Volunteer Opportunities |
The busy season at Chrysalis Vineyards is here, and we need help in the tasting room from our loyal supporters. We supplement our staff on weekends and special events with volunteers who help us accomplish the many tasks necessary to remain a leader in this industry and provide the ultimate level of hospitality to our guests. We look for a fit with our volunteers, the same as with new staff members. Yes, it is a fun "job," but it is work nonetheless. Our volunteers become part of our extended family, and we count on them as we do all of our staff members. When you volunteer with us in the tasting room, you work a full day helping with regular operations, then we send you home with a heartfelt thanks and a couple of bottles of Chrysalis Vineyards wine.
If you would like to be part of our volunteer team, please contact me so that we can chat, meet, and decide if we indeed have a fit. Please e-mail me at HAstorga@ChrysalisWine.com or call me on 540-687-8222, ext. 205.
Specific Volunteer Needs:
Virginia Wine Showcase - Wine Festival at Dulles Expo Center in Chantilly, Virginia - August 22, 23, 24.
Tasting Room Helpers - At Chrysalis Vineyards - All weekends through November 11:00 am - 5:30 pm.
Et cetera, et cetera, et cetera, and so forth
Current Wine Releases and Tasting Notes
On our website, we maintain a complete list of all currently available wines, pricing and tasting notes. Click for details.
VIP Club at Chrysalis Vineyards
Receive a 15% discount on ALL purchases at Chrysalis Vineyards; enjoy our Private Reserve White and Private Reserve Red, made EXPRESSLEY for our VIP Club members, be our guest for the VIP Club members' annual Holiday Party and much more. Click for details.
Groups and Facility Rentals
Hosting an event or having a wedding? Planning a group tour? Click for details.
Report from the Chef
As I often walk into the manor house on the estate, Jenni's home and office, I am greeted by the new flock of Welsumer chickens running amuck, who have been growing up in the garage, waiting for their emancipation to hit the "chicken coop". The chickens' first home has been a 10' inflatable pool that Jenni set up to nurse and care for them while they grew and readied themselves to become egg-producing machines. After just a few months, they are almost ready. It is interesting for a city boy like me to watch a chicken's adolescence unfold. Thus is life on the farm!
For years, we have been selling farm-fresh eggs in the tasting room, labeled Jenni's Free Range Eggies, so I thought I should give you a glimpse as to the three heritage breeds of chickens we have at Locksley Estate. First, here is a little data on each of them:
Buff Orpingtons - The Orpington is a large bird from the English class of chickens, developed by William Cook in 1886. It is a bold, upright breed with a wide chest, broad back, and small head and tail. The Orpington was bred as a dual-purpose breed (meat production and eggs), but its popularity grew as a show bird rather than as a utility breed. Their large size and soft appearance, together with their rich color and gentle contours, make them very attractive. Between 1889 and 1905, Cook also created buff-colored Orpingtons. The breed was famous for its great egg-laying capacity and lays between 110 and 160 eggs a year and does not stop laying in the winter. The eggs are a light brown to tinted white and range from small to large, depending on the heredity of the breed. Hens tend to go broody more than other heavy egg breeds, which is to say occasionally. Black Stars - The two most common varieties are the Black Sex Link (also called Black Stars) and the Red Sex Link (also called Red Stars). Blacks are a cross between a Rhode Island Red or New Hampshire rooster and a Barred Rock hen. Black Stars (Sex Links) are cross-bred chickens whose color at hatching is differentiated by sex, thus making chick-sexing an easier process. Sex Links come in many varieties, none of which is a true breed. As hybrids of laying breeds infused with extra vigor via heterosis, Black Stars are extremely good egg layers, which often produce 300 eggs a year and continue in the heat and cold when many others slow down. The males are said to be good "fryers."
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Welsumer (or Welsummer) - A chicken breed originally from the small village of Welsum, in the east part of The Netherlands, the Welsumer is a light, docile breed with rustic-red and orange color. Representations of cockerels in the media are often based upon the "classic" Welsummer look. The most common example of this would be the Kellogg's Cornflakes rooster. Its eggs are dark-brown and spotty. Welsummers were bred from local fowls of mixed origin at the beginning of the 20th century. In 1922-23, steps were taken to fix a standard after the birds began to show a good deal of uniformity. The eggs were originally exported for the commercial egg trade where they were an instant hit. Soon after, stock was imported into England. The breed was added to the British Standard in 1930.So, why chickens at Locksley Estate? If you ask that question, you have not tasted the difference between Jenni's eggs and the standard grocery store eggs to which we have all become accustomed. The norm (grocery store product) is a pale and flavorless example of what naturally grown, farm fresh eggs look and taste like. The yolks on a fresh egg are so vibrant, one would imagine they were colored with saffron. They have intense flavor and full body. To boot, the egg is one of the most valuable food products available to a chef. Its intrinsic chemical properties make it an indispensible tool to food production and dietary well-being. Factor in being raised naturally, and your rewards are healthy chickens with better tasting eggs.
Our goal at Chrysalis Vineyards is to continually maximize the worth of our beautiful countryside by making this farm economically viable. A restaurant, creamery, animal and vegetable production, as well as grapes and all of their byproducts are on the horizon. When the interaction between all of them is natural and respectful of nature, it can only lead us down the same path winemaking has shown us. To be a leader - the best at what we do. Wait till the new Welsummers begin laying their dark brown spotted eggs!
In homage to our growing flock of egg producing chickens, I have included a recipe for an American standard - Fried Chicken with Pan Gravy. I am not trying to reinvent the wheel, so here is my version of a simple comfort food, spiced a little differently. Enjoy it while sipping our '06 Norton Barrel Select, and celebrate America's birthday with our very own food and wine. Click here for the recipe.
Hump Astorga, Director of Hospitality and Culinary Operations
Report from the Tasting Room
If you viewed the world through the windows of the Chrysalis Vineyards tasting room as I did throughout June, you witnessed another Devon calf arrival; thousands of tiny grapes on the vines; and less pleasantly, the tornado that ripped through the valley, leaving in its wake a dizzying array of uprooted trees, closed roads, homeless cattle, and a powerless estate. Fortunately, there were no injuries to the staff and no structural damage to the tasting room, itself. As well, I feel that the supply problem late in May that led to cancellation of the scheduled bottling was indeed a blessing in disguise, as I shudder at the thought of any of our staff or volunteers being injured as a result of the weather. Backup generators provided us with just enough juice to keep the refrigeration running and to keep our wines alive. We were without power for 3 days, but once it was restored, we were able to reopen almost immediately.
During the outage, Demelza Stoudt (Assistant Tasting Room Manager) expressed concern (as always - a good thing) regarding potential shipment delays for our ever-expanding VIP Club (more than 525 members). GREAT JOB, Demelza! She circled the wagons and with Don, Brenden and Jam, took the show on the road, and they built and filled just over 525 shipping cases outside on the crush pad, while the sun provided the only light available on the estate. Sounds simple when you read this, but in fact it was a tremendous effort. We do not ship our wine late in the week because of the risk of having the wine sit in the FedEx warehouse all weekend. So, we were able to ship the next day! Much respect to Demelza (and the staff) for their work ethic, intelligence, drive, perseverance, dedication, and overall "rock star-ness". We feel lucky to have all of them, as do the guests to whom they provide such stellar service.
I would love to tell you about our participation in the Vintage Virginia festival this year, but there is just not enough space. Visit the tasting room and hear the tales in person about how our volunteers are the greatest in the world. How VIP Club members/volunteers Alan & Heather Lutz single-handedly took the "Bull Run" by the horns and saved the day with cat-like reflexes and the strength of a million men. Like I said, visit us and we will share these and other exciting stories as we pour some wine!
Ron's Wine Updates |
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As predicted last month, the '06 Albariño has entered the history books and is no longer available, and the Private Reserve White is running on fumes. One more weekend of this beautiful weather and this wine will be history also.
NEW RELEASES now available!
On The Horizon I was privy to a tasting of several of the upcoming releases and cannot say enough about our winemakers and my friends, Curtis Vincent and Brenden McMahon. With Curtis at the helm, they have managed to raise Chrysalis Vineyards wines to a new level and this is an extremely exciting time to be a part of this organization. Keep your eyes open for the '07 Viognier and the '07 Chardonnay, most likely in late fall. |
If you aren't a VIP Club member, you should ask yourself why you haven't signed up. Our signup form is on our website, www.chrysaliswine.com/VIPclub.htm. Simply print the form, fill it out, and fax or mail it to us. That's all it takes. Alternatively, give me a call at 540-687-8222, ext. 206. It's so easy!
Ron Camp, Tasting Room and Direct Sales Manager
Report from the Winemaker
When last I wrote I was looking at what I thought of as my last bottling run of the year. However, a minor glitch in bottling supplies required the rearrangement of priorities and now I am truly looking at my last bottling run of this year. All of the necessary supplies are in house and inventoried, thanks to Jenni's computer skills, I now have the tools that make predicting my bottling needs simple. Of course, the unexpected can occur and I recently solved a small, but key, problem with a couple of cordial conversations with my good man Bill at Vitro (our glass supplier).
Our bottling run on June 3 was excellent. My good friend, Ron Camp, left the management of the tasting room in the capable hands of his Assistant Manager, Demelza Stoudt. Knowing that there would be no problems upstairs, he was free to join me down in the winery. He helped me coordinate the final steps and served as the toastmaster for the team of volunteers, without whom we could not have had such a smooth and successful day. An awesome addition to our day was Ron's gift of special music a/k/a, The Bottling Mix, Pattern Disrupt, Oh Happy Day or Lucky Me My Work Is Play!
Speaking of volunteers: big ups to the valiant ones who rescued our electronic cash registers from near disaster at the 27th Annual Vintage Virginia Wine Festival. The thunder roared, the winds howled and the skies opened up and the rain came down as if someone had turned on a fire hose. Our volunteers rushed out from under the tent and literally used their bodies to block the rain while Ron Camp and Jason Whyte pulled the equipment further into the shelter. Good times! It was still a big success in spite of the fickle weather. I had the opportunity to taste wine from every single tent, shake hands with my peers, dig on the funky tunes and, even make some new friends. Ain't this the life?
We did have a filtration problem during our last bottling run. After doing a little research and consulting with my mentors at CSU Fresno, I believe that I know how to avoid the cost and inconvenience of clogging a cartridge pre-filter. While not all wineries filter their wines, the only way to be certain that there are no microbial problems lurking around the next corner is to sterile-filter the wine. To get to a filter grade below 0.45 microns, we pass the wine through two or three different sets of cellulose filter pads held in place with a plate and frame rack. Issues of concern include the rate of flow through the pads, the pressure differential between the filter inlet and outlet, and the amount of "goobers" in the wine. Most of these "goobers" are removed in the winemaking process through a series of "rackings" when we move wine that has had time to settle off the sediment and into another tank or barrel. In spite of this, we may find that we have a high enough level of pectin remaining to cause instability in the wine or, what we call in the trade, a "filtration nightmare."
Pectin is a heteropolysaccharide - a long chain of sugars in the form of pectic acid and pectinic acid. Found in the middle lamella, pectin binds the plant cells together and helps regulate water. For use as a gelling agent or stabilizer, it is commercially prepared from citrus peels and apple remains. The quantity of pectin in fruits varies by species and ripeness. In ripe grapes the pectin level may be as little as 0.2% or as much as 3%. The Norton grape is definitely on the high end of that scale, if not completely off the chart. To address the potential problems that pectin causes, we turn to pectinases, which are enzymes that catalyze the natural reactions that break down pectins, accelerating them so they move millions of times faster. Pectinases have been used in winemaking since the 1960's. They are most commonly extracted from the fungus Aspergillus niger. This fungus is the cause of black-mold rot on grapes and other fruits and vegetables. It makes enzymes break down the plant cells in order to insert fungal hyphae and extract nutrients. The same action that causes moldy fruit to get soft and mushy makes it easier for the winemaker to extract juice from fresh grapes as well as to filter the wine. So, I have created a spreadsheet that allows me track the number of inches that the wine level has moved every ten minutes during a filtering run, thereby knowing the rate at which the wine is moving relative to the manufacturer's specifications. Combine that with the judicious use of enzymes and life is beautiful!
Pectin
Curtis Vincent, Winemaker
Report from the Vineyard
Vineyard activity continues briskly with the primary focus on canopy management. Canopy management is an extremely labor intensive task that involves looking at each vine individually, (more than 40,000 vines in total) and removing excess leaves and shoots in order to allow sunlight, air, and chemical sprays to penetrate the canopy. The shoots are also "combed" or re-positioned in an orderly manner. Essentially, combing involves untangling the shoots. Similar to leaf-pulling and shoot-thinning, the objective of combing is to allow sunlight, air, and chemicals to penetrate the canopy and to expose the fruit zone to sunshine. The seemingly mundane and repetitious tasks associated with canopy management are critical to producing high-quality fruit and maintaining an effective disease prevention and control program.
Perry Griffin, Locksley Estate Manager
Welcome to summer (and Welsummers :-) Huh... I get it... cute! More about them in a minute.
Except for those brutally hot days a little earlier in June, the weather has been very cooperative so far this season, and mostly it's been a joy to be outdoors. Some people think that hot weather is good for the vines, but actually the vines don't like being that hot. Starting at about 85 degrees F they start shutting down operations by closing their stomata (leaf pores), slowing vascular activity and turning their leaves away from the sun. Not good for growth. But there's been plenty of water and a few days around 95 didn't stop much photosynthesis. They're back in action with a vengeance!
Always being one for the unusual and unordinary, I did some research on rare chickens and tracked some down not too far away. Will Morrow and Kent Ozkum raise organic heritage breed animals at their Whitemore Farm in Emmitsburg, MD. They had the Welsumer chicks and I traded some wine for 5 pullets (girls) and 2 cockerels (boys) a couple months ago. I've really enjoyed watching them grow up, and the hens should start laying in the next couple of months. Welsumers lay these really neat, dark, terracotta colored eggs. Very unusual.
One thing that Hump didn't mention about why we have chickens at Locksley Estate is the use of their eggs in winemaking (as a matter of fact, that's why they're here in the first place.) Sometimes the tannins in a wine can be harsh, or unpleasant, and need to be softened to achieve a balanced and elegant wine. And, believe it or not, egg whites do the trick.
You see, tannins are chemically attracted to proteins. That's why a tannic wine really "dries" out your mouth. The lubricant in your saliva is mostly protein, and when the tannic wine hits your tongue it binds up all this lubricant protein. Now... reverse the process, and you can use a protein in the wine barrel to "fine" the wine and bind the harsh tannins. The combined protein and tannin then drop to the bottom of the barrel and the wine is "racked" off. And what wonderful almost pure protein did nature provide us winemakers? Albumin... egg whites.
Ahh, nature and the natural life! Come share it with us. With these days of high gas prices and expensive travel, we're an affordable luxury just down the road a bit. Come for a visit and you'll have a wonderful day in the country.
| Jennifer McCloud Chrysalis Vineyards 23876 Champe Ford Road Middleburg VA 20117 email: McCloud@ChrysalisWine.com telephone: 540-687-8222 website: http://www.ChrysalisWine.com |
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