Virginia wineries making a comeback

BY BILL LOHMANN
Media General News Service
Published: October 13, 2008

Doug Flemer succeeded where Thomas Jefferson failed.

Flemer is proprietor of Ingleside Vineyards, one of a handful of wineries whose opening in the 1970s signaled the rebirth of the state’s wine industry. Three decades later, Flemer and scores of other winemakers across the state are making wines good enough to make TJ — a noted connoisseur of the fermented grape but a failure as a grapes-grower — smile and, no doubt, raise a glass.

October is Virginia Wine Month, once a way to boost the state’s fledgling wine business and now a showcase event to promote a full-blown industry. It’s also the month for the annual Virginia Wine & Garlic Festival, which each year draws thousands to Rebec Vineyards in Amherst County.

Virginia wine was nonexistent in the early 1970s, but last year, more than 130 wineries — several of them in Central Virginia — produced 350,000 cases, or $70 million worth. The Virginia Wine Board estimates eight to 10 new wineries come online each year, including Sans Soucy vineyards and winery in Brookneal, which opened this year as the only winery in Campbell County.

Grapes ranked 15th in the state among all crops last year in terms of harvested acreage. Nationally, Virginia is the seventh-largest producer of wine, and its reputation is growing. More than 50 Virginia wineries regularly compete and win their share of awards in national competitions.

“There are a lot of wine states out there, and Virginia’s better than most of them,” said Bruce Schoenfeld, the wine and spirits editor at Travel + Leisure, for which he wrote a piece last year that included Virginia as the only U.S. entry among five up-and-coming wine destinations worldwide.

Schoenfeld ranks California, Oregon and Washington as the top producers of American wines. The second tier of wine-producing states includes New York and Virginia, he said.

Virginia wines are sold around the nation, in states such as New York, Florida, Texas and California, and a few are distributed in England. Exact figures aren’t available as to what percentage of Virginia wines are sold outside the state, but the Virginia Wine Board said more by far are sold in Virginia.

“What Virginia offers, which I find so compelling, is a combination of a few real good wines and a lot of wineries with perfectly good wines, and a tourism infrastructure which makes time spent there really pleasurable,” Schoenfeld said.

Despite its status as a relative newcomer on the national stage, Virginia has a long history of winemaking.

In the 1600s at Jamestown, all male heads of households, under threat of punishment, were ordered to cultivate 20 grapevines each, although disease and pests torpedoed the effort.

Jefferson famously — and unsuccessfully, without the benefit of modern pesticides and growing techniques — spent decades trying to grow numerous varieties of imported grapes in hopes of stocking his extensive wine cellar at Monticello.

Eventually, winemaking did succeed in Virginia, which for a time was the biggest wine producer in the United States until it was left in ruins by the Civil War.

Grape-growing rebounded, but it was wiped out again by Prohibition. It wasn’t until the 1970s that it got going again when people such as Carl Flemer, Doug’s father, decided to give wine-making a try.

There was a lot of trial and error at Ingleside and other wineries around Virginia, mostly in terms of figuring out which variety of grapes would thrive in the state’s climate. People such as Gabriele Rausse, an Italian winemaker who shepherded the young industry through its early days, helped launch Barboursville Vineyards and later revived Jefferson’s dream of growing grapes and producing wine at Monticello.

Virginia’s humidity, rain and occasional temperature extremes still cause grape-growers heartburn, but overall the state is fortunate in its location, said Tony Wolf, the state viticulturist. It’s south enough to usually avoid grape-damaging cold and north enough to usually avoid bacteria that thrive in warmer areas.

The state also has benefited from a political climate that has supported grape-growing and winemaking with a statewide marketing operation and research through Virginia Tech, he said.

Vineyards and wineries can be found from the Eastern Shore to the farthest reaches of Southwest Virginia. But the largest numbers are along the eastern slope of the Blue Ridge Mountains. There are 17 wineries in the Lynchburg area, according to the Virginia Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control.

Virginia ranks eighth nationally for wine tourism, according to the Travel Industry of America. Three percent of all trips to Virginia include a winery or wine festival, making it comparable to camping, boating and golf, according to Virginia Tourism Corp., which also notes that visitors who include a Virginia winery on their trip spend more than twice as much per person as the average traveler — $299 per person compared with $129.

The state wine industry is responsible for 2,750 jobs, which includes positions in wine production as well as related restaurant and tourism jobs. The total annual economic impact of the industry is $347 million, according to the Virginia Vineyards Association.

Wine festivals, at individual wineries or in wider communities, are big draws. February’s Virginia Wine Expo at the Greater Richmond Convention Center drew more than 5,600 people.

There’s a romance associated with growing grapes and making wine, but those in the business are at the mercy of weather, much like farmers of any other crops.

Harvest this year has been a challenge because of the late summer and early fall rains, which can dilute the flavor of ripening grapes. Some wineries picked their grapes a little earlier or later than they might have liked, but most “feel very good about harvest,” said Annette Ringwood Boyd, director of the Virginia Wine Board Marketing Office.

Once the harvest is in, growers have to worry about the fermentation process. It takes a vineyard two or three years after first planting to produce grapes for making wine and perhaps several more years to determine precisely what varieties of grapes grow best in the location.

“It’s not an easy life,” Wolf said from his office at the Agricultural Research and Extension Center in Winchester. “There are constant challenges … a lot of different worries.”