Dear Friends,
Latest and Greatest From Fabbioli Cellars
Building this business has been very exciting, tiring, rewarding, confusing and generally just what it should be. Sorry I have not written more lately but this should give you lots of info of what is new and what is coming up.
New Wine Release: The 2006 Chambourcin is now released. Stop by to taste it if you have not yet. This wine is replacing the Fratelli in name only. The blend is a little higher in the Chambourcin variety but maintains that lighter styled, bistro wine that has gained so many fans over the past year and a half. I am not talking about the Cabernet Sauvignon because it is pretty much gone at this point. Just a few bottles remain for the library.
Doug’s Consulting: As many of you know, I have been the winemaker for Doukenie Winery (formerly Windham Winery) for the past 7 years. As Fabbioli Cellars has continued to blossom, I knew that I could not continue pushing enough energy for both. Last December when the Bazaco family wanted to expand their business, I told them that I could not make that commitment but I would help them find the person that could. Sebastien Marquet arrived here in VA 2 weeks ago and is the new winemaker for Doukenie Winery allowing me the time and focus to continue growing the child with my name. I wish the best for Doukenie, the Bazacos and Sebastien as they reach new heights in this fabulous industry. Salute!
September 15 and 16: This weekend is another one of those where everything is scheduled at once. We will be at the VA Wine Festival in Leesburg, the Bluemont Fair and the tasting room will be open on Saturday. Anyone interested in helping out at these events should come by on a Saturday before the event so we can talk and train. I hate being served by untrained pouring staff and I do not want that to happen with us. New is good, in training is good but just showing up does not work. Thanks for your help.
Fall Hours: We have decided to add Fridays to the schedule for wine tastings. We are here anyway, so we might as well share some time with customers. This can be a little more intimate that a Saturday afternoon. We have also decided that Sundays will not be open or available. With the boys still in school and Colleen working the 9-5, we need one day of down time for balance. It has been great that you all understand.
Aaron is coming back: Aaron Daniels is our tall, dark and handsome surrogate son from California. He is a well-schooled chef who is finishing a 2-year stint in some of the fine restaurants in Manhattan. He is returning here to help with harvest and continue his education in VA. He interned with me out at Windham Winery in 2005 and we are looking forward to his smile and cooking here for vintage 2007.
Fruit Availability: We will have grapes available for home winemakers this fall but please make your reservations so I have what you need. Available will be Merlot, Cabernet Franc and Chambourcin as they come ripe. First will be Merlot in mid September.
Harvesting Days: I have had a lot of requests about the opportunity to harvest grapes this fall. I will send out a notice when I pick the date. It will probably be a weekend and maybe a few throughout the season. This is always a fun time but be prepared to work hard, get dirty and go home tired.
New Face: We’d like to welcome and introduce you to Doug Caldwell who has recently joined the crew here on the farm. His main focus will be managing and growing the wholesale distribution of our wines. Doug comes to us from Commonwealth Wines, an “exclusively Virginia Wine” distributorship based in Charlottesville. Doug lives in Manassas until the cold winter months when he resides at Wintergreen Resort and is their Assistant Director of Snow Sports. Doug can be reached at dcaldwell@fabbioli.com.
Wholesale Update from Doug Caldwell: The biggest thing in the wind for Virginia wines and wholesaling is the recent change back to wineries being able to self-distribute. Up to 3000 cases per year, using a State appointed “virtual distributor” can be wholesaled and still satisfy all laws governing our industry. While this took effect the first of July, the reality is the state system will not be available for some time. So what to do? Well, Commonwealth Wines, a distributorship in Charlottesville, actually has their own system in place that mirrors what the state will be doing, so we are now actively self-distributing again without having to wait on the state to get their act together!
So NOW is the time for all our loyal fans and customers to let us know where they would like to see our wines available. Also please ask for our wines at your favorite restaurants and retail locations. We can now give them the personal service and attention that our wines deserve. This is a great change for building good relations and promoting all of Virginia’s fine wines. (Check out the updated retail locations on our website)
We recently had a booth set up outside Mom’s Apple Pie Company in Warrenton pairing our wines with some great pies. We’ll be back there again and I’ll let you know when. You can purchase our wines in the Warrenton area at The Town Duck and taste it by the glass at The Crescendo Bistro across the street. Visit the Bonefish in Centreville starting the weekend of August 25th. Our Cab Franc and Raspberry Merlot will be on their wine list. Tony Stafford, the managing partner there, is almost always on hand to welcome you to one of the top grossing restaurants in the chain. Your support here could really help with a great growth opportunity for our humble winery. Also if you’re a fan of Whole Foods, we are now able to be on their shelves. Stop by your favorite store and ask for us! Check out the Upcoming Events for details on the following: A Wine and Food pairing at The Virginia Touch in Berryville and a Fabbioli pouring in Ashburn at The Wine Smith.
Calendar for Fabbioli Cellars
- Wine and Food Pairing: August 29th,6-8pm.The Virginia Touch - 107 W. Main St. Berryville, VA. Our wines will be paired with a varying array of tapas ideas. Contact Mark Seder for more details at 540-955-9092.
- Bottling Day: September 4th, 11-3pm. We will be bottling four different wines. We use a mobile bottling line that has all the necessary equipment inside a large trailer. We'll also have tastings and sales that day. An interesting process. Come drink our wine as you watch it get bottled!
- Store Pour: September 8th, 2-6pm.The Wine Smith– 43670 Greenway Corporate Dr. #116 Ashburn, VA. A new store very supportive of our wines. Come visit and enjoy! Contact: Neil Smith, 703-729-2970.
- Virginia Wine Festival: September 15-16. Morven Park in Leesburg,
Here is the latest Old Town Crier Column. Enjoy and see you soon.
Doug, Colleen, Matt and Sammy
Old Town Crier - August 2007
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.