Southern Scribes Blog

I arrived early at the winery, ready for a very busy day and learned our team was able to resolve the problem, yes everything was back to normal. I went to the sorting table and noticed after a couple of hours the clouds were getting darker.  Everybody rushed to the vineyard to help speed up the harvest before any rain could touch the grapes. It was not my first time harvesting but it’s always so pleasant to pick up the grapes from the vines, sampling some, feeling the soil and you can see why this is the most important job in the vineyard.

To my surprise I learned there are close to 200 wineries in Virginia and most are around Charlottesville and Middleburg. Our Founder and CEO, Sheila Johnson, is building a beautiful resort close to D.C called Salamander Resort & Spa and it will promote local food and local wine.  It will be a destination for everyone.  I am now even hoping to get an opportunity to move to Virginia, but we will see…I still love Charleston S.C.

We were over 50 people to harvest and after just a couple of hours the two vineyards were done, back to the winery. I was able to follow some of the crew and watch the pumping, the cleaning, the numbers in the computer (3000galons = 50.5barels = 1262cases = 11tons).  We were able to finish even faster that last night, it was big relief for the management to see the grapes arriving with the perfect maturity. Great Start for the vintage 2009 from Virginia.