JUNE NEWSLETTER 2023
IN THIS NEWSLETTER...
VIP Wines of the Month
Report from the Tasting Room
Report from the Cellar
Report from the Vineyard
Note from Jenni
Those rolling green hills in the photo to the left are a sure sign that summer is here! Summer brings with it the perfect weather to enjoy the gorgeous views at our Ag District Center while sipping a glass of your favorite Chrysalis Vineyards wine. We have some great wines to enjoy during the warmer weather... our 2022 Albariño has recently been released to the public and this month we are welcoming the 2022 Tximeleta. Both are great choices for the warmer months ahead of us. We hope you will join us soon to welcome summer!
NOTE TO OUR VIP CLUB MEMBERS
Our VIP pickup event this month will be held on Friday, June 9th from 5:00pm until 8:00pm at the Ag District Center. Members must RSVP no later than June 5th by emailing TR-Manager@ChrysalisWine.com. Please include your name, number attending (up to 2 per membership), and your preferred tasting time (5:00, 5:45, 6:30, or 7:15). Please arrive in time to check in at least 10 minutes prior to your tasting time. When planning your visit please remember that we close at 8:00 pm.
If you're not a member of our Chrysalis Vineyards VIP Club, remember to ask one of our associates how to join. Our members enjoy complimentary wine flights and tastings, discounts on wine and food, exclusive access to VIP events and more!
The white wine selection for our VIP Club members this month is Chrysalis Vineyards 2022 Tximeleta. This easily quaffable rosé-style wine begins in the vineyard with Fer Servadou that is grown with intention for rosé production. The addition of Nebbiolo and Viognier creates a light and refreshing wine with cranberry and citrus notes on the nose. Racy acidity accompanied by wild strawberry and raspberry flavors awaken the palate. This delicious wine is perfect for a summer dinner of fresh rainbow trout.
Our red wine selection for June is Chrysalis Vineyards 2019 Papillon. A clear example of “the sum of the parts make a greater whole". Our Papillon captures the classic refinement of Tannat and Petit Verdot. Refined aromatics of roses, leather, and ripe black cherries accompany flavors of spices and plums.m A pronounced tannin structure encourages a lengthy finish. Enjoyed now, but better with cellar age. Filet mignon with red wine bordelaise creates a classic pairing for this full-bodied wine.
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. If you can’t make it out to pick up your wines on a monthly basis, we will hold them for you. Due to storage limitations, however, we do ask that you pick them up once you accumulate a case (6 months). We can also arrange for wine to be shipped to most locations, at your request.
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
If you've visited us in the tasting room over the last few months you may have noticed some delicious new additions to our menu! We've been a bit quiet about the changes that we've been working on, but now that everything is in place we would like to welcome Chef Erik Foxx-Nettnin and his staff to The Ag District. Erik has been a fixture in the Loudoun County culinary scene for many years... you may know him by his catering moniker "The Polished Foxx". We've been fortunate to have the support of Erik's Executive Sous Chef, Ken Daughenbaugh, for several months while this transition was happening. Ken has been instrumental in restoring the quality of our food program and creating new items to pair perfectly with our wines (like the delicious scallop dish in the picture above paired with our 2022 Albariño....delish!).
We would like to thank Erik, Ken, and the rest of the staff for their hard work. We're excited about all the new things that will be rolling out over the course of the summer and hope that you'll join us in the tasting room to try some of the new additions!
Amitai Cohen, Tasting Room Manager
REPORT FROM THE VINEYARD
I would say things in the vineyard are moving quickly because last month I talked about bud break and this month we are watching the vines flower. The vineyard is filling with a sweet honey suckle like aromatic that indicates the vines are flowering.
Most of the time when you think of grape vines, its assumed that vines grow shoots, leaves, and grapes but there’s actually one more step. The tiny clusters located about half way up each shoot are actually not grapes…well not yet anyways, they are actually flowers with a cap over their petals. This cap protects each flower while it grows and fills with pollen. Once the vine is ready, the cap falls off and a very tiny flower blooms. During this time, the pollen slowly drifts out hoping to be carried off into the ether.
Interestingly enough, vines actually don’t need pollinators like bees to carry their pollen around. In fact, vines have “perfect” flowers meaning they are self pollinators. All they need is a bit of wind to gust by carrying the pollen over to the neighboring flower which happens to be only millimeters away. Once all the vine's flowers are pollinated, the tiny petals will fall away to reveal tiny little green orbs, these are the grapes.
Flowering is an exciting time but it’s not without its concerns. The largest and only threat is rain and guess what, June is known for its thunderstorms. This is usually the part where I tell you it’s going to be okay because Freddy and Filiberto have a plan to protect the vines. Unfortunately, this one of the very few times, where we can do nothing except anti-rain dances, so start dancing! However, we did take the necessary steps for success and applied a bit of boron across all 70 acres. Boron is a nutrient that increases flower viability and strengthens the small peduncles that will hold future berries.
While we’ve done all that we can possibly do, the weather is looking great and there are an immense amount of flowers on each vine so we are confident that everything will be grand!
Jake Blodinger, Winemaker
REPORT FROM THE CELLAR
A lot of questions have been asked recently about the concept of “low intervention” winemaking and I thought with bottling season going on, now is good time to discuss the concept. Low intervention winemaking is the idea of manipulating the wine as little as possible or only when necessary, in other words, how many times a winemaker makes additions or touches the wine.
In theory, low intervention winemaking is a return to old world winemaking where the fruit was grown and then processed at the cellar. Whatever yeast was found in the cellar, on the equipment, in the barrels and tanks fermented the juice into wine, just like our Viognier. Sulfur was used to protect the wines during aging and maybe added again at the time of bottling but almost nothing else was used. Right now you are probably thinking, “that sounds like no intervention” but truthfully, a winery and vineyard was actually a farm with cows and chickens. Their milk and eggs were actually used as fining agents in wine to remove faults and improve wine.
Milk or casein (de-hydrated milk) is commonly used to remove oxidation and browning found in white wines. This is one of the many reasons that our whites always appear bright in color and taste fresh. Albumin or eggs has actually a number of uses in winemaking but occasionally we use it to remove tannin, softening a super tannic red. Another popular product found in every wine cellar is called bentonite. Bentonite is actually a form of clay used in a number of products from cat litter to make up but in winemaking, it binds proteins, removing haze and protecting wines from warmer temperatures. Of course, all of these products are filtered out prior to bottling, leaving no traces behind.
Winemakers have been using these products for centuries to polish and improve the quality of their wines. By many winemakers, they are viewed as the most “honest” manipulations of wine, only used when absolutely necessary and only to improve the quality of the wine. That’s our goal too, we only add things to the wine that will improve the quality and only when it improves the quality. We utilize these things as little as possible because at the end of the day, we want our guests to enjoy an honest expression of the fruit we grow.
Jake Blodinger, Winemaker
For those that have not visited our Ag District Center tasting room recently, there’s a new look to our “Signature Wines”. New for 2023 is the label photo above in my Note from Jenni.
This new label honors our butterfly theme we’ve had from the very beginning of Chrysalis Vineyards, but differentiates our most unique wines as something extra special. The overwhelming consensus from everyone is very positive, and we're proud to offer this beautiful wine in a beautiful new “package”. We kept the Chrysalis Faerie Spirit on the label, as well, but she’s presented smaller and “reserved”, with just a touch of gold.
As you can see, the first wine to receive our new label (which we somewhat unceremoniously call the “butterfly bowtie”) is our 2022 Reserve Albariño, which absolutely does full justice to our new “classy label”. This Albariño is simply fantastic, world-class… if I do say so myself. Truly!
Come taste it, and enjoy it in the beautiful Bull Run Mountains in springtime.
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