JULY NEWSLETTER 2022
IN THIS NEWSLETTER...
VIP Wines of the Month
Report from the Tasting Room
Report from the Cellar
Report from the Farm
Report from The Little River Bakehouse
Report from Locksley Farmstead Cheese
Note from Jenni
Another holiday weekend is upon us.... another reason to gather with friends and family. We hope that whatever your plans are you include your favorite Chrysalis Vineyards wine. The tasting room will be open all weekend so drop in to pick up some bottles to go or bring the family out and celebrate at The Ag District! There's no better way to celebrate America than with a bottle of all-American Norton wine!
NOTE TO OUR VIP CLUB MEMBERS
Our VIP pickup event this month will be held on Friday, July 8th from 5:00pm until 8:00pm at the Ag District Center. Just to keep this interesting we're going to do something a bit different this month. Rather than a paired tasting, we will be presenting a short "Wine Tasting 101" class. As club members you "taste" wine all the time, but can you pick out the myriad of aromas and flavors that compose a wine? Don't worry.... you will still have an opportunity to try the wines of the month during the class and we'll provide something to snack on. We hope that providing these informative sessions occasionally will add value to your membership and keep you coming back to our monthly VIP Club events!
Members must RSVP no later than July 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, 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 2020 Private Reserve White. Private Reserve White is Chrysalis Vineyards’ creative approach to blending a limited quantity wine that is only available to our VIP Club Members. Our 2020 vintage is a blend of 68% Viognier and 32% Albariño crafted with finesse and respect to each individual varietal. This wine pays respect to Old World white wines with floral aromatics and prominent stone fruit. The palate starts with a bright acidity giving away to peaches and preserved apricots and a lengthy finish. Try this elegant wine with a dinner of Roasted Herb Chicken, jasmine rice pilaf, and a sautéed vegetable medley.
Our red wine selection for July is Chrysalis Vineyards 2020 Norton Schitz & Giggels. This 100% Norton wine features alluring aromatics of raspberries and mocha. The palate is silky with hints of cocoa nibs and raspberry. Try it with a summer meal of grilled barbeque chicken with Norton barbeque sauce and caramelized onions.
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
They're back!!!!! That's right, tastings are back! After a long hiatus that started with pandemic restrictions we have reintroduced traditional tastings. As we get back into the swing of things tastings will be only be available Friday through Tuesday and will consist of a presentation of 6 wines. We hope to make tastings available 7 days a week in the near future.
Tastings provide a way to have an informative discussion about our wines and Jenni's vision for The Ag District. The information includes topics such as wine styles, varietal characteristics, production methods, and really anything you want to ask about! Tastings also allow you to sample wines that may not be available on our flights or by the glass. As always, our VIP club members can enjoy free tastings for up to four people any time they visit. If you're not a member this is a great reason to finally join the club!
REPORT FROM THE VINEYARD
During bloom, the tiny flowers found on every vine are pollinating to create clusters. Assuming we have no heavy winds or rains, the flowers are able to self pollinate successfully. Once pollinated, the flower fall away leaving behind itty-bitty green orbs that will one day grow into delicious fruit. Well, despite all of the “r” word, we’ve managed to have a near perfect fruit set!
As we wait for the fruit to develop we are going to encourage the berries to work on their tan. Yes, even grapes get a tan! Just like people, having a nice tan prevents sunburn and is a sign of being acclimated to constant sunlight. This causes the thickness of the skins to develop and prevents the pulp from drying out or losing any of its juice. More so, the tannin in the fruit will actually develop into bigger chains and be less gritty at the wine stage.
Acclimating the fruit earlier in the growing season also prevents the hotter months from burning the berries on one side of the cluster creating uneven ripeness. The goal is to have the berry ripen equally on all sides of the clusters. Lastly, by allowing the fruit to develop thicker skins you’re reducing the risk of rots during harvest. This means that diseases like black rot or sour rot are less likely to pierce the skin and rot the pulp on the inside.
The crew is presently working hard to clear out the canopy and let more sunlight in on the clusters. Every day we get closer and closer to harvest!
Jake Blodinger, Winemaker
REPORT FROM THE CELLAR
As always, Jenni and I are busy with blends for the upcoming bottling. Harvest is just a couple of months away and I can already feel the excitement building. I’m willing to bet we are working harder in the vineyard than ever before. Among the blending the sessions, cleaning of the cellar, and the constant walks through the vineyard, we’ve begun to prep the cellar for all the wondrous harvest activities. While the barrel order has been decided, we are looking at increasing quality of production through techniques applied in the cellar.
Winemakers often throw the term “technique” around like it’s a long forgotten secret written on some ancient scroll hidden in a cave deep in the mountains. In reality, technique is just applying practices to better accentuate characters of the fruit into the glass. For instance, we regularly work on dialing the acids back in Norton through carbonic maceration, this being the technique. Nebbiolo, tends to be softer in color often times appearing light or almost pinkish, by using the French technique, “saignée” we can bleed some of the juice to increase the extraction.
This year, we will be applying some “delestage” to a few of our tannic reds in attempt to make them more approachable. Delestage is the French technique of racking grape solids during the fermentation process. This process introduces a little oxygen during the fermentation stage to soften the astringent tannins resulting in a wine that is more friendly right out of the bottle. What about the oxidation though? Well, yeast actually need a bit of oxygen during fermentation to keep them active and healthy.
Chrysalis Vineyards has utilized techniques like delestage for decades with the intentions of crafting the best wines possible. This year, we hope to further the quality of our wines through careful utilization and intention of various techniques.
Jake Blodinger, Winemaker
REPORT FROM THE LITTLE RIVER BAKEHOUSE
If you've been out to the Ag District to try some of the delicious pizzas being made by the folks in the Little River Bakehouse, you might wonder what makes them so good.
It all starts with the crust. Our dough is made fresh, from scratch with quality ingredients like local wildflower honey. The recipe was developed to provide a thin, chewy base that crisps up just right in our retained heat oven. Our dough is topped with a variety of handmade sauces... pizza sauce, alfredo, and pesto just to name a few. After the sauce comes the part that really make of pizzas stand out... Locksley Farmstead Cheese! Most of our pizzas start wth a generous portion of Mozzarella made right here at The Ag District and many have a sprinkling of other cheeses like Nottingham Gouda, King Richard Blue, or Friar Tuck Fromage Blanc. To top it all off we use the best meats, veggies and other fresh toppings that are sourced locally whenever we can.
We take pride in the all of the products made here at The Ag District and hope that our hard work and dedication to quality keep you coming back for more!
REPORT FROM LOCKSLEY FARMSTEAD CHEESE COMPANY
With the warm weather of summer finally back, the opportunity for outdoor activities like hiking or biking or just picnicking is upon us. Cheese is the perfect high-protein food to throw in your backpack or picnic basket.
The next time you pack avoid taking soft cheeses and go for hard and dry cheeses like Cheddar, Manchego, or Gouda. Also, try to avoid cutting your cheese into pieces until you're ready to eat it as it speeds up the aging process and with more surface area exposed provides more chance of getting contaminated by bacteria.
Store your cheese in parchment paper and wrap that in a food wrap, the porous surface of the parchment allows cheese to breathe and helps in retaining it’s flavor. Place this in a container in the coolest location in a backpack or picnic basket. Adding a long lasting ice pack can help lengthen the time the cheese can be stored.
As a general rule, you should put hard cheeses away if it has been out for two hours and throw out soft cheeses if they have been out for more than two hours. Always use your best judgement and also smell your cheese if it has been out for awhile.
John Cline, Head Cheesemaker
For more than 25 years Chrysalis Vineyards wines have been known by their colorful front label, with the Victorian Faerie front and center. But, more and more, folks have commented that it’s getting stale, and… OK, OK, yes, it’s dated. Time for a change.
I’ve kept the same label on our wines for years on purpose. I wanted to establish a brand identity that was recognizable anywhere. I think we accomplished that. But just like a cola brand, I suppose product labels and identity need refreshment occasionally.
So, starting with the July bottlings of Rubiana and Bull Run Mountain Cuvée, which is a renaming of Schitz & Giggles Norton… sorry for those that get a kick out of that name. Me, too, but you know what? That wine is more serious than the name portrays. This wine presents with pronounced richness in the mouth, identifiable, but not too much oak, and the great fruit character of Norton. This wine has won acclaim in broad circles, and a number of people find its current name dissonant with the character and quality of the wine. Time for a change. Same wine… no changes… don’t worry.
So the photo above is our new design for our Estate Level wines. I hope you like it as much as we do here at The Ag District. (The flower color might be way off on your screen because of the printing color vs. web issue, so please disregard that part of the new design.)
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