By Doug Fabbioli One of our mobile bottling lines that Chris Pearmund and a few other folks have run over the decades will retire this year. A key reason our industry has blossomed as well as it has over the last 3 decades has been because of this bottling line and a couple others like it. The trailer housing the bottling line is large and heavy, the equipment is sensitive, and winemakers are finicky about how our wine is treated in this critical stage of its life. Hats off to all the folks that own, manage and work these lines in order to get our wines into the bottle and our labels on straight. These operators are a rare breed, and we can’t do our job and get the product to our customers without them. Hail, really? The other day, in the middle of our bottling run, we had a heathy hail storm roll through. The vines were just budding out so the damage was not devastating, but it did knock off some of the buds. In the process of pruning and training our grapevines, we eliminate a portion of the buds that the plant grew last year. So losing some buds is ok, but we want buds in certain positions to maintain the structure of the vine and keep the fruit in the fruiting zone for training and protection. The photos bellow are of a hail damaged bud and an untouched healthy bud. We were fortunate to be only grazed by this damaging storm. One more thing for farmers to worry about. Our pear trees have set their fruit. The pear blossoms come out just about the same time the cherry blossoms bloom in DC. Yes, it does seem to happen a bit earlier each year. This is an…
By Doug Fabbioli We all share the same Earth, however, there has been a fair amount of disagreement from folks about what is the best way to care for our lovely blue planet. My goal in writing this column is to promote ideas that I hope we can all agree on. We need to keep Mother Earth moving in the healthiest direction for all. As farmers, our perspective on climate is connected directly with our land and the functionality of our operation. Our weather has been changing depending on where we live. For some it’s wetter or drier, colder or hotter, and sometimes just more intense. It’s not just words coming from our chosen source of media coverage, we need to adapt to changing weather conditions every time they come. Many times, with change comes less efficiency and more cost. Sometimes we need to invest in irrigation or drainage, repair buildings or equipment so the long term is addressed in a way that will be survivable. Also, as farmers, we have the ability to help mitigate airborne carbon by doing what we do best, grow things. Plants consume CO2 in their process of growing. Some plants are better than others at capturing this carbon and some can then be used to make fuel, or just buried to return the carbon to the ground. I am not an expert on all the science of this, but I am continuing to learn. I will say I am hoping to share what I know and gather a few more farmers and businesses along the way so we make the changes to adapt. But changes in business can often cost money, time and focus. Our efforts are to define the changes, find solutions, help with implementation, and promote the successes so others will join….
By Doug Fabbioli When we first started our winery, a true Garagist venture from the cellar of our house, there was not really a plan to be open to the public. My vision was to continue making wine for others, selling some grapes from our farm, and making a few barrels of wine from the rest. Sales would mainly be to local wine shops and restaurants, and, periodically opening the cellar doors for our customers to come by and purchase. Well, not all things fall into the well-made plan. The growth of our tasting room operation, increasing staffing, creating a wine club, adding events, building additions, and eventually, building a whole new structure, is another story for another day. Through it all, our relationships with wine shops and restaurants have remained an important part of our business plan. If the operator of a wine shop likes my wine, believes they can sell it to their customer base, and at a price that covers my wholesale price and makes them money, we all win. Much of our wine, and that of my fellow winemakers, is consumed in homes, at parties, and the like. Having our wines available at these shops expands my customer base beyond my tasting room, and makes it easier to reach more people who enjoy good wine. It is also a valuable, stamp of quality. These shops often have dedicated customers who trust the buyer for that store to make only the best available. If the store has the wine on its shelf, you can be certain it’s a good wine and priced fairly. I just came from a delivery to a local shop where I had a tasting with customers a few weeks ago. The manager was happy to see me and I to see him. He enthusiastically…
By Doug Fabbioli “There are two spiritual dangers in not owning a farm. One is the danger of supposing that breakfast comes from the grocery, and the other that heat comes from the furnace.” Aldo Leopold Growing up outside Syracuse, NY, I learned a little bit about the weather. Snow. Snow. And more snow. It impacted drives to school, work, and the grocery store, but we could shelter in the warmth of our home when it all became too much. Having a career as a farmer and wine maker, I have learned a heck of a lot more about the weather through my lived experience in the vineyard and out in the field. The weather for any agriculture business is really a make or break situation. Being aware of the weather — both the short and long term forecasts, is critical. It can be the determining factor in what work will need to be done and when — scheduled or not. Knowing what the long term weather and climate forecast is, gives us information to base critical decisions for future success and abundant growth. This past growing season was relatively dry. Without built-in irrigation in most of our vineyards, irrigating in a dry season is a hard thing to do. Young vines need the most care and attention. When we plant young vines, our work around without an irrigation system is a water tank on a trailer. This allows us to give each vine a drink when we don’t have the rains when they are most needed. Last spring we lucked out. Early in the season we watered our new plantings only once through this labor intensive process. Later in the year, we received a soaking rain right when we needed it — we and the vines were thankful for it….
By Doug Fabbioli I was at an event the other evening, when the topic of land in Loudoun County came up. When I moved here in 1997 from Northern California, the saying that kept coming up was, “Don’t Fairfax Loudoun!” Twenty-six years later, the saying still applies. We all need a place to live, roads, schools, places to work and places to shop. More than anything, we need a place to call home. Our local leaders see economic development as a great thing for jobs, tax revenue, prestige and attracting new business. As a farmer, it is tough to do the job of farming on land in the middle of a neighborhood — especially if that neighborhood has agriculture restricting HOA’s. Folks love farm land until they need a place to build and live. Folks sometimes move next door to farmland with a bucolic notion of what that means, only to learn it can sometimes be loud, and sometimes emit animal or plant smells not necessarily appreciated or understood. How do we find the balance between the growth, the culture, the land and the lifestyle we choose to live? These choices will affect us long into the future. Our 25 acres in Lucketts is now surrounded by houses. Fortunately, our neighbors appreciate our farming efforts and patronize our business. We have broken the mold a bit with our relationships. For the past few years, we have also been leasing plots of our land to other folks to farm. The plots are in an area too low for grape growing, but have proven beneficial to gardeners who have overgrown their current spaces and need bigger spaces than a 20’x20’ plot at a park will give. With irrigation already installed, and deer fence protecting the land, our plots fit into a business…
By Doug Fabbioli The vines now stand dormant in the vineyard, and the crusher is enjoying a well-deserved rest. It was a banner grape growing year here in northern Virginia. At our winery, we processed more grapes than ever before! The combination of great growing weather and great vineyard management produced an incredible harvest. With a heavy yield of grapes here at our vineyards, adding a new client, and not selling as many grapes to other winemakers, we crushed just over 87 tons of grapes in about a month. We processed all of those grapes in 37 different lots – or batches – keeping varietals, individual growers, and picking days separate. Some lots were as small as a few hundred pounds while our largest was 12.5 tons. Some years we play around with a few experimental lots, but knowing we had a full plate this year, we decided not to do any trials. In addition to the grapes, we processed 1 ton of apples and 3/4 ton raspberries in 8 different fermentation batches. The capacity of our winery was not quite built for the load we handled, but some how we made it all work. The challenge we faced processing more fruit than our small winery was designed to handle was that things got rather tight and more inefficient. Toward the end of the season, we began each day by moving things out of the way to make room for that day’s work. At the end of the day, we moved all of those things back and shifted other things around to find room for the day’s work product. I must say, “So far, so good,” in that we have continued to move wines, make space and bottle quality wines just as we are supposed to do. Arturo, our production manager, does the bulk…
By Doug Fabbioli Before water, there was wine. Well, maybe not before water, but we can trace the first wine making all the way back to Georgia in 6000 BC. Wine has been bringing people together for celebrations, mournings, and simple meals for most of our history. The land, air, water, and people, transform the humble grape into our chosen companion to our lives. Terroir is our term for the character of the wine that is unique to its special place on the land. A fine quality wine will express those unique terroir characters along with the varietal characters of the grape. Where that grape was crushed and crafted into wine, how it was aged, watched, stored, and cared for, all play a vital role in turning out what we ultimately pour into our glass. All this takes attention, sound business models and investment, and in the very best models, a community of collaboration. For many generations in the European winemaking regions, each town had a cooperative winery. The grapes were grown by individual growers, and brought to the winery for processing. The batches of grapes were kept separate from others so each grower had their own lot for sale or bottling for later. The larger wine companies would buy the finished wines from these coops in order to fill their needs as well. Or the owner would decide to have their own label and brand, or have the wine blended with others to make the house wine needed to feed the neighborhood. The idea of making a winery that houses many different wines has been in use here in the new world as well. This has also been the model for the dairy industry as well. Daily deliveries of milk to the coop dairy continues today in certain areas…
By Doug Fabbioli It’s Virginia Wine Month. Our local vineyards are bringing in the new crop and celebrating the harvest. There is music, food, good company, and, of course, good wine toasted against beautiful blue skies. Amidst the celebration and excitement of a bountiful harvest, the wine industry – world wide – is facing challenges. I have a wine writer friend who is putting together a story about the current state of the wine industry. I decided to share my thoughts in this forum as well.. It may be a bit heavy and a bit in the weeds, but it is a reality for us and important to share with those we have come to call friends and those we rely on, our customers and appreciators. We can weather any changes together. What follows, are my answers to his questions. As shown in a recent wine industry report, the wine sales trends are down. What do you see as a tailwind to keep you positive? First, having been in this industry for four decades now, we have seen a number of highs and lows in the demand for our products. This will shift again but we need to ride out the storm and evolve as best we can. As grape farmers, we have to keep growing our fruit to keep our vineyards healthy. Taking a year off is not an option, so we try to find new homes and new markets. Second, I am always encouraged to see young, energetic folks wanting to work in this industry. We need them and their excitement and energy to be part of this industry and help it thrive. Old codgers like me need to welcome the new folks as they will help take our wine trails, regions and reputations to the next level…..
By Doug Fabbioli Not much is easy about the wine business. Scratch that. Drinking great wine that you grew and produced, is easy. Translating the process into a consistent business that covers all of the costs and gives back a bit of a profit, that part is hard. Between our tasting rooms, event facilities, off site tasting rooms, farmers markets, retailers, distributors, restaurants, box stores and on line sales, some may think that selling wine is easy. Well, selling wine has been pretty hard lately. Each of the above outlets have a cost to them, and when people buy less, the costs to operate remain the same. Our local wine industry is having some growing pains and many folks are looking at ways to increase sales. One outlet that has been on the schedules of wineries and wine lovers here in Virginia, is the wine festival. When I arrived in Virginia 26 years ago, I did not have a lot of experience selling wine, let alone experience with wine festivals. We didn’t have anything like this in California. Sure they had events in the square of Sonoma, or at a park with food and wines, but we did not sell wine. These events were for marketing and press. Here in Virginia, the wineries can obtain a “remote license”, to set up sales and tastings in another location. There are legal steps, insurance and safety considerations, but, we can bring the wine and experience to another location, present the wine and sell by the glass or bottle to those that want to take it home. With bigger events, event companies run the show. The wineries are the attraction, as well as the music, food, location, seminars and such. Back in the day, wineries would bring a large volume of wine to…
By Doug Fabbioli Here in the Mid Atlantic, the wine grape growers have been fortunate to find a number of grape varieties that grow well here in our soil and climate, and that the winemakers can process into interesting and drinkable wines. Some of these varieties, like Chardonnay and Merlot, are well known and grown across the world in a variety of climates. Others, like Albariño or Petit Verdot, are not as widely known but have found a home here in the Virginia countryside and the surrounding areas. A grape variety that may be known a bit better and which continues to gain respect among both the producers and the customers is Tannat. A large-clustered grape that creates a bold and rich wine, Tannat is gaining more fans the more we work with it. Originally from the Madiran region in South West France where it is used to make a robust red wine, Tannat is embraced as the national grape of Uruguay. It has been used to make rosés, soft reds, full-bodied reds, and even dessert wines, but it is best known as a deep, tannic red wine. Here in our region, most of us focus on making full, bold reds. With its higher acids and firm tannins, it is also an important blending wine used to finish off other red wines. I was first introduced to this grape through the work of Dennis Horton at Horton Cellars. He was a maverick in our industry and his ambition to try different grapes gave those of us coming along behind him a knowledge base we could use to make choices. My other big influence for this variety was Dr. Tony Wolf from Virginia Tech. Tony was more conservative about plantings than others but he had ventured into Tannat and, although he…
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