CELEBRATING OUR 26TH YEAR!
IN THIS NEWSLETTER...
VIP Wines of the Month
Report from the Tasting Room
Report from the Cellar
Report from the Vineyard
Report from the Locksley Farmstead Cheese
Note from Jenni
It's been looking like winter here at The Ag District... really for the first time in a few years. But don't worry, even on the coldest of days we have warm spaces, hot soup, and delicious wines to warm you right up!
With Valentine's Day just around the corner, it's time to mark your calendars for events happening at Chrysalis Vineyards during the month of February.
FEBRUARY EVENTS:
During the weekend of February 9th - 11th, Chrysalis Vineyards will be adding a special Valentine's Day offering of a glass of our 2021 Farfalla Albariño and two sweet fromage blanc filled strawberries to the menu. Available for purchase in our tasting
room.
FEBRUARY MUSIC LINEUP:
February 3rd - Andrew Renner - Jazz Guitarist
February 17th - Alfred Yun - Jazz Pianist
NOTE TO OUR VIP CLUB MEMBERS
We invite our VIP club members to join us on February 9th for a wine, dessert, and chocolate pairing pick-up party! From 5:30 - 7:30 PM, enjoy delicious chocolates and desserts crafted to pair with our sensational wine at Chrysalis Vineyards.
VIP Club members can register by following the link below. Please register for this event by February 7th.
Not a VIP Club member yet? Learn more about the benefits below and join the club today!
The white wine selection for our VIP Club members this month is Chrysalis Vineyards 2021 Mariposa. The 2021 vintage of this wine is a blend of Tannat, Petit Verdot, Tinta Cao, Nebbiolo, and Fer Servadou. The Mariposa has aromatics of strawberries, watermelon, and pomegranate with notes of ripe strawberries and juicy cherries on the palate.
The red wine selection for our VIP Club members this month is Chrysalis Vineyards 2019 Papillon. This vintage is a blend of Tannat and Petit Verdot. The Papillon has aromatics of black cherries, leather, and rose with notes of spices (cardamom & anise), spiced plums, and coffee on the palate.
As a reminder to our members, all VIP wine is available for pickup at the Ag District Center tasting room anytime during regular business hours.
NOTE: Please do not reply to this emailed Newsletter. Your email will not be handled in a timely manner or may even be lost.
REPORT FROM THE TASTING ROOM
New guided-tasting menu, cellar sales, and music, oh my. This month, explore our wines through our newest guided-tasting menu which includes our 2022 Albariño, 2022 Viognier, 2021 Barrel Select Norton, 2019 Petit Verdot, & 2020 Locksley Reserve Norton. We are also excited to announce that we have extended our cellar sale! This weekend, you have the opportunity to purchase some of our most treasured vintages of red wines for only $35 a bottle. If wine tastings and cellar sales were not enough to bring you in, we have more! From now until April, enjoy live music at Chrysalis Vineyards on the 1st & 3rd Saturdays of each month from 3 - 6 pm during our winter music series.
REPORT FROM THE VINEYARD
If you haven’t noticed, we received a bit of snow recently. It’s honestly been a lot of fun cruising through the vineyard seeing the beautiful countryside covered in snow with dormant wines. A few people have asked me what the impact of snow may have on the vineyard or how it may affect the upcoming growing season. The answer is it has no direct impact on the vineyard but it will affect the season in a few other ways.
We’ve had a lot of cold temperatures recently and this has been great because it will reduce the amount of insect
management we will do. Hopefully, fewer yellow jackets and wasps! Insects need to withdraw pretty deep into the soil or tree to survive extreme cold temperatures and we’ve had a few single digit days.
Most importantly, over-wintered vine diseases do have thresholds. They all vary from one to another but most fungi’s viability begins to suffer at the lower teens. This isn’t to say we will have no disease pressure in 2024 but the overall threat at the beginning is immensely lower giving us a higher chance for success.
Lastly, when the snow finally does melt, any seedlings for the wild native Virginian plants (otherwise known as weeds), will actually be dragged down into further depths of the soil by melting snow. This is because the water has to go somewhere and is usually absorbed by the soil until full saturation. Hopefully through snow melt, the seeds will move into depths too dense for the seedlings to grow and they will be smothered or stifled resulting in less or no weeds. This concept is mostly a hopeful wish but should you notice that the “weedy” spots under the vines or near your flower beds is just a bit easier to maintain, its most likely due to snow melt.
All in all, it was nice to see the snow and cruise through a snowy vineyard. Now that it's melting the crew is out in their warmest clothes pruning away. The Norton is almost done and soon they will move to Hollin.
-Jake Blodinger, Winemaker
REPORT FROM THE CELLAR
Things are slow in the cellar presently as much of my time has been spent topping barrels, racking, and filtering some of our wines in preparation for bottling them. Most of the time we discuss winemaking techniques, blending, and fining, but we never discuss how exactly we take the fining agents out of the wine once added.
As a reminder, we use what’s considered in the wine industry as the least intrusive fining agents on the market. Mostly its bentonite clay, casein, and vegetable protein to preserve the delicate flavors and aromas of the wine. We get a lot of commentary on how clean and vibrant our wines are, this is mostly due to the fining agents but it’s also because we use “plate and frame” filtration.
Plate and frame filtration is pretty self explanatory, essentially you pump wine through a cart with plates that press filter media tightly together. As the wine passes through tiny crevices on the plates, the physical matter, made mostly of fining agents and/or sediment, is caught in the filter media or sheets. This form of filtration is referred to as “surface filtration” because the wine runs against the sheets and not through them.
The filter pads vary in microns allowing us to control what is filtered out of the wine. We use a “2 step” method for our whites and rosés because they have the least amount of aging. The first pass when filtering these wines removes the fining agents and haziness from the sediment. The second pass, done 24 hours prior to bottling is referred to as “absolute” filtration and removes micro organisms that may spoil the wine once in bottle.
Filtering wine isn’t always the most exciting things to see but it’s probably my favorite thing to do because it’s the first time Jenni and I get to see a polished wine. It’s like shining a pebble and seeing a brilliant diamond!
-Jake Blodinger, Winemaker
REPORT FROM LOCKSLEY FARMSTEAD CHEESE
There is a buzz in the air around Locksley Farmstead Cheese Company! In celebration of National Cheese Lover's Day on January 20th, the Fox 5 team joined us at The Ag District to explore our dairy and creamery operations where we had the opportunity to showcase what goes into making true farmstead cheeses. At the conclusion of our tour, the Fox 5 team got to indulge in a delicious wine and cheese pairing with our fearless leader and owner, Jennifer McCloud.
Interested in watching the FOX5 segments?
Follow the links below:
The cold weather these last few days brought to mind my first winter in the vineyards at Locksley Estate. The photo above for this issue’s Note from Jenni was taken on January 15th, 1999… 25 years ago this month!
Those are my pups, Norton and Treixadura (named, of course, after grapes that we had planted the prior spring), and they’re playing in Block 8, today the premiere block of Norton at Chrysalis Vineyards… grapes that go into our flagship wine, Locksley Reserve Norton.
It goes without saying, but we’ll keep saying it anyway, over and over, THANK YOU for your continued support of Chrysalis Vineyards and The Ag District. We know you have many, many choices of where to spend your time and money, and it’s not lost on us that you spend some of those here at The Ag District.
Have a healthy, prosperous and productive 2024.
Take care,
Jennifer McCloud
Chrysalis Vineyards at The Ag District
39025 John Mosby Highway (Tasting Room/Creamery/Kitchen)
23876 Champe Ford Road (Winery/Milking Center/Offices)
Middleburg, VA 20117
McCloud@ChrysalisWine.com
Office: 540-687-8222
www.ChrysalisWine.com
Facebook.com/ChrysalisVineyards