By Matthew Fitzsimmons

Establishing a wine brand is an expensive proposition. Start-up costs can range anywhere from tens of thousands of dollars for a small “garagiste”- setup, to millions to acquire a fully equipped tasting room, vineyard, and production facility.

If that’s not enough, farm wineries face unpredictable weather, regulatory hurdles, and (especially lately) significant market fluctuations. Collectively, these challenges make the dream of owning a winery out of reach for many.

These risks have sparked the rise of ‘wine incubators,’ including Common Wealth Crush Co (CWC), the Virginia Wine Collective (VWC), and Walsh Family Wine’s “Winemaker’s Studio”.

All three offer different tiers of support for a variety of winery clients, including large-scale contract winemaking for tasting rooms that don’t produce their own wine. This model is widely available in Virginia.

What sets CWC, the VWC, and Walsh apart from other contract winemakers is their ability to scale this support specifically to meet the needs of smaller wine brands.

Established winemakers that lack their own production facility may only need access to expensive processing equipment. They essentially rent this equipment and floor space to make their own wine, sometimes using their own grapes and barrels.

Wine startups have additional requirements. These new vintners often need a host that can also sell them grapes, mentor them in winemaking, and provide access to retailers.

The host acts like a business incubator, giving their client the tools they need to succeed.

Why Independent Brands – And the Producers That Support Them – Matter

Virginia is home to over 20 limited-production wine brands that lack their own tasting room. These brands are usually only found at the facility they were produced at, or special pop-up events.

These wines are amongst the most exciting in the state. Their owners have the creative freedom to indulge in more experimental styles or highlight the terroir of tiny parcels that might otherwise be lost within a multi-acre bottling.

Incubators also help level the playing field for female, LGBTQIA+, and Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) entrepreneurs who have traditionally lacked the networking opportunities and financial backing open to other prospective vintners.

A breakdown of the Virginia wine industry demonstrates the need for these initiatives. Only 18% of Virginia wineries employ a female Head Winemaker, yet females compose roughly 2/3rds of local winery staff.

BIPOC owners are even less represented. Out of over 300 wineries or wine brands in Virginia, less than 10 have owners who identify as BIPOC.

Ben Jordan of CWC described the challenges these small brands face, especially before CWC was founded.

“What almost always happens is these small brands grow out of the space they were making wine at, or the winery facility grows its production and has to kick you out,” he explained. “Common Wealth provides a dedicated facility that allows a winemaker to start a brand, do the project, make the wine the way they want to, and be confident they’ll be able to stay there.”

The Virginia Wine Collective (VWC), located in the former Wineworks Extended tasting room in Charlottesville, likewise supports multiple winemaking clients but with a slightly different setup.

Normally, a wine production facility can host only one wine license. The VWC sidesteps this by creating individually licensable spaces within a larger facility, each of which meet ABC regulations.

This allows participating winemakers to share equipment, retail space, and a joint tasting room, while still make wine under their own commercial license. According to Jake Busching, head winemaker for the VWC, this layout is unique on the East Coast.

Where To Find Virginia’s Smallest Wine Brands

Most Virginia wineries produce between 3,000-5,000 cases/year. Brands that lack their own tasting rooms bottle far less than this.

This limited production means independently-owned brands rarely make national, or even local, headlines. The Virginia Governor’s Cup requires 50 cases of wine be set aside to enter the competition; a high bar for brands where the total production for any single bottling may barely exceed 50 cases.

That said, here are a few places Virginia wine lovers can explore to find these limited production wines.

Common Wealth Crush (Waynesboro): Common Wealth produces a huge lineup made from owners Ben and Tim Jordan, including Star Party, Lightwell Survey, Midland, and the eponymous Common Wealth Crush Co wines.

In addition to these brands, you can find (or eventually will find) Love Echo, Novella, and The Parallax Project, all of which are BIPOC-owned.

The Virginia Wine Collective (Charlottesville): The Collective supports a number of micro-brands from well-known local producers such as Jake Busching, Joy Ting, and Matthieu Finot. Up and coming labels include Cataldos Perfezione, Delve Wine, Dogwood & Thistle, Present Company, and Zora Chloe.

Walsh Family Wine (Purcellville): Many Walsh employees have sponsored a personal label, which include Boden Young, Guide Wine, Quartzwood Farm, and Third Culture Kid. Walsh also makes wine for Iron Will and Toll Gate, which can be found at local farmers markets.

About the Author: Matthew Fitzsimmons is a blogger who has visited nearly every winery in Virginia – most of them twice. Track his progress at https://winetrailsandwanderlust.com/