Old Town Crier, August 2007 Issue
Exploring Virginia Wines by Doug Fabbioli

A walk through the vineyard: As you can see in the photo above, the color is stating to show on the fruit. We still have a long way to harvest, but this is pretty early to see color. We are expecting this fruit, our Merlot for the Tre Sorelle blend and Raspberry Merlot, to come ripe about the middle of September. The season has been so dry that the grapes may come ripe a little earlier. Most farmers are having terrible crop losses in a drought year like this but winegrape growers enjoy in this kind of weather. There is less vegetative growth, less weeds and lower disease pressure. Even the dreaded Japanese Beetles seem to have taken the year off. We have seen a few stray bugs but nothing like the hoards from years past. All of this adds up to a very good-looking 2007 vintage for Virginia as long as the hurricanes can stay small and out of our area. Although the drought is nice for us, I do wish some good soaking rains for my fellow farmers, they work awfully hard to feed us.

Winemaking: I am in the process of building a production plan for the 2007 harvest. Crop estimates, sales predictions, wine styles and space availability all go into the plan along with fruit availability, weather conditions, previous research and research plans for 2007. Basically, I am trying to have my winemaking written down so when the fruit comes in, I know what I will do with it at the time. Harvest time gets quite crazy and the more I can plan ahead, the better I am. We are planning about 2000 cases for the 2007 harvest. If I make a good plan, I have more creativity during harvest and less mistakes from exhaustion and bad communication. We have our next bottling on September 4 and another probably in December.

Production Construction: As our wines have been selling well and we continue to build the demand, I need to focus on producing more. I have been a consultant in the Virginia wine industry for 7 years now and many of the people that I have helped establish vineyards over those years are in full production in their vineyards. I have set my goals to work with these growers to purchase their fruit and make wine. Many of these grapes are Chambourcin and Cabernet Franc. My biggest problem has been where will all of this wine go? Well we started an eco friendly project of burying two shipping containers into a small hillside, and creating a wine cave. This may not be the fanciest wine cave in the state but I am hoping it will do the job at the right price and help us keep growing. I will show you photos next month. Others have done this but none in VA that I am aware of. I need a hard hat with some grape clusters attached to maintain balance. This project is environmentally friendly, economically logical and will be a great educational tool for other wineries.

Tasting Room Talk: There was an article in the New York Times recently about the wineries on Long Island and the troubles that they have had with drunk customers, party limos and wayward focus in the tasting room. Many of the wineries here in VA including mine are small family operations and are at someone’s home. Tasting room tone can be a difficult thing to set when a large group of tasters comes in having visited 4 other wineries and consumed a few pitchers of margaritas on the bus. Some may say that the tasting fee they pay should give them the right to behave as they wish but wineries can and will refuse service to those they choose. I do not speak for the other wineries, but I do know that we are all appreciative of our caring and dedicated customers. We want all to enjoy the experience, learn about wine and have fun doing it. VA was just listed as one of the best new wine regions to visit in the world. We always welcome new visitors with open arms. When you do come, please be considerate of the place, the business and the other customers. Winemaking goes back in history thousands of years, and we are just starting to do it here locally. We want this industry to grow positively so we will be here for many generations to come. Thanks and drink locally.