Our 50th, A New Vineyard Year

Buongiorno ~

Welcome to a new vineyard year, just as we all are digging out from a plentiful blanket of snow. This year will find us celebrating 50 years of this estate’s viticultural mission, while focusing on this growing season with its own excitement. The stage was set for our vineyard’s annual renewal by a brilliant occasion last October, while our harvest was still in fermentation in the winery, when a cornerstone project of our last 8 years was honored as a seedbed of our estate’s vitality. I refer to the Allegrante Meadow, which welcomes everyone at the foot of our entry driveway, for whose lavish flourishing I gratefully accepted the Dolley Madison Garden Club’s Horticultural Commendation.

An active stalwart of Garden Club of America’s Zone VII, which includes the Commonwealths of Virginia and of Kentucky, from Alexandria and Virginia Beach to Louisville and Paducah, the Dolley Madison GC represents our central Piedmont area of Virginia, from Rappahannock to Orange Counties in particular. We were especially delighted to share Commendation honors with The Inn at Little Washington’s founding Chef, Patrick O’Connell at the Barn at Orange’s Inn at Willow Grove, on the evening of October 22nd. Our contemporary throughout our vineyard’s history, and an inspiring, supportive companion in our commitment to food and wine, Chef O’Connell accepted Commendation in the Club’s category of Historic Preservation, as we were being honored in Horticulture.

The Garden Club of America’s categories of Commendation portray how interrelated every field is with the others, and this unity is as visible in the thriving of The Inn at Little Washington as it is in our own. The fields of Civic Improvement, Conservation, and Historic Preservation certainly apply to the Inn’s development in and around Washington, Virginia, while those of Horticulture, Conservation, and Historic Preservation apply to our estate, from our meticulous devotion to preserving the Ruins of Governor James Barbour’s mansion, designed by Thomas Jefferson, to the conservation of the nearly 1,000 acres by agricultural land use, of the historic estate of the most prominent political family between Monticello and Montpelier.

But it is especially for the Allegrante Meadow’s contribution to these very significant mission goals, that I appreciate the Garden Club’s praise of their success. The Meadow is a stand-out driver and protector of a flourishing ecosystem here, largely because of propagating insect populations with a vital balance for plant protection and soils nutrition. Admittedly, a radiantly riotous bouquet of greeting at our doorstep, the ecologically benign permeation of the Meadow’s pollinator population reaches far beyond its fences.

As you know, the Meadow has also lent its own name to our vintage rosé, which commemorates the thoroughbred racing history of the estate with the name of a brood mare Governor Barbour acquired from Senator Henry Clay in the 1830s. An engaging blend of Petite Sirah, Nebbiolo, and Vermentino, of great appeal in every season of the year, Allegrante Rosé makes a beautiful pairing with an exuberant Winter Salad on Palladio Restaurant’s new seasonal menu — a tossing of Little Gem baby Romaine and Trevisano chicory, with local Asian pears, aged balsamic, and apple cider vinaigrette dust, with sunflower seeds and crispy shallots — a colorful plate, almost as unrestrained as the Meadow, itself.

Subtly, but very materially, the Meadow helps to underwrite and defend our commitment to viticulture as a historically preserving land use, of benefit to the Orange and Albemarle County regions as a whole, through employment, payment of taxes, and hosting of prodigious populations of tourists every year, to study our landmark architecture, to visit the internationally respected winery, and absorb the serenity of a pricelessly beautiful landscape.

By honoring us for Allegrante Meadow, the Dolley Madison Garden Club laid a very astute touch upon the pulse of our whole enterprise. We thrive because of the wholeness of the land, allowing us to celebrate it best with its fruits. Come visit, experience your place in our estate, and refresh yourself in our welcome through the year.

Cordialmente ~

Luca Paschina Winemaker