APRIL NEWSLETTER 2025
IN THIS NEWSLETTER...
VIP Wines of the Month
Report from the Tasting Room
Report from the Cellar
Report from the Vineyard
Report from Locksley Farmstead Cheese
Note from Jenni
April is here, bringing longer days and plenty of sunshine—perfect for sharing a glass (or two) with friends. If it’s been a while since your last visit to Chrysalis Vineyards, now is the perfect time. Our heated tables will keep you cozy as the late afternoon and evening air still carries a light chill. Spring is just beginning, and the Ag District is waking up with new life. Join us to sip, savor, and welcome the season.
APRIL EVENTS:
APRIL 4th @ 3PM - 4x4 Day
Jeep lovers, this one's for you! Join us for a Jeep Meetup at Chrysalis Vineyards, where you can show off your ride, sip great wine, and connect with fellow Jeep enthusiasts.
CLICK HERE to learn more.
APRIL 12th @ 4PM - Flights & Flowers
Spring is in the air, and we're celebrating with Flights & Flowers —a delightful afternoon of wine and floral fun! Guests will enjoy a flight of their choice from our current flight offerings while creating a charming Easter-inspired floral arrangement —something even our cottontail friends would adore!
CLICK HERE to purchase your ticket today.
*This event is for 21+ and over ONLY and will be held in a 21+ area. All participants/ticket holders must be 21+.*
April 24th @ 5PM - Book Club
Join us at Chrysalis Vineyards on April 24th, from 5 - 6 PM for Book Club! Sip on some great wine and dive into lively discussion about each month's read! This monthly gathering will occur on the last Thursday of every month and is completely free to attend. We are delighted to have the wonderful team from Middleburg Library leading the discussions.
Interested in attending? Reach out to Jill Smedley at
Jill.Smedley@TheAgDistrict.com.
NOTE TO OUR VIP CLUB MEMBERS
We invite our VIP club members to come with their game faces on for a lively WINE TRIVIA pick-up party April 11th (sessions at 5:00PM and 6:30PM). Members must RSVP no later than April 7th by emailing TR-Manager@Chrysaliswine.com. RSVPs received after April 7th will be placed on a waiting list, and while we will do our best to accommodate everyone, entry to the event cannot be guaranteed. Please include your name, the number of people attending (up to 2 per membership), and which session that you will be attending (5:00PM or 6:30PM). Lastly, when planning your visit, please remember that we close at 8:00 PM.
Not a VIP Club member yet?
Learn more about the benefits below and join the club today!
For April, our VIP members will receive the 2023 Butterfly Rouge and the 2020 Nebbiolo.
We’re thrilled to introduce 2023 Butterfly Rouge, the newest addition to our beloved butterfly series! Formerly known as Sarah’s Patio Red, this wine now joins our lineup of butterfly-inspired names—Farfalla, Mariposa, Tximeleta, and more. With one key language missing from the collection, this change was a natural fit. While we’ve cherished the story of Sarah’s Patio for both our Red and White, it’s time to further celebrate our butterfly series—and what better way than with this 100% Norton rosé? While the name has changed, you can still expect the same delicious characteristics of Sarah's Patio Red that you know and love. This wine has aromas of cherries and raspberries with notes of wild blackberries and ripe cherries on the palate.
Our red selection this month is the 2020 Nebbiolo, a beautiful wine with aromas of cedar, Bing cherry, and licorice. On the palate, rich notes of raspberry, baking spices, and plum create a balanced and elegant finish.
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 haven't been able to visit for a while and need to pick up more than 3 months of wine selections please call at least a day in advance of your visit so we can have them ready for you.
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
Spring has arrived and the hillsides are beginning to display a ruby hue as the surrounding trees are in their budding stage. The sun and warm breezes join forces to allow all of us to enjoy the warmth of Spring.
That’s why we have chosen Norton Nouveau as our featured Wine of the Month. For those who are new to Beaujolais Nouveau, it's a unique wine style from Beaujolais, France, traditionally crafted with the Gamay grape using an old-world technique called carbonic maceration, in which whole clusters are kept in an anaerobic environment, causing an enzymatic reaction that converts malic acid into alcohol. Our Norton Nouveau, harvested on October 10, 2024, follows this method and was bottled just five weeks later. It features notes of red plum, figs, and lavender, with flavors of blueberries, morello cherries, and a classic bubblegum finish.
We invite your to join us in the Tasting Room and taste this delicious wine for yourself! Glasses are $6.00 and bottles are $20. Club members – don't forget that you get your 15% discount on your wine purchases.
Our Tasting Room Cart Cellar Sale has been very successful, so we continue to add new varietals and vintages daily. Keep in mind this cellar sale cart has wines and vintages that you will never see again! Next time you stop in for a visit, be sure to check out the cart. You never know what you’ll find!
With the additional hour of daylight, drop in on your way home Friday evenings for a delicious creation from our kitchen, a bottle of wine and our beautiful views. What better way to relax and begin the weekend. See you in the Tasting Room!
- Lori Tate, Tasting Room Manager
REPORT FROM THE VINEYARD
Freddy and I are watching the weather vigilantly for bud break. The largest concern is an early bud break and late frost. This is every year and while the crew has taken every precaution necessary to avoid damages, we are still at the mercy of Mother Nature. Regardless, we are still working on the things that we can control.
In the past, I’ve touched on my general love for the soil that our vines reside on. We have a unique soil profile here at Locksley. Despite being mostly clay, there’s an element of greenstone and silty loam on our slopes. The soil across these 50 acres has modest organic matter, with large rocks scattered throughout, adding to its unique composition. This lends itself to higher nutrient retention, and having a farm with cows and access to unlimited compost only enhances its vitality.
Our Hollin site sits on a gentle slope, providing excellent drainage, but what truly sets it apart is its unique soil profile. Tiny rocks dispersed throughout the soil enhance aeration, allowing roots to penetrate deeply. While the topsoil is predominantly clay, beneath it lies a nutrient-rich sandy loam with low water retention—ideal conditions for the vinifera vines that thrive on this mountain.
How do we know this? Well, I’m not running around digging holes in the vineyard. Instead, every year, I spend a bit of time wandering around aimlessly through the vines pulling soil samples with our proprietary soil sampler. This tool allows us to pull about 12 inches of soil straight from the vineyard floor. I typically will pull around 50 samples from each block, drop the soil into a bucket, mix, dry, and package it for testing.
The soil tests will provide information on various nutrients found in the soil. This ranges from the big three N-P-K or nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium to all the micro nutrients like magnesium, manganese, and iron. Using this information, Freddy and I can ensure that the soil is remaining healthy while still providing all the things needed to grow happy vines. We all know, happy vines, happy wines!
- Jake Blodinger, Winemaker
REPORT FROM THE CELLAR
Since the announcement of the Bull Run Mountain Cuvée receiving a gold in the Virginia Governor’s Cup, I’ve received several inquiries regarding the different styles of Norton we utilize to craft that blend. Yes, we really do make 6 unique styles of Norton that are blended and showcased across all of our Norton wines.
Across our 40 acres of Norton, I’ve spent a lot of time differentiating the various characteristics and applying them to different styles. To recount the list of styles, we have an early whole cluster press, a traditional macerated style, carbonic macerated, extended fermentation in a lagar, whole berry in a tank, and a late harvest whole cluster press. Not really a style and more of an ingredient, we hold back a bit of Norton juice for our wines to add more intense fruit characters or sweetness to the wines.
This single varietal blending method is not unique to just our Norton wines. In fact, over the past six years, a lot of our single varietal wines have actually become blends. If you’ll recall, I recently discussed how our Albariño has become a blend of the different blocks allowing us to better dial in that classic Spanish style. Our Viognier is a blend of several different pick days, again, this allows us to maintain the world-class style with which many of our customers have fallen in love.
While none of this is revolutionary in any way, it is one of the things that sets Chrysalis Vineyard’s wine apart from the rest of the wine industry. There are many producers that are as or more intentional as we are for sure, but are they doing it with Albariño, Viognier, and Norton? Probably not.
- Jake Blodinger, Winemaker
REPORT FROM LOCKSLEY FARMSTEAD CHEESE COMPANY
Happy Spring! I think we’re all ready for some dryer ground and warmer weather. Nothing pairs better with warm weather than our Friar Tuck Fromage Blanc and a glass of Sarah’s Patio White. Did you know that our Friar Tuck Fromage Blanc was one of the first cheeses we made, along with it being our most versatile cheese?
What is Fromage Blanc? Fromage Blanc is a fresh, creamy, soft cheese originating from the north of France, it can be substituted for cream cheese, but is saltier and tangier. The French sure were clever, as Fromage Blanc literally means “white cheese.” While Fromage Blanc can be wonderful to enjoy spread over a cracker with your favorite sweet wine, there are SO many other ways to incorporate it into your breakfast, lunch, dinner and even dessert!
To start your day, try adding to your morning egg, whether an omelet, hardboiled or I personally prefer on a fried egg sandwich, it is sure to get you up and going for a FRESH start to the day.
Now fast forward to lunch, picture a hearty, lush salad with a wonderful vinaigrette, and Friar Tuck crumbled over top. While Fromage Blanc has a spreadable texture, our Friar Tuck will actually crumble, too. This would be very similar to adding goat cheese or feta to a salad but is much smoother and creamier.
Now for dinner, so many options but to name a few, stuff chicken breasts or perhaps top a baked potato instead of sour cream. Finally, dessert... my favorite! Friar Tuck is a great ingredient for any kind of cheesecake or cream cheese bar. A recent VIP Club event featured cheesecake pairings that utilized Friar Tuck Fromage Blanc! Needless to say, the possibilities are endless and open for your imagination and creativity!
- Teri Scott, General Manager
In 2001, while building the patio outside of the Chrysalis Vineyards’ first tasting room, we uncovered a tombstone while clearing a bunch of brush under three big walnut trees. Sarah Girtrude Lynn had died and been buried there on May 15th, 1855, at the tender age of 16. Sarah was born here on this land on February 9th, 1839. I’ve often thought of the rigors and hardships our forefathers suffered through in building their homes and farming this beautiful countryside. I can imagine how important a vibrant, young woman was to a farm back then, and what a devastating loss to her parents that must have been. I honestly can’t imagine how they felt; not only the heartbreak of losing a child who had just blossomed into womanhood, but also an important hand on the farm, at that point, as well. Living then was tough, and everyone chipped in to survive.
Sarah had died of consumption, that terrible killer that today we call tuberculosis. Sixteen years old… jeeze.
Over the months after we opened the tasting room in the summer of 2001, people often asked about Sarah and who she was. Peggy Wolfe, a gal who then worked in our tasting room (and later became a good friend, along with her husband Mel), decided to find out. Peggy went online to a number of ancestry chat groups, repeatedly telling of our discovery of Sarah and asking if anyone was looking for her. Unbelievably, Sarah’s descendants were, indeed, looking for her, and responded. When they arrived together from different points around the country, they presented me with a beautiful framed piece in memoriam for Sarah. (BTW, Peggy passed away last year, and Mel asked me to share this story at her funeral about how Peggy, with unwavering perseverance and determination, found Sarah’s family just as they were searching for their ancestor’s farm. It was this remarkable trait of steadfast persistence—one that defined both Peggy’s life and her work with children—that Mel wanted me to highlight.)
With Sarah’s family in attendance, we held a short ceremony and subsequent celebration in Sarah’s honor, naming the space that she graced, Sarah’s Patio. Subsequently, we named two wines in Sarah’s honor: Sarah’s Patio White and Sarah’s Patio Red.
Fast forward to current times, and again folks visiting The Ag District began to ask, “Who is Sarah? Not being now anywhere near to the gravesite to show them, we decided to change the names of the Sarah’s Patio wines to Butterfly Rouge and Blanc. As you know, we have quite a number of wines that are the foreign words for butterfly (in keeping with our chrysalis theme), but we never named a wine with the English word! Well, now we have. Same delicious, fruity, juicy character for both wines, and they continue their stardom in our wine lineup at Chrysalis Vineyards.
As the spring unfolds and the weather warms up, we’re happy to share our wines with you, and the season is perfect for our Butterfly light wines!
Take Care,
Jennifer McCloud
Chrysalis Vineyards at The Ag District
39025 Little River Turnpike (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