Creating Space for New Possibilities in Virginia Wine
WORDS | Kylie Britt PHOTOS | Courtesy of Winemakers
Virginia wine is moving beyond boundaries and binaries. How very queer!
Gone are the staunch borders of red / white / wine / cider / vermouth. Virginia wines and other mid-Atlantic beverages are expanding horizons by utilizing different fruits, nurturing new varieties and developing unique styles. Traditional wines follow a tried-and-true archetype: red grapes make red wine, white grapes make white wine, apples make cider and grapes make wine. A handful of Virginia producers are breaking the mold and creating wines that defy these traditional boundaries.
“For different reasons, people like their binaries. It can make the world a lot easier to navigate. It feels safer. People don’t want to risk spending their money on a wine they don’t know they’ll enjoy, which is very understandable and something we as wine professionals need to work hard on and empathize with,” Peter Szilagyi, co-founder of Spinning Wheel Wines, says of innovation within wine. Introducing boundary-breaking projects, like co-fermentations, hybrid wines and botanical wines is a passion project of many wine professionals nurturing progress within the beverage industry.
Co-fermentation projects in Virginia feature red and white grapes, apples and various indigenous fruits such as pawpaws and persimmons. Many of these products also utilize hybrid varieties. Hybrid grapes, which often cross European Vitis vinifera and American Vitis labrusca or Vitis riparia species, are increasing in popularity among winegrowers in the mid-Atlantic. Many of these products may require some time and education to encourage wine drinkers to expand their conceptions of what wine can be.
Common Wealth Crush’s 2022 ‘Family Meal’ wine has so many varieties of grapes included that they aren’t even printed on the label. The nine components run the gamut from red to white and vinifera to hybrid varieties. It isn’t an easy blend to wrap one’s head around, yet the resulting wine delights as a light, chillable red; a dark rosé akin to Cerasuolo d’Abruzzo of Italy; or as an individual, undefinable wine.
Patois, a project known mostly for apple products but masterfully integrating grapes, has created ‘Parallel Voicing,’ a co-ferment of hybrid grapes and heirloom apples. This product defies typicity of a wine or a cider and sits happily in a space all its own. ‘Parallel Voicing’ finds a happy balance between herbal, floral and a touch savory from the oxidative style of production.
Spinning Wheel Wines, a mid-Atlantic natural wine project, highlights co-ferments and hybrid varieties. Their ‘Chaos & Mystery’ is an apple and chambourcin co-fermented sparkling wine.
Artemisia Farm & Vineyard, also home to a working farm and CSA, specializes in aromatized wines using various native fruits, herbs and hybrid grapes.
“One might say that in a typicity defined by Vitis vinifera, hybrids are certainly queer. They seamlessly break conventional understandings of acceptable varietal identities simply by being,” Kelly Allen, winemaker of Artemisia Farm & Vineyard says. For instance, chardonel is creeping up as the sweetheart of Virginia hybrids, not just for its ability to resemble its parent grape, chardonnay, but for its ability to adapt to the influence of the winemaker and terroir.
Some of the beverage products that are queering traditional understandings of wine aren’t immediately understandable to the general public. LGBTQ wine professionals may be uniquely positioned to introduce new and transformative concepts to consumers. Experiences at the margins shape fresh perspectives on traditions. Discussions of “queering” Virginia wine and the wine community range from developing styles that break binaries to having conversations on workplace inclusion and protections.
“Being queer has helped me to deeply not care about convention or tradition. It has given me deep love for freaks and those who are unapologetically willing to do what they want to do. The stranger the wine, the more I’m usually drawn to it,” says Perry Conner of Spinning Wheel Wines. Peter Szilagyi, also of Spinning Wheel Wines, adds, “Typicity is nonsense. I try to understand every bottle on its own terms.”
To develop new traditions and break conventions, there is a need for collaboration and material protections.
“I think queering wine probably requires the end of the myth of the lone genius,” Szilagyi remarks. Collaborations and open sharing of ideas are a driving force for innovation. For example, Common Wealth Crush Co. in Waynesboro is a think tank of vast winemaking expertise. Many of the wines produced in that cellar are the brainchildren of multiple voices.
To invest in an expansive and innovative future in Virginia wine, we have to invest in and support the queer wine community. LGBTQ wine producers may embrace styles that lean towards the unconventional, therefore furthering innovation. However, making experimental wines alone is not enough to create a “queer” wine community. Conner avers that to “queer” Virginia wine “means things like making sure your queer employees are being paid well and have access to quality healthcare. It means kicking out guests from restaurants who harass your queer staff members.”
Embracing unconventional wines is a step towards creating a new and “queer” future for Virginia wine, which celebrates and supports LGBTQ wine producers and professionals and pushes the envelope for innovative products. At Artemisia, Allen says, “The more we experiment, the more we learn that boundaries are really just suggestions. Here, all identities are possible.”
Co-Fermentations, Hybrids, and Botanical Wines to try
- Artemisia Farm 2022 Solstice Vermouth – Hybrid grapes mingle with heirloom red plums, rose hips, sumac and tulsi (holy basil).
- Spinning Wheel Wines 2023 ‘Not Nothing’ – A chardonel and chambourcin co-ferment that sits somewhere in the realm of rosé.
- Common Wealth Crush 2022 ‘Family Meal’ – A plethora of grape varieties combine for a juicy, light red with tangy pomegranate notes.
- Patois NV ‘Parallel Voicing’ – Vidal blanc grapes, Ashmead’s Kernel and Harrison apples marry pleasantly in this herbal and fresh co-ferment.
- Lightwell Survey 2022 ‘Colorwave’ – Mostly white hybrid grapes with a sprinkle of red all macerated and fermented together. This wine is delightfully aromatic and hits the palate with waves of textural intrigue.
This article first appeared in our 2024 Summer publication, The Rainbow Connection.
Kylie Britt is a wine professional and consultant in Charlottesville, Virginia. With a background in chemistry and a passion for community building, she has embodied many roles in the world of wine. She is Operations Director at the newly opened Ethos Wine & Tea and consults as Wine Director at The Wool Factory, where she curates a menu for Broadcloth Restaurant, wine programming, and retail selection for The Workshop. Her independent project, Teacher’s Pet Nat, is available for menu and event consultation and educational programming.
@ethoswineandtea ethoswineandtea.com
