Virginia Museum Launching Memoirs of Our Leading Chef

Buongiorno ~

Most unconventionally, I greet you on a Saturday morning as we’re planning to harvest some Merlot next week, to share our great excitement for a rarer happy event, a celebration reception coming up almost immediately at Richmond’s Virginia Museum of History and Culture. On Wednesday, the 16th, guests will be toasting the newly published memoir of our longtime loyal friend in food and wine, Chef Patrick O’Connell, founder of The Inn at Little Washington, with our Vermentino Reserve — served alongside Chef Patrick’s signature Truffled Popcorn, beginning at 5:30pm, before welcoming remarks scheduled for 6:00. Some tickets for this historic book launch remain available, and signed copies will be awaiting all ticket holders at the Museum. I’ll report as promised on our full harvest at month’s end, but now you know where to find me on the 16th — pouring Vermentino for you, very happily.

I urge you to come, to enjoy Chef Patrick’s invariably infectious humor and bold storytelling, in discussion with Tom Sietsema, the seasoned restaurant critic of the Washington, DC “dining scene,” which The Inn has been inspiring for 48 years by the sheer panache and originality of this one country kitchen. His previous, widely honored cookbooks have been rich with ingredient echoes (and vendors’ contact information) of the Rappahannock core of his inspirations, and now they’re joined by his memoir of how this happened, and what it’s been like. A rare gift to us all.

Certainly no single chef in our region has been so helpful to so many in the pursuit of careers in food and wine. His support of our wines has been emphatic and persistent from the start, with our very first vintage of Nebbiolo and our third of Octagon.

The Inn’s cellar is the only one outside our own to possess such complete depth in our very finest wines, dating from that great vintage year of 1998. With me here, at our winery’s 50th anniversary, I remember promising him, “50 feels great, get ready for 2028.”

Now we have Chef Patrick’s memoir of one thrilling, improbable rise from a rural crossroads auto shop to the stars of the Guide Michelin. The nation’s capital at his feet to secure a table and spend the night, and food-lovers worldwide hungry for what comes next. Already his book is in the stores, but why not join its welcome party in Richmond, and collect your volume there?

Cordialmente ~

Luca Paschina Winemaker