Wine online: Missing summer socials? Wintergreen Music and Veritas Vineyard & Winery are coming together to bring you an evening of virtual wine tasting with musical accompaniment for each sip. Artistic Director Erin Freeman chooses the perfect tunes to match winemaker Emily Hodson’s rosé & petit verdot. Seat yourself outside, chat with other attendees, and soak in the musical joy.
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
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
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
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
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
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
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!”
Like all agricultural endeavors, growing grapes is subject to the vicissitudes of weather. In Virginia, after a difficult 2018 harvest (because of rain, rain, and more rain), 2019 was good—some would say great—thanks to timely precipitation and stretches of warm, sunny weather.
“This vintage is a beautiful gift to the faithful farmer,” says Luca Paschina, the winemaker at Barboursville Vineyards. “We will be celebrating this growing season for many years to come, for giving us white wines of great intensity and fragrance and reds of unquestionably long age-worthiness.”
Part of this optimism flows from a sense of relief after 2018. Overcast and wet conditions can present serious challenges in both the vineyard and the winery. Lack of sunlight hinders the fruit’s growth and ripening, decreasing sugar content (it is this sugar that is fermented into alcohol), and producing grapes that lack flavor and can taste “green,” or undesirably vegetal. High moisture can also allow mold, mildew, and disease to take hold, leading to damaged fruit and diminished yields. In one of the sadder images of 2018, some winemakers simply left grapes to rot on the vine, because they had burst from too much water and, regardless, the ground was too soft to move harvesting machinery into place.
The next growing season could not have arrived fast enough. Chris Hill, who has been cultivating grapes in Virginia since 1981, says that better vintages share “the common thread of dry weather from mid-August through mid-October.” In his opinion, 2019 should be compared to great vintages such as 1998, 2002, 2007, 2010, and 2017. But Kirsty Harmon believes 2019 is the best vintage since 2008, when she started as winemaker at Blenheim Vineyards.
Joy Ting, research enologist for the Winemakers Research Exchange (and this writer’s wife), explains that, in addition to a dry season, an abundance of sunlight helped to ripen fruit much earlier than in previous years. “The white grapes came in quickly since daytime temperatures were high and sugar accumulated rapidly,” she says. “A little bit of rain and slightly lower temperatures allowed the red grapes to stay on the vine. This led to very good flavor and tannin development.”
Ting also puts forth a theory, shared by a number of winemakers, that the exceptionally wet conditions of 2018 led to higher groundwater levels in 2019, compensating for rainfall one to three inches below average last July through September. Winemakers Emily Pelton at Veritas Vineyard and Winery, and Michael Heny at Michael Shaps Wineworks, agree with Ting. “I was thankful for all of the rain that we had in 2018,” Heny says. “We had so much groundwater that the vines [in 2019] had everything they needed.”
But what about the 2019 wines? High quality, fully ripe fruit picked when the winemaker thought it had achieved optimal conditions (rather than because the next storm was coming), should lead to high quality, aromatic whites and full-bodied, age-worthy reds. It’s impossible at the moment to recommend specific bottles from the vintage—because, well, the wines are unfinished and unbottled—so I asked winemakers which 2019 wines held the greatest promise. “I feel that, in general, red wines more acutely express the quality of a vintage,” says Nathan Vrooman, winemaker at Ankida Ridge Vineyards. “The white wines coming from the region will be very good, but the red wines will really shine.”
Among those, cabernet franc appears to be rising to the top. Finot says the King Family cabernet franc “performed very well this year.” At Veritas, Pelton calls the 2019 crop “bright and vibrant and full of depth.” Paschina singles out Barboursville’s harvest from Goodlow Mountain, about a mile south of the winery, as perhaps its “most elegant wine of the vintage.” Similarly, Rachel Stinson Vrooman, the winemaker at Stinson Vineyards, points to her cabernet franc as “ripe and concentrated, but also maintaining some of the pretty florals and herbal aromas that I look for.” At Keswick Vineyards, winemaker Stephen Barnard believes the estate’s Block 2 cabernet franc to be “the best expression of terroir yet—savory, extracted, spicy.”
Other varieties to look for in 2019 include pinot noir from Ankida Ridge—one of the few area wineries growing the grape—and chardonnay from Loudoun County’s Wild Meadow vineyard. At Michael Shaps, Heny will use the chardonnay in a vineyard-specific wine; he anticipates the 2019 bottling to rival that of 2015, one of my own personal favorites. Also worth noting, according to Harmon, are albariño, a grape grown mostly in Spain and Portugal that’s still relatively rare in Virginia, and cabernet sauvignon, which the lingering dry heat of 2019 helped to achieve full ripeness and flavor.
With uniformly high hopes for the 2019 vintage, Pelton provides some perspective. “I think it is important for us not to lose sight of how fantastically wine tells the story of the year,” she says. “Great years tend to get all of the attention, but the fact that we get to capture all of the aspects of the fabric of a year—whether it was cool or windy or dry or wet—all speaks to the final product, and I find it thrilling to be a part of that story.”
By Paul Ting
living@c-ville.com
It’s hard not to love sparkling wine, and consumer trends reflect that: Its sales shot up 51 percent from 2008 to 2017, according to industry statistics.
Reflecting the trend locally, Virginia Sparkling Company, an affiliate of Afton’s Veritas Vineyard & Winery, announced in late October that it would invest $590,000 in a Nelson County facility, exclusively to produce bubbly. CEO George Hodson says the new venture’s mission is to “expand the adoption of traditional method sparkling.”
His specification of the traditional method is important, because it’s a reference to Champagne. The French—who object to the popular use of champagne with a lowercase “c,” because the word denotes the famous wine region in France—will tell you that what makes Champagne so good is the unique character and high quality of the grapes. But the wine’s production technique also plays a major role. It used to be called méthode champenoise (or “Champagne method”) but today is more properly called méthode traditionnelle, or traditional method.
The crux of the process is that the wine undergoes a second fermentation in the bottle. The resulting carbon dioxide is captured in the sealed bottle, creating the sparkle of sparkling wine. It usually also remains in the bottle for extended aging in contact with yeast and other sediment (known as the lees). This process allows for the development of greater flavor complexity and structure.
Winemakers around the world have adopted the technique to produce excellent sparkling wines that can rival Champagne in quality and often are more affordable. The same is true in central Virginia, where the quality and recognition of locally grown sparkling wine is on the rise. We owe this largely to Claude Thibaut, the “father of Virginia sparkling wine.” Thibaut hails from Champagne, where his family grew grapes and has produced sparkling wine since the 1950s. In 2003, the Kluge Estate Winery (the predecessor to Trump Winery) brought Thibaut to Virginia to establish the initial production of Virginia sparkling wine, using local grapes but classical techniques. A couple of years later, Thibaut partnered with childhood friend Manuel Janisson to open Thibaut-Janisson, which quickly gained recognition for high quality Virginia sparkling wine made utilizing méthode traditionnelle. From the early 2000s to this day, Thibaut has either produced or consulted on much of the sparkling wine coming from a rapidly expanding Virginia wine industry.
Other local wineries and have also brought sparklers to market, and with the Virginia Sparkling Company beginning production in the next year to 18 months, we’ll all have the opportunity to sample more effervescent local wine. That’s certainly the intention of Hodson, who is also general manager at Veritas and incoming president of the Virginia Wineries Association. “This project is consistent with the most Virginian aspect of Virginia winemaking, and that is a cooperative effort to benefit the region,” Hodson says. “A rising tide floats all boats.”
We recently sampled a bunch of local sparkling wines and are happy to recommend a few to grace your holiday table and ring in the New Year.
100 percent Albemarle County chardonnay, $29.99
Readily available in local wine shops and even a supermarket or two (try Wegmans), Thibaut-Janisson has become the best- known traditional method sparkling wine coming out of Virginia. The nose is light
with elements of lemon, white flowers, and a hint of limestone. On the palate, flavors of green apple, lemon peel, and white grapefruit predominate with just a hint of nuts. The finish is bright with citrusy acidity and a hint of the stone first evident in the bouquet.
100 percent Albemarle County chardonnay, $32.99
This is the higher-end expression from Thibaut-Janisson and will certainly satisfy those who prefer a traditional dry Champagne style. It utilizes the best juice from the pressed grapes, a higher percentage of oak-aged wine in the final blend, and less added sugar. The result is a wine that’s livelier in acidity and delivers a fuller and more powerful body. The flavors here are precise but of a slightly higher volume. Fresh citrus and stone combine with flavors of dried fruits and layered creaminess, suggesting brioche with lemon curd on top.
Chardonnay with either merlot or cabernet franc, $45
Veritas normally releases Scintilla as a non-vintage product, but 2015 was an exceptional year so they kept it pure. This example spent two years aging in the bottle and expresses an aroma of yeasty bread and lemon. It pleases the palate with very forward citrus fruit flavors, refreshing acidity, and hints of an almond croissant. The lengthy finish is full of green apple
and pear.
Cabernet franc, merlot, or both, $30
A beautiful pale salmon color in the glass, this lighthearted wine is all about strawberries. The nose is bright and lively with aromas of the fruit and a hint of watermelon. This is not an overtly sweet wine but there is enough sugar to highlight and elevate the fresh fruit flavor, again of strawberries. The finish lingers and brings to mind strawberry soda as it fades. Easy to drink and a sure crowd-pleaser.
70 percent chardonnay, 30 percent pinot noir, $35
Winemaker Damien Blanchon, a native of France, crafts this traditionally inspired sparkling wine from two grape varieties used in the Champagne region. The wine ages for two years in the bottle, resting on the lees in the winery’s caves. On the nose there are hints of lemon-lime, green apple, pear, and a bit of kiwi. The palate is direct with classic citrus, apple, and brioche flavors. A very slight touch of bitter lemon on the medium length finish sets you up for a bite of food or another fruit-filled sip.
100 percent malvasia bianca, $30
Something quite different, utilizing a grape variety not widely seen in Virginia and applying the very of-the-moment pétillant naturel technique. “Pét-nat,” as it’s called, is also known as méthode ancestrale, which predates the traditional method. For pét-nat, carbon dioxide from the end of the first fermentation, rather than the second one, is captured in the bottle. The wine is made to be consumed young, so aging on the lees is not a goal. The Malvasia creates a nose that is sweet and honeyed, full of apple and pear and even a bit of banana, along with distinct floral notes such as rose and elderflower. The wine is only mildly effervescent, lightly coating the tongue with a fine layer of bubbles. Flavors of sweet clementine, white lilies, almonds, and the same hint of banana may surprise those expecting flavors of traditional sparkling wine. A long sweet finish reminiscent of a lime cordial completes this fun, inviting break from routine.
Bordeaux, France. Napa Valley, California. Central Virginia? Possibly. Though Thomas Jefferson first attempted to plant a vineyard back in the late 1700s, our local wine industry is still young, only really emerging in the last 15 years. But in that time, the central Virginia region has become home to the second-highest number of wineries in the state, producing dozens of award-winning vintages each year.
People aren’t just stocking up on bottles. Vineyards are also enjoying the fruits of their labor in the form of agritourism: tourists coming out for the scenery, tastings, events, and tying the knot. It’s clear that our wineries, breweries, cideries, and distilleries are an important part of commerce in this region, but just how big is that economic impact?
VIRGINIA WINE AND AGRITOURISM
In 2015, The Virginia Wine Board estimated the full economic impact of the Virginia wine industry to be $1.37 billion, roughly the GDP of a small island nation. This marked a growth rate of 83 percent from 2010, and breaks down to 705,200 cases sold, 8,218 jobs, and 261 wineries.
Uncorking the official numbers for the City of Charlottesville or Albemarle County is a bit more difficult. The Charlottesville & Albemarle Convention and Visitors Bureau doesn’t currently track that information, though they are hoping to have the budget to conduct that research, and other estimates can vary depending on how you define the region.
What makes it especially tricky is that we aren’t just talking about the number of bottles sold and weddings hosted. The biggest slice of the economic impact pie comes from agritourism.
The Virginia Wine Board calculated the retail value of Virginia wine sold in 2015 to be $129 million, while winery-related tourism was more than $187 million. It becomes harder to estimate the local economic impact of tourism when you factor in other elements of a trip. Imagine a group of friends decides to come down from Washington, D.C. for a bachelorette party with Cville Hop On Tours. They aren’t just spending money at the area wineries they visit, they are most likely staying in a Charlottesville hotel, eating at Charlottesville restaurants, and shopping in Charlottesville stores during their visit. So even though Charlottesville does not have a winery within its city limits, it’s benefiting from the area wine industry.
By using the Virginia Wine Board report (“The Economic Impact of Wine and Wine Grapes on the State of Virginia – 2015,” produced by certified public accountants Frank, Rimerman + Co. LLP) to take the average number of visitors for each winery in the state, Neil Williamson, President of the Free Enterprise Forum and editor of The Virginia Wine Journal, is able to roughly calculate the impact of the industry in a given region. With 28 wineries, he predicts that the economic impact will be more than $110 million for Albemarle County in 2019.
“Thanks in large part to David King’s [the late co-founder of King Family Vineyards and champion of the local wine industry] contributions on the state and local level, Albemarle today has some of the best winery and winery event regulations in the state,” says Williamson in reference to King’s advocacy for the Virginia Farm Winery Act, which allows wineries to sell their products directly to consumers. “We fought hard to get them to this point.”
MONTICELLO WINE TRAIL
With the City of Charlottesville at its center, the Monticello American Viticultural Area stretches from the edge of Shenandoah National Park to the James River and was was the first AVA to be established in Virginia. The Monticello Wine Trail, which includes a current membership of 35 wineries within this designated grape-growing region, has an economic impact that is probably closer to $120 million a year. Current President George Hodson believes the region is primed to be the next big thing in wine. “When you look at a lot of the things that are happening in Charlottesville, it becomes a perfect place for the industry to thrive.” Hodson cites the area’s academic culture, natural beauty, and the land’s ability to grow amazing grapes as ingredients for the industry’s organic growth.
What makes the Monticello region distinct in the Commonwealth is the consistently high quality of its wines. More than 60 percent of the wines crowned at this year’s Virginia’s Governor’s Cup were from the Monticello AVA. While Monticello Wine Trail wineries have had success with a variety of vintages, Hodson believes that the region’s petit verdot, petit manseng, and red Bordeaux blends have the potential to define it.
The major challenges preventing economic growth for the region come down to supply and demand. Area residents and visitors are drinking everything the wineries are supplying before it can be distributed to new markets. “We’ve got to make enough to let it leave the Charlottesville area,” says Hodson. He hopes that the continued popularity of events like Starry Nights at Veritas Vineyard & Winery and regular polo matches at King Family Vineyards will bring in the revenue needed to allow wineries to plant more grapes and produce more wine.
Support from state and local tourism boards are also critical to ensuring the industry’s ascent. Virginia’s tourism board makes it a priority to funnel visitors to the vineyards by highlighting wineries, festivals, and wine trails in campaigns. Support from local governments can vary quite a bit by county. Advocates for the industry agree that the best outcomes happen when state and local governments proactively work together. The positive economic impact numbers have helped government officials understand the promise of a rosy future in wine.
“We want Charlottesville and the Monticello [American Viticultural Area] to be the first name in Virginia wine,” says Hodson. “We are wholly committed to and doubling down on making Charlottesville and Monticello AVA a renowned wine growing region.”
VIRGINIA BREWERIES, CIDERIES & DISTILLERIES
The glass isn’t just half-full for wine. Local breweries, cideries, and distilleries all have plenty to toast about, too. The Virginia Brewers Association reported that 405,465 barrels of craft beer were produced in the state in 2017. That’s two gallons for every Virginian over the age of 21. With 236 craft breweries in Virginia creating a total economic impact of $1.37 billion (the same as the 2015 number for wine), that’s an average economic impact of close to $600,000 per craft brewery.
Local breweries have their own version of the wine trail: the Charlottesville Ale Trail is 2.3 miles, pedestrian-friendly, and includes six participating breweries. They’re plotted along a map that visitors are encouraged to get stamped like a passport.
Virginia’s craft beer scene has been cool for a while now, but Virginia cider is catching up and hotter than ever. Bold Rock Hard Cider currently outpaces almost every other local brewery in sales. The Virginia Association of Cider Makers reports marked growth in the number of cideries opened since 2006, with national cider sales growing an average of 73 percent each year.
Boutique distilleries are looking to be the model for what’s next for their industry. Spirit Lab Distilling became the first distillery to open within Charlottesville city limits in 2015, and owner Ivar Aass sees the potential for craft spirits to attain a similar momentum as the local craft beer and wine market.
“I think all distilleries are basically playing catch-up,” says Aass. “Prohibition throttled the industry for 80 years, and we’re finally getting to the point where craft distilling is gaining steam.”
Just as we saw with craft beer, Aass predicts that the trends in distilling will favor unique, high-quality, and historically-rooted products. He also sees a future in Virginia-made brandy after recently collaborating with local winemakers on a Virginia oak-aged vintage by distilling some of the 2018 grapes that were too sweet for traditional wine processing.
So whether you like to sip, swig, or savor your locally produced spirit of choice, you can be guaranteed to see more varieties and an improved quality in the next few years. And if you haven’t yet been invited to a wedding at a farm or barn where something boozy is made, you can expect that “save the date” to come any day now. Beverage-related agritourism in central Virginia is booming. We can all cheers to that.
WEATHER OR NOT
The summer of 2017 was a gift for wine grapes. The arid days were the source of complex vintages with the kind of balance winemakers aspire to produce. Then vineyards had to deal with the wet summer of 2018, when too much rain too close to harvest encouraged mold and caused the grapes to swell with water, diluting flavors. Increasingly erratic seasons due to climate change mean that if the burgeoning Central Virginia wine industry is going to survive, winemakers need to find new ways to adapt.
“When you plant a grapevine, you want it to [last for] decades, so depending on how quickly things change, it can affect what you’re doing,” says Ben Jordan, who has been the winemaker at Early Mountain Vineyards since 2015. Grapes can be a fickle fruit. And considering it can take three to five years for a vine to produce anything usable for winemaking, planting decisions are fraught. By that time, and especially with climate change, you may no longer have the right grape in the right site. “On top of that, we’ve always had a relatively dynamic climate,” says Jordan. “We can have droughts, we can have 2017, which was dry and hot, or we can have 2018, which is kind of a washout.”
For local winemakers, being in an emerging industry could be a protective factor when dealing with climate change. Unlike European regions, vineyards in central Virginia are not tied to producing certain wines or trademark processes that haven’t changed in 200 years.
The Winemakers Research Exchange, a local research cooperative for wineries, is encouraging experimentation and knowledge-sharing through studies and sensory sessions. Winemakers can invite their peers to try the unfinished results of everything from whole cluster fermentation to wines aged in concrete eggs. Joy Ting, research enologist and exchange coordinator for the WRE, believes the region’s ingenuity is a good thing when it comes to acclimating to seasonal swings. “It does help us to have more options when we think about how to respond to those things,” she says.
When your seasons become unpredictable, it’s not a bad idea for your wines to be too. “The world is changing,” says Jordan, “and you don’t have to make wines that taste one way or grow grapes the same way.” Central Virginia winemakers are integrating modern science in their old world craft. They are looking at how different clones of cabernet franc behave in the vineyard to decide what to plant for the next 10-15 years, and experimenting with breeding to try to make merlot more resistant to mildew.
Ting says that while the WRE isn’t set up for long-term experiments (most of the studies are designed to look at one year at a time), it’s an opportunity for winemakers to get creative with testing interventions. By learning new techniques for different scenarios, winemakers can be more prepared for whatever Mother Nature throws at them.
In 2018, several members of the WRE had success with one grape in particular: the petit manseng. Described as a “storm grape” that can take on loads of rainfall, it’s becoming a popular choice for local vineyards in need of a stable crop. “More and more people are looking to petit manseng because it does seem to have a good, consistent expression,” says Ting.
Petit manseng, a French grape typically used to make white wines, can be used to make dry wines, off-whites, and dessert wines. Local residents may not be as familiar with it as they are with a vognier or a petit verdot, but as the manseng grows more popular with winemakers, it has the potential to define the central Virginia region. “It’s something that can be really useful in our industry, and can help us stand out in the country and the world,” says Jordan. “It’s a distinctive grape that makes distinctive wine.”
Tony Wolf, professor and director of viticulture at Virginia Tech, started evaluating petit manseng in 1987. He concluded the grape would have an excellent time adapting to the Mid-Atlantic’s climate due to its hardiness against cold and rot, and consistent yields of crops per vine.
“Disease resistance is high on the list of desired traits,” says Wolf in regards to petit manseng. “But we are also going to need to evaluate new (and old) varieties that are suited to higher temperatures and higher rainfall conditions.”
Critics are taking note. This year was the first year a petit manseng won the top prize at the Virginia Governor’s Cup. The 2016 vintage produced by Horton Vineyards in Orange County was lauded for its dry palate and full body with notes of stone fruit and hazelnut.
Jordan is so confident in the grape that he recently ripped out a site of cabernet sauvignon grapes, vines that were planted with generations in mind, to plant the manseng in their place. “That’s part of adjusting to these changing factors,” says Jordan. “It’s about understanding a piece of land in context to its climate as opposed to just what you like to drink.”
CHANGE AGENTS
Beverage leaders are disruptors by nature. Their willingness to take risks when it comes to flavors and production can often lead them to delicious places—and profits. Several have made big changes in the last year.
Potter’s Craft Cider
Potter’s Craft Cider, which currently operates a 128-acre cidery in Free Union, is expanding, adding a 100-year-old church on approximately 20 acres in Albemarle County. The move comes thanks in part to a $1.56 million injection of funds from the state. This development will allow Potter’s Craft Cider to establish a much-anticipated tasting room, and is expected to quadruple its cider production. Governor Ralph Northam announced the investment in January and cited agritourism as a valuable source of income for rural areas. Renovations to the church will take place over the next three years while the team establishes an on-site apple orchard.
Wild Wolf Brewing Company
The Wolf is also on the move. Wild Wolf Brewing Company, based in Nelson County, recently opened a satellite location near Charlottesville’s Downtown Mall. Owner Mary Wolf said she fell in love with the location two years ago and had been thinking about it ever since. When it became available again this year, the company grabbed it.
She knew it was important to have a location within city limits. “Charlottesville has really become a mecca for great beer,” says Wolf. She attributes the city’s thriving industry to the mix of talented brewers who embrace innovation and a population full of young professionals who are willing to try new things.
While Wolf says she might consider opening other locations in the future, she’s not interested in becoming huge. “We’re focused on quality—on great food and beer.”
North American Sake Brewery
North American Sake Brewery may be the most unexpected newcomer to the city. The first craft sake brewery in the commonwealth opened at IX Art Park last year, and started distributing in Virginia last March. Co-owners Jeremy Goldstein and Andrew Centofante, a filmmaker and a web developer, respectively, are a self-described “unlikely [saki] duo,” but they put all of their passion for sake into the products they make. They managed to catch the attention of the Embassy of Japan and were invited to pour their own sake at a reception in D.C. this June.
By Erin O’Hare and Sam Padgett
After a special dinner service on Wednesday, January 31, the Old Mill Room at the Boar’s Head Inn will close for a major renovation, the first since the restaurant opened in 1965.
The old wooden beams and hardwood floors will remain, says Boar’s Head Resort marketing and communications manager Joe Hanning, but the rest of the space will undergo a redesign, complete with new seating and a modern atmosphere inspired by the existing Old Mill Room, says Hanning. New design elements will include a glass-backed bar between the current restaurant and bistro spaces.
Renovations will begin February 1 and should wrap up in September of this year, says Hanning, but guests at the inn won’t be without an on-site restaurant: There are two other recently renovated places to eat, Racquet’s Restaurant inside the fitness club, and the Birdwood Grill near the golf course. And while the new restaurant will look a bit different, the revised menu “won’t be too far-fetched from what it is now,” Hanning says—it’ll still be fine dining.
Executive chef Dale Ford, who has been with the Boar’s Head Inn since December 2016, has planned a special farewell dinner, Feast of Five Forks, for January 31 (tickets are $95 and can be purchased online). The Old Mill Room has been “the grand dame of dining rooms in Charlottesville” for decades, says Ford, and with this prix-fixe dinner, he wanted to pay homage to the restaurant’s history. Ford and other resort staff gathered old Old Mill Room menus, including the very first menu from 1965, and researched how various dishes would have been served at the time. Ford, who grew up on the Florida/Georgia coast, says he’s especially excited about cooking a stuffed prawn dish that was a menu staple for almost a decade.
Big changes at Bang!
Travis Burgess is the new head chef at Bang!, but he’s no stranger to the Asian tapas restaurant: He started working there 10 years ago, when he was 14, washing dishes.
And if his last name sounds familiar, that’s because Travis is the son of Bang! co-owner Tim Burgess.
Travis took over the kitchen at Bang! earlier this month, and he’s changed about half the menu, which is still Asian tapas, still priced between $4 and $14 per small plate, and still heavy on the veggies. He’s kept longtime Bang! favorites like the kale tortellini and the goat cheese dumplings, and replaced some less-ordered dishes with new ones, including carrots cooked in a cast-iron pan and topped with cashew cream sauce and nori seasoning and an egg noodle and charred eggplant plate. There’s also a dish that Tim thought up: a vegan pastrami-style sandwich made with beets and turmeric sauerkraut.
Travis, who cooked at Trummer’s On Main in Clifton before moving to Charleston, South Carolina, to cook at upscale bistro-style Southern food restaurant Fig, most recently worked as a bread baker at Butcher & Bee in Charleston. And in his quest to incorporate bread into an Asian menu, he’s introduced three kinds of steam buns to Bang!: fried chicken, beef shoulder and king oyster mushroom with broccoli kimchi.
Eater’s digest
Tilman’s, the wine-and-cheese specialty shop on the Downtown Mall, will begin a series of weekly tasting events that will run through March. The first in the series, a wine-and-cheese pairing, costs $30 (paid in advance), and will take place at the shop at 6:30pm on Wednesday, January 24. Tilman’s co-owner Derek Mansfield says future tastings will include a wine-and-chocolate and cider-and-cheese pairing, among others.
According to a note posted on the door of The Nook, the diner is closed until February. And windows are brown-papered up, so we can’t see what’s going on in there.
On Tuesday, January 30, wine journalist, critic and teacher Steven Spurrier, who helped legitimize the California wine scene in the 1970s, will host a five-course wine dinner at Veritas Vineyard & Winery in Afton. Each course will be paired with a Spurrier-selected wine, and he plans to share plenty of stories from his 50 years in the industry. Tickets for the dinner are $165, and can be purchased at the Virginia Wine Academy’s website.