As 2022 closes Virginia has (by my count) 266 winery tasting rooms, 31 cideries, and 11 meaderies. It also has over 26 brands that sell their wine/cider/mead to the public but lack a physical tasting room.
11 new wineries (plus 2 tasting rooms from existing wineries) opened in 2022, a number on par with annual growth in the Virginia wine industry. An additional 5 wine brands opened for direct sales or can be found at a partner location (notably Walsh Family Wine, which hosts ‘Bar Takeovers’ for small brands that lack a tasting room).
6 wineries (Castle Gruen, Dry Creek, Five Oaks Vineyard, Hunt’s Vineyard, Thatch and Whitebarrel) closed, will close, or rebranded in 2022.
2022 also saw a number of major wineries being sold, with new owners at Barrel Oak, Capstone, Sunset Hills/50 West, and Fox Meadow. These come in the wake of the sale of Three Fox Vineyards and 8 Chains North, which changed hands in 2020 and 2021, respectively.
2022’s Major Trends and Events
1. Growing representation in local winemaking: Melanie Natoli of Cana Vineyards made history in 2022 by becoming the state’s 2nd female Virginia Governors Cup winner (and its 1st under the Cup’s post-2011 rigorous judging system). Maggie Malick and Rachel Stinson Vrooman also had wines selected for the 2022 Governor’s Case.
Not to let be outdone by its neighbor, Maryland winemaker Lauren Zimmerman of Port of Leonardtown joined Melanie by winning both the Maryland Governors Cup and Comptroller Cup, her state’s two highest wine awards in 2022.
These women are part of a cohort of female head winemakers and assistant winemakers who are gaining major name-recognition. All told, around 15% of all head winemakers in Virginia are female.
Representation by Black–owned wine brands also grew this year. Fifty Leven and Shockoe Wine joined the small but growing group of local Black-owned wine brands, which also includes Delaplane Cellars, Preston Ridge, Sweet Vines Farm, and Vintner’s Cellar of Yorktown.
2. Climate change: Jim Law called 2022 ‘climate change on steroids’. While climate change is hardly a new topic, this year included a number of high-intensity weather events which punctuated the extent of this trend. At worst, the type of dramatic weather fluctuations seen this year portent what Virginia’s ‘new normal’ may become.
For much of Virginia, 2022 see-sawed between hot, sunny days and short but intense summer storms, bookended by frost warnings in April and a hurricane in late September. Winegrowers looking at the rainy weather forecast in July had good reason to be concerned.
Fortunately, mid-summer’s capricious weather gave way to far more favorable conditions in August to September, turning what could have been a tough vintage into a very favorable one for large parts of the state.
Some years – such as 2017 and 2019 – are fondly looked back as strong vintages, while others like 2011 and 2018 are ones most winemakers would prefer to not dwell on.
But the answer regarding the 2022 growing season might be summarized as ‘it depends’, all depending on a vineyard’s specific microclimate.
3. Labor Shortages: Many wineries had significant challenges in staffing. This had a number of impacts, both in the tasting room and the vineyard.
Those hopeful for a return to pre-COVID bar-side tastings were likely disappointed. While health concerns and consumer demand for take-away flights played a part in this decision, this pivot away from bar-side tasting is largely a product of limited staffing, which precludes many wineries from servicing a full bar of customers as they did in the past.
These shortages also impacted vineyard operations. Frequent rain resulted in a high-vigor growing season, so pruning was especially time-consuming. When hurricane Ian arrived, some vineyards struggled to bring in their fruit with the labor at their disposal.
Those with full time labor were able to endure these challenges more easily. Those who did not encountered delays in vineyard work or harvesting.
4. The Common Wealth Crush Company and “garagiste” winemaking: This November Ben and Tim Jordan announced their new custom winemaking facility, capable of producing up to 30,000 cases/year. This business is especially designed for smaller winemakers who lack their own facilities.
“Contract winemaking” already exists in Virginia, but that term is usually associated with business such as Michael Shaps Wineworks who do the entire winemaking process for their customer.
CWCC differs in that it allows winemakers to make their own wine. As Tim Jordan explained, “People do it at their employer’s wineries and sometimes they can get their friends to let them do it. But what almost always happens is that you grow out of it, or the winery facility grows its production and kicks you out. There’s not really a dedicated facility that allows a winemaker to start a brand, do the project, make the wine they want, the way they want, and be confident they’ll be able to stay there.”
This business model comes at a good time as the number of ‘small batch’ wines has dramatically increased over the past several years. Winemakers including Jake Bushing, Mattieu Finot, and Ben Jordan have long championed “garagiste” style wines, but they’ve been joined by Jocelyn Kuzelka and Megan Hereford of Daring Wine Company, Tim Jordan’s Star Party, Kent Arendt’s Boden Young, Rich Sullivan’s Guide Wine, and others.
CWCC also plan of having a tasting room at their Waynesboro facility to serve these brands, allowing customer to sample wines from Midland, Lightwell, and Star Party.
5. Small Batch Wines more popular than ever: “Garagiste” winemakers are a large part of this group, but this trend goes beyond independent operators.
I use “small batch wines” as a catch-all term to cover a large group of different wine ventures, including everything from collaborations between different wineries, independent brands that lack a permanent home, to off-brand labels at established wineries.
One recent example is the ‘Sun Room’ collaboration between Corry Craighill of Septenary Vineyards and Nate Walsh, where each winemaker took a batch of Malvasia Bianca grapes but made a wine in their own style, yet sold as a 2-pack. Another is the Odd Bird series by Lee Hartman of Bluestone Vineyards.
The common denominator between these ventures is they tend to focus on the creative aspect of winemaking, often featuring unusual blends, uncommonly used winemaking styles, and/or unique branding.
Expect more of these type of off-brand ventures in the future, as winemakers look for ways to flex their creative muscles.
6. Vermouth gaining traction: Rosemont and Flying Fox have made vermouth for several years, but the field of local vermouth-makers expanded this year with the addition of botanical wines from Artemisia Farm, Walsh Family Wine, and Joy Ting.
While this beverage is usually thought of as a drink mixer for bartenders, local vermouth sales have largely been to customers who use it as a sipping drink. Many of these producers also focus on local ingredients, sometimes expanding beyond wormwood as a bittering agent.
Wineries, Brands & Tasting rooms that opened in 2022:
- Artemisia Farm & Vineyard (no tasting room, but found at NOVA farmers markets)
- Bluemont Station Farm Winery (Bluemont)
- Boden Young (no tasting room, but found at Walsh Family Wine)
- Burnbrae Vineyards (Lynchburg)
- Caihailian Vineyard (south of Afton)
- Chapelle Charlemagne Vineyards (new tasting room in Flint Hill)
- Daring Wine Company (no tasting room)
- Droumavalla Farm (north of Leesburg)
- Everleigh Vineyards (Mineral)
- Kalero Vineyards (Hillsborough)
- Lake Front Winery (Buffalo Junction)
- Mount Fair Farm (Crozet)
- Nookesville Winery (no tasting room)
- October One Vineyard (new tasting room open in Leesburg)
- Star Party (no tasting room)
- The Barn at 678 (Barboursville)
- Wind Vineyard at Laurel Grove (Tappahannock)
- Woodbrook Farm Vineyard (Orange)
Upcoming Wineries expected to open in 2023
- Blevins Family Vineyard (Scottsburg)
- Crimson Lane Vineyards (Linden)
- Domaine Fortier Vineyard (Loudoun)
- Fallen Tree Vineyard (Crozet)
- Haunted Winery Vineyard (Amelia)
- Seven Lady Vineyards at Dover Hall (west of Richmond)
- Silverdog Vineyards (Linden)
- Southwest Mountain Vineyards (Keswick)
Wineries that closed or closing in 2022:
- Castle Gruen
- Dry Creek
- Hunt’s Vineyard
- Thatch Vineyard (rebranded as part of Michael Shaps)
- Shenandoah Vineyards
- Whitebarrel
Wine Trails and Wanderlust 