JULY 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
Someone find the thermostat—it’s a scorcher out here! This July, we’re introducing brand-new wine spritzers at The Ag District Center, home to Chrysalis Vineyards and Locksley Farmstead Cheese Company. These crisp, refreshing sips are perfect for cooling down during Virginia’s hottest days. Whether you're enjoying the shade under the pavilion, savoring a farmstead cheese box with friends, or just escaping the heat for a relaxing afternoon, our spritzers are here to make your summer even better. Come beat the heat with us—delicious wine awaits! Stay tuned on our socials for more details, flavors, and launch info—you won’t want to miss it!
JULY EVENTS:
Join us for music at Chrysalis Vineyards Saturdays from 2 - 5PM!
JULY 5th - Robbie Límon
JULY 12th - Anthony Semiao
JULY 19th - Melanie Pearl
JULY 26th - Patty Reese
July 12th @ 2 - 4PM - Cheese tasting & Cheeseboard Painting Class
Join us at Chrysalis Vineyards for a fun and creative Cheese Platter Painting Workshop! Brushstroke Art Events will be here to help you design your own premium acacia wood cheese board while enjoying a complimentary glass of wine and a delicious cheese tasting from Locksley Farmstead Cheese Co. No painting experience needed—just bring your creativity. Space is limited—reserve your spot today! 21+ only event.
CLICK HERE and purchase your tickets today.
July 24th @ 4 - 6PM - Board Game Night
Join us for a relaxed evening of board games, wine, and fun in partnership with Middleburg Library. Sip your favorite wines, play a variety of games, and enjoy great company! Held in our 21+ area.
Interested in attending? Reach out to Jill Smedley at
Jill.Smedley@TheAgDistrict.com.
July 31st @ 5PM - Book Club
Join us for our next Book Club gathering on Thursday, July 31st, from 5–6 PM! Sip on one of your favorite wines from Chrysalis Vineyards and enjoy a lively discussion with fellow book lovers. This book club is led by our wonderful friends at the Middleburg Library, making each gathering a fun and thoughtful evening of stories, sips, and great company. Whether you're a devoted reader or just here for the wine and conversation, everyone is welcome!
We will be discussing: The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern
Interested in attending? Reach out to Jill Smedley at
Jill.Smedley@TheAgDistrict.com.
NOTE TO OUR VIP CLUB MEMBERS
Join us for a special VIP Social on Friday, July 11th at 6 PM and help grow your VIP community! Bring a friend—or even a couple who would share one membership—to enjoy the evening with you. As a thank-you, you’ll both receive an extra sample pour of one of our exclusive VIP wines during the event. If your guest signs up for the VIP Club that evening, you’ll receive a surprise gift and be entered into a raffle for an additional prize. (Please note: new members must commit to maintaining their membership for at least six months.)
Members must RSVP to TR-Manager@ChrysalisWine.com no later than Sunday, July 6th to reserve your spot. RSVPs received after July 6th 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 and the number of people attending (up to 4 per membership, this month only). 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 July, our VIP members will receive the 2022 Norton Bull Run Mountain Cuvée and 2023 Albariño Reserve.
Beat the heat with the refreshing 2023 Albariño Reserve! Bursting with aromas of orange zest, honeydew, and grapefruit, this crisp white delivers bright notes of nectarine, citrus, and ripe peach on the palate—perfect for summer sipping.
The 2022 Norton Bull Run Mountain Cuvée is rich and expressive, with inviting aromas of caramel, cherries, and vanilla. On the palate, it delivers smooth notes of cordial cherry, roasted coffee, and brown sugar—perfect for a summer evening and great conversation between friends.
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
Warm Breezes from the Tasting Room!
With the Summer Solstice upon us, things are heating up at Chrysalis Vineyards—and so are our featured wines for July!
This month, we’re highlighting two refreshing favorites: 2023 Butterfly Rouge and 2022 Sarah’s Patio White. Butterfly Rouge, formerly known as Sarah’s Patio Red, is the newest addition to our butterfly-inspired series. This 100% Norton rosé bursts with bright aromas of cherries and raspberries, and finishes with notes of wild blackberries and ripe cherries on the palate. Sarah’s Patio White continues to shine with its crisp, fruit-forward character, making it a perfect choice for summer sipping.
When you're outside enjoying the beautiful surroundings, don’t miss the Outside Pavilion Bar—open Saturdays and Sundays (weather permitting) on the side near the Pavilions. You can grab your wine and place your food orders right there, without missing a moment of the sunshine.
Join us on the lawn with a chilled glass of one of our featured wines, live music on Saturdays, and the joyful sounds of friends savoring the season. If your group includes 8 or more, please reach out to reserve shaded seating under one of our pavilions. Email us at TR-Manager@ChrysalisWine.com for more information.
See you soon in the Tasting Room!
- Lori Tate, Tasting Room Manager
REPORT FROM THE VINEYARD
Well, we begged Mother Nature to send the rain away… and instead got five days of grueling heat. She’s a fickle lady! June kicked off with an excessive amount of rain, which felt a bit like payback for last summer’s drought conditions.
If you’ll recall, around this time last year, the rain more or less stopped. We enjoyed modest temperatures in the mid to high 80s, which led to low disease pressure, beautifully ripe fruit, and an early harvest. This June, however, started off in the complete opposite fashion—hot, rainy, and very, very foggy.
Now, fog at Hollin is always a beautiful sight—it’s haunting and serene. But it can also be a big problem. Fog is often a sign of increasing disease pressure. Fungi like black rot, powdery, and downy can actually ride the fog through the vineyard, spreading fast and causing serious damage.
To make matters worse, you can’t spray when there’s fog. For the same reason fog spreads disease, it can also carry pesticides further than intended—so it’s unsafe and ineffective to spray under those conditions. In other words, you can’t spray, and disease travels farther… what do you do?
Well, it’s one of the hardest things to do in agriculture... you wait.
Freddy—poor guy—has been glued to the weather forecast, just waiting for a clear window so he could get in the tractor and care for the vineyard. His patience finally paid off. When there was a break in the weather, he worked long hours on the mountain and at Locksley. Thankfully, all his hard work paid off, and the damage was minimal.
I want to take a moment to thank Freddy—not only for this past week, but for everything he’s done. He’s one of our longest-running employees and an absolute wizard in the vineyard. Freddy has been with Chrysalis for 25 years, and even helped plant some of our very first blocks.
- Jake Blodinger, Winemaker
REPORT FROM THE CELLAR
As many of you know, summer is reserved for blending, bottling, and planning for the next harvest. When I have downtime, I’m already thinking ahead to the 2025 vintage and exploring ways to improve the practices and techniques we use.
In 2023, we upgraded our lab capabilities by introducing a new handheld device called a “Sentia.” This tool puts the entire lab in the palm of the winemaker’s hand, producing results in just minutes—and only requiring a drop of wine. Pretty neat stuff. In 2024, we doubled down on developing additional Norton components to help create more dynamic wines.
I’ve mentioned before that we’ve gone beyond traditional skin-macerated fermentation, delestage, and carbonic maceration. We’ve expanded into whole berry ferments, stem inclusion, and late harvest whole cluster pressing. And let’s not forget our use of the lagar, which has produced some of the finest Norton in our cellar and serves as the core blending component for our Locksley Reserve.
At the last VIP pickup party, a few of you asked what’s next—and I’ve got a couple of ideas in the works. I’ll share one with you now and save the other for closer to harvest.
Many of you know I’m passionate about low-intervention winemaking. I focus on careful vineyard management and thoughtful cellar techniques rather than relying on chemical inputs or manipulation. One of my favorite wines to make is our native fermented Viognier. I love the style and the wine it produces—it truly reflects the work we’re doing in both the vineyard and the cellar while staying true to low-intervention principles.
This year, we’re taking that approach a step further and applying it to Norton. We’re going to let Virginia’s native grape ferment natively. Of course, there are risks, and the results may vary—but it’s exciting nonetheless! I’m still working with Jenni to outline the final winemaking protocol, and I look forward to sharing more soon.
- Jake Blodinger, Winemaker
REPORT FROM LOCKSLEY FARMSTEAD CHEESE COMPANY
Happy 4th of July! Whether you’re celebrating this patriotic holiday with a big family cookout or just enjoying some wine and cheese while watching fireworks, we’ve got the perfect cheeses for you! Our White Knight Monterey Jack and Red Knight Pepper Jack are just what you need to top a burger, make a queso dip, or just enjoy on a charcuterie board. Monterey Jack earns its rightful position as a true “American” cheese, originating from the Mexican Franciscan friars of Monterey, California. All around the Monterey region, monasteries were making a semi-firm, creamy, mild cheese from cow’s milk that they aged for a short period of time. It did not take long for an American entrepreneur by the name of David Jack to realize its commercial value and begin selling it all over California. This cheese came to be known as “Monterey Jack’s” or “Jack’s Monterey” and eventually acquired the name that we all are familiar with today, Monterey Jack. The influence of Mexican cuisine in California eventually brought the addition of peppers to this mild cheese to create Pepper Jack.
Both our White Knight Monterey Jack and our Red Knight Pepper Jack are easily melted. Add them to your favorite mac-n-cheese recipe, melt them with your favorite salsa for a great queso, stuff some jalapenos, or just melt them on burger. No matter how you enjoy these cheeses it a great way to celebrate. So, what are you waiting for? Stop by the Ag District Center and stock up on this American classic that is handcrafted from the milk of our very own dairy herd, right here on our farm. It doesn’t get any more all-American than that! We hope everyone has a wonderful Fourth of July weekend!
- Teri Scott, General Manager
Welcome to summer… whew, it’s a hot one so far!
Speaking of things “hot”, we’re all excited and proud to announce that our 2022 Locksley Reserve Norton received a Double-Gold Medal in the 2025 Finger Lakes International Wine & Spirits Competition. It’s a really “hot” Norton, so stay tuned for its upcoming release.
Just FYI, normally a Double-Gold medal designates a Best in Class wine. But, this competition doesn’t have a “Native” category, for which Norton is generally classified. But our Locksley Reserve was the highest rated Norton in the competition, so we’ll say it was best in its class!
And, continuing to speak about “hot”, now’s the time to put those Albariños and rosés in a bucket of ice and head for the pool. These are perfect wines to cool off in the summer sun, and you can also put a Butterfly Rouge (Sarah’s Patio Red) into that bucket along with the whites, since BR is technically a rosé! It’s whole-cluster-pressed Norton, which basically means it’s treated no differently on the crush pad than our Albariño, Viognier and Petit Manseng whites. The fruit is dropped into the press, and squeezed. That’s it. The juice falls into the juice tray and is sent off to ferment.
All that wonderfully deep color in the Butterfly Rouge comes from Norton’s skins. Contrary to some commenters, Norton is NOT a teinturier grape (from the French for “tinted”), which is the designation for grapes that have colored flesh (Wikipedia: Teinturier grapes are grapes whose flesh and juice are red in colour due to anthocyanin pigments accumulating within the pulp of the grape berry itself). Norton flesh is green inside, like almost all other fine quality wine grapes. Another thing to note, Norton skins have super high levels of anthocyanins and other polyphenolic compounds, like resveratrol… the “good stuff” in wines! So… drink your Nortons!
Stay cool, and we look forward to seeing you at The Ag District this summer.
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