Climax of the Season – Our Annual Harvest Feast

Buongiorno ~

Writing in these last days of August, mid-point in our 2026 harvest, I very warmly invite you to join us in our longest-lived and most exuberant culinary tradition, the Italian Harvest Feast, on the calendar this year for Saturday, September 12th at 1:00pm. Further cause to celebrate with us here, may be that Wine Enthusiast has just named Palladio to its roster of Best Winery Restaurants in the World.

Before turning to the Feast, allow me to update you on the promising status of our harvest so far, and what we hope to produce as it concludes in the next 3 to 4 weeks.
As I write, our whites are all safely in, in volume diminished by sustained single-digit temperatures in February, and an ill-timed Spring frost recalled by wind machines on a damagingly cold night in April, but in very fetching balance of fruit-forward freshness, with correspondingly lighter levels of alcohol.

Literally as you receive this Note, we are harvesting Petite Sirah for Allegrante Rosé, which is in excellent balance as well. The reds naturally still want greater maturation on the vine, and thus far I can say that our intermittent but frequent rains have not exceeded their tolerances at all. Given a favorable distribution of sunshine and continued levels of warmth, we are looking for the reds to reflect the virtues of the whites of this year — excellent, definitive expression of fragrance and fruit vitality, with fine structuring acidity, and alcohol levels closer to 13.0 than the 13.5% levels of the bold 2023 and 2024. Meeting these projections, will result in wonderfully approachable wines for dining pleasure.

To turn now to the Feast, I confide my longtime passion for sharing – and in our early years, by myself preparing – classic Italian culinary favorites in this most winery-defining of all our gatherings. The occasion affords an autobiographical focus, to illustrate the winemaking values of our wines – and to illuminate their quality, from our motivations to their fulfillments.

Well preceding the creation of Palladio Restaurant, by 7 or 8 years, I used to join with Guest Chefs such as Roberto Donna of Galileo Restaurant in Washington, DC, and Jimmy Sneed, leader of Richmond’s culinary renaissance at The Frog & Redneck, in creating rustic but memorable occasions with picnic seating in then open-air Piedmont Arcades, back in the day when this was our harvest’s crushpad. Simply on my own and without prior notice, I used to prepare classic minestrone and risotto for weekend tastings, and bake fresh breads in my home kitchen in what is now the Blue Run Cottage.

Our bond with many of the region’s most creative and inspiring chefs, including Craig Hartman (then at Clifton) and Patrick O’Connell, Chef-founder of The Inn at Little Washington, originated right there on that slope, where in all weather today, visitors gather in more elegant furnishings to imbibe the Blue Ridge skyline to the West. It was exactly in these modest celebratory times, that our region’s culinary leaders began to recognize and support our determination, as winegrowers, to uphold their own commitment to the finest selections to serve their guests.

Today, I’m not called upon to specify the Harvest Feast in detail, or stir the Risotto, myself. I’m fortunate to rely on our outstanding Chef Michael Clough, to balance depth and vitality in his selections, with the most revealing finesse of technique, and trust Sommelier Professionista Alessandro Medici, in his 30th year here, to select and serve wines reflecting these values. Thus, the Harvest Feast is probably the most conscious annual expression of why we grow, fashion, and age wines as we do — for the most thorough food friendliness the varietal and its vintage allow. All this ripens to perfection when you are here.

. . for our signature mousse of fresh Tuna, wrapped in roasted bell peppers, with a Brut Rosé.
. . for the classic Ligurian styling of poached Black Cod with gushing local tomatoes, Ligurian olives, capers and basil, paired with the region’s most scintillating white wine, Vermentino Reserve, which we’ve made a star of Virginia.

. . for Piemonte’s Barbera-scented Risotto, with porcini mushrooms, thyme, and Parmigiano Reggiano, of course, paired with the region’s classically bright, dry red wine of unfailing geniality.

. . for Nebbiolo’s rosemary braised Osso Buco of venison, with our own fresh-picked Malabar spinach, porcini, and eggplant beside a Thomasville Tomme polenta.

. . and finally, for extracting the very spirit of the Feast, with the wine of benevolence, itself — our deepest debt to Italian wine- making, the golden Paxxito.
Whether for your first time or the 30th, join this celebration of your own taste.
Reservations are necessary; e-mail, [email protected]

Cordialmente ~

Luca Paschina Winemaker