Muse Vineyards – C-VILLE Weekly

Perfect pairing: Wine and dogs—what’s not to love?

Finnigan among the vines at Veritas. Photo: Zack Wasjgras

On July 1, 2018, Virginia House Bill 286 went into effect, officially allowing dogs to enter winery tasting rooms. The occasion was met with no discernible reaction from one constituency: the dogs that live at wineries. • Those lucky animals need not engage in any “get your laws off my fur” protest. As vineyard owners and winemakers will tell you, the resident dog pretty much does whatever he or she wishes. • Whether they’re mascots, greeters, or guardians that chase away other animals, like geese or even pigs, canines at some vineyards can gain a certain level of celebrity. “People call and ask, ‘Is Fig in the tasting room today?’” Paul Summers, owner of Knight’s Gambit Vineyard, says of the popular hound. “They don’t ask about hours or whether we have a band playing on the porch—they only want to know about Fig.” • We’re tail-wagging happy to introduce you to Fig and a few other four-legged drinking buddies right here. Editor’s note: In the print edition of Knife & Fork, we misidentified cover dog Finnigan as Emma, an extremely similar looking pup from Muse Vineyards (see below).

Fig, a 3-year-old hound mix rescue, is evidently tired after a day of greeting tasting-room visitors at Knight’s Gambit Vineyard. Photo: Zack Wajsgras

Fig

Owner, winery: Paul Summers, Knight’s Gambit Vineyard

Gender, breed: female, hound mix

Age: 3

Origin: Charlottesville/Albemarle SPCA

Attributes: Sweet, affable

Duties: “When the tasting room is open, she mingles,” Summers says. “Otherwise, she’s out hunting something or other.”

Memorable moment: “None really stands out. She’s just so all-around friendly—that’s her greatest characteristic.”

Birdie the blue heeler, winemaker Ben Jordan’s dog, leads her human down a row of vines at Early Mountain Vineyards. Photo: Zack Wajsgras

Birdie

Owner, winery: Ben Jordan, Early Mountain Vineyards

Gender, breed: female, blue heeler (Australian cattle dog)

Age: 5

Origin: Harrisonburg breeder

Attributes: Big personality, high energy, always “on”

Duties: “She hangs out at the winery, not down near the tasting room. She thinks it’s her job to watch over me, so she follows me everywhere, out to the vineyards, you name it.”

Memorable moment: “We had a big event for the Virginia Winemaking Board. There were buyers in from around the country. We were all sitting down, eating—lamb cooked on a spit. I got a tap on my shoulder, looked up, and Birdie was standing on the [carving] table, licking up the drippings. It made quite the picture—I had it framed.”

Ti Rey the Welsh Corgi has pretty good hops for a 7-year-old. His first name is a French term of endearment, and “Rey” is an abbreviation of Dee (left) and Roe Allison’s vineyard name, Reynard Florence. Photo: Zack Wajsgras

Ti Rey

Owners, winery: Dee and Roe Allison, Reynard Florence Vineyard

Gender, breed: male, Corgi

Age: 7

Origin: Dalarno Welsh Corgis, Culpeper

Attributes: Gentle, unflappable, confident

Duties: “He’s our official greeter,” Dee Allison says. “When people arrive for a tasting, he knows before we do, goes straight to the door, and herds them in.”

Memorable moment: “He picks out certain people he likes, lays down beside them, and puts his head on their foot—right there at the tasting bar,” she says.
Abbey, an 11-year-old golden retriever, sometimes has a tough time keeping up with her younger sister, Shelby, a 7-year-old German shepherd border collie mix. Photo: Zack Wasjgras

Abbey and Shelby

Owners, winery: Jason and Laura Lavallee, Wisdom Oak Winery

Gender, breed: both female; golden retriever (Abbey), German shepherd/border collie mix (Shelby)

Ages: Abbey, 11, Shelby, 9

Origin: Abbey, Augusta Dog Adoptions, Waynesboro; Shelby, a farmer in Pennsylvania

Attributes: “Abbey’s mellow and reserved,” Laura Lavallee says. “Shelby’s outgoing and rough-and-tumble, a tomboy dog.”

Duties: Abbey mostly hangs out with visitors on the patio, but she also looks to Shelby for direction and will follow her around. “Shelby’s the hunter—chasing away birds and deer,” says Lavallee.

Memorable moment: “Four pigs got loose from the farm next door and decided to visit,” she says. “‘Next door’ in this case means a half-mile away. Shelby spent a good 25 minutes herding them. It was a lot of work, but she got them back home.”

Finnigan the Australian labradoodle is at home among the aging tanks and barrels—and everywhere else, for that matter—at Veritas Vineyard & Winery. Photo: Zack Wasjgras

Finnigan

Owner, winery: Emily Pelton, winemaker/Veritas Vineyards & Winery

Gender, breed: Male, Australian labradoodle

Age: 3

Origin: “We got Finn from a wonderful breeder in Suffolk, Virginia,” Pelton says. “A close friend had the same breed, and we fell in love with his kindness and spirit.”

Attributes: “Finn is a very compassionate and sensitive dog. He is full of energy and loves to snuggle.”

Duties: “Finn is in charge of lifting everyone’s spirits,” Pelton says. “He does that with his happy, constantly wagging tail and lots of love for everyone.”

Memorable moment: “Finn dressed up in a men’s suit for Halloween and seemed so proud and proper. It was hilarious!”

Muse Vineyards’ tasting room ambassador and wildlife manager, Emma, is a rare water-dog breed, the Barbet, which appears in French scripts as early as the 16th century. The American Kennel Club officially recognized the breed in 2020. An estimated 500 Barbets live in the United States. Photo: Zack Wasjgras

Emma

Winery: Robert Muse and Sally Cowal, Muse VineyardsVeritas Vineyards & Winery/winemaker and owner, Emily Pelton

Gender/breed: Female, Barbet

Age: 6

Origin: American Barbet, Indianapolis

Attributes: Sweet, gentle, and calm—but also an instinctive hunter

Duties: “Her main preoccupation is keeping various and sundry mammals from invading the vineyards,” Cowal relates via email. “These have included raccoons, deer, groundhogs, possums, squirrels, and rabbits. She also greets tasting room visitors, both human and canines, with enthusiasm!”

Memorable moment: “Her most outrageous, wildest act,” Cowal writes, “was killing a fawn and then dragging the poor thing around in front of startled visitors!”

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.