 Rockingham County grew several native and hybrid grape varieties including Norton, Iona, and Concord.

Within a few years, a Shenandoah Valley wine boom was well underway. Vineyards popped up in New Market, Hopkins’ Mill, Timberville, Linville Creek, and Bridgewater, and most farms in the area also had vines on the property.

Then prohibition all but wiped out interest in grapes in the Shenandoah Valley—and it’s taken almost a century to recapture the grape-growing excitement. But why is the valley so compelling to today’s winemakers?

The Shenandoah Valley AVA is great for grape growing because of its microclimates, which appeal to winegrowers for temperature and precipitation reasons. On average, sites on the slopes are 10 degrees cooler than sites on the valley floor—this allows grapes to attain higher acidity, which is generally good for winemaking. Enologist Joy Ting explains that the cool nights, in particular, make the difference. “Grapes will metabolize malic acid at night, and do so faster when it is warm, and slower when it is cold. The Shenandoah Valley enjoys cool nights, even after hot days, thus better acid,” says Ting.

Winemakers like John and Susan Kiers at Ox-Eye helped lead the way when they planted their first vineyards in 1999. The Kiers planted on limestone, a soil historically great for pinot noir. They also work with riesling and lemberger, and make stunning versions of both.

Bluestone Vineyard takes its name from a type of Shenandoah limestone, which defines their terroir. Winemaker Lee Hartman, a powerful voice for Shenandoah Valley winegrowing, encourages locavores to see wine as a local food. “The Shenandoah Valley is a fairly undiscovered wine growing region, even by the people who live here,” says Hartman. “In many regards it’s one of the best places to grow grapes with higher elevation, less rain, cooler temperatures, and an already existing farming culture. Neighboring wineries are farther apart than in Loudoun and Albemarle.” Hartman laments that in the market, even in places with a strong wine presence, wines from the Shenandoah Valley are often seen as “too remote to be seen on their shelves and tasting lists, regardless of a lower sticker price.” But we should see a shift in this trend as consumer regard increases for these unique and high-quality wines.

Golden year

The Shenandoah Valley micro- climate is hospitable to cabernet sauvignon, lemberger, petit manseng, petit verdot, pinot noir, and riesling, among many other varietals.

As winemakers in the region take advantage of ideal vineyard locations, many are turning the fruits of their labor into gold. In 2018, CrossKeys Vineyards’ 2015 Ali d’Oro was one of 12 wines that outscored more than 440 entrants to make the Virginia Wineries Association 2018 Governor’s Cup Case, in addition to winning a Gold Governor’s Cup award, along with Muse Vineyards’ 2016 Thalia and Bluestone Vineyard’s 2016 Petit Manseng and 2014 Cadenza.

Erin Scala owns In Vino Veritas Fine Wines, and is the sommelier at Common House. She holds the Wine & Spirit Education Trust Level 4 Diploma in Wines & Spirits, is studying for the Master of Wine, and is a Certified Sake Specialist. Scala writes about beverages on her blog, thinking-drinking.com.