The spotlight is on Veritas Vineyard & Winery and their outstanding winemaker, Emily Hodson Pelton.  One of a relatively short list of female Virginia winemakers, Emily recently received the prestigious Best of Show award in the 2007 National Women's Wine Competition with her dessert wine Kenmar.  This is quite an honor as Emily competed with over 1900 entrants from across the country who were judged by 30 of the leading women winemakers, buyers, writers, and critics in the United States wine industry.  One of the frequent comments heard during the awards was surprise that a wine so high in the awards circle came from Virginia.  Emily was proud to accept this award and offered assurance that "they will continue to be surprised."

Veritas has been producing consistently high quality wines from its inception when it was established in 1999 by Andrew and Patricia Hodson with the help of their eldest daughter Emily.  The vineyard consists of 25 acres of vines from which Veritas has been producing 90 tons of grapes which translates into 8,000 cases of wine ranging from bubbling, sparkling, wine to opulent port styled wines. 

Emily Pelton was hooked from the beginning.  As a self confessed "city girl" before arriving in Virginia in 1999, she was amazed at how at home she felt in the fields.  She decided she wanted a career in winemaking and completed a Masters in Enology at Virginia Tech during the first two vintages at Veritas.  Emily and father Andrew have been a winemaking team ever since, relying on each other to create wines that are true to the grape, and true to their place. 

The name Veritas derives from the Roman historian, Pliny the Elder, who observed: "in Vino Veritas" ~  "In Wine There Is Truth".  Emily takes this statement very seriously in each step of winemaking and strives to accentuate the truth of their wine in the vinification of high quality, varietally, and geographically correct wines. 

Veritas Vineyard & Winery
145 Saddleback Farm - Afton, VA 22920
540-456-8000
www.veritaswines.com

A panel of outstanding judges will conduct the double-blind competition.  Considered the best in their field of Enology and Sensory Evaluations of wines, the panel includes Dr. Andrew Waterhouse, Chair, Viticulture and Enology Dept., Univ. of California Davis; Dr. Roy Williams, Chemistry Professor Emeritus, Old Dominion Univ., Norfolk; Jim Barker, President, Washington Wine Academy, Alexandria; Peter Coe, Taste Unlimited, Virginia Beach; Marcel Desaulniers, The Trellis Restaurant, Williamsburg; Ben Eubanks, The Jefferson Hotel, Richmond; Cindy McGann, Vintage Tavern & River Stone Chophouse, Suffolk; Marc Sauter, Zinc Brasserie, Virginia Beach.

The judges will award bronze, silver and gold medals for White Wines, Red Wines, Late Harvest & Dessert Wines, Rosé, Blush & Pink Wines, and Sparkling Wines.  Gold medal winners will be announced on Friday night at the America's Polo Cup at Historic Morvern Park in Leesburg on May 9 and 10.

Yes, Virginia, the Virginia Wine Marketing Office is now open!  Manned by Annette Ringwood Boyd and Amy Ciarametaro, the office is funded by the Virginia Wine Board and charged with coordinating several marketing initiatives to promote Virginia's wine industry, including:

• Designing the new 2008 Virginia Wine Map
• Updating the www.Virginiawine.org website
• Coordinating industry surveys for marketing needs
• Developing a comprehensive marketing plan for the industry
• Answering requests for information about the industry

"We have had overwhelming response since we opened our doors in December," said Annette Ringwood Boyd, executive director of the Wine Marketing Office.  "There is a tremendous amount of interest in Virginia wines, and our office has been able to point people in the appropriate direction depending on what information they need.  We are especially proud of the current Virginia Wine Guide (See Below) which will lead many new folks to visit Virginia wineries this year."

Annette Ringwood Boyd is president of Ringwood Boyd Marketing LLC which received  the contract to operate the office on behalf of the Virginia Wine Board.  Several years ago, Annette headed a Virginia wine marketing program under the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services where she gained experience with many of the same tasks now charged by the Wine Board.

Amy Ciarametaro is marketing coordinator for the Wine Marketing Office.  Formerly, she worked with the Navy Exchange corporate buying office in Virginia Beach as a merchandise planner.  "I love my new job and have a deep appreciation for Virginia wine.  Every day I get to work with a constituency of passionate people producing an excellent product.  I look forward to helping develop marketing initiatives that can make a difference."

Got a question about the Virginia wine industry?  Call the experts in the Wine Marketing Office...Annette and Amy.

Virginia Wine Marketing Office
1001 E. Broad Street, Suite 140 - Richmond, VA 23219
804-344-8200
E-mail:  information@virginiawine.org

Le Mousseux Sparkling Cider, promoted as the Ultimate Alternative, is the brainchild of Tomas Rodriguez, partner in La Provençale Cellars in Woodstock, Virginia.  

As a sales and marketing executive for a prestigious French Champagne and spirits importer, Tom traveled many miles throughout the Mid-Atlantic area, including the Shenandoah Valley where he admired the extensive apple orchards. He remembers idly wondering if anyone was producing sparkling cider similar to the lightly alcoholic ciders he had enjoyed in Brittany and Normandy.  Years later, he spent some time in his adopted state of Virginia, working with wineries in marketing their products.  He gained a new outlook on the production end of a local product, recognizing that the growers and producers were not a continent away but in-house, and the marketing effort was not always a sales force, but frequently the same person who was wearing several hats.

After a couple of years, Tom founded La Provençale Cellars (named for his French mother-in-law's favorite vacation spot) and was successful in filling a niche market for excellent wines from several wine producing regions of the world.  He became aware that fine restaurants needed a non-alcoholic beverage to offer alongside wine and began researching the idea of a sparkling apple cider.  Remembering the apple orchards he had seen years before in the Shenandoah Valley, he began working with a couple of apple experts and put together a blend of seven different apple varieties to create an elegant, dry, sophisticated cider reminiscent of those in western France. 

The blend includes Granny Smith for crisp freshness, Macintosh for its distinctive apple aromatic and taste components, Jonathan for the cinnamon and nutmeg overtones, Fuji for its juicy sweetness, along with others to round out the blend. Carbonation is the final addition to create a fresh fruity beverage that is at home in a champagne flute on its own or with dinner.  The sparking cider was named Le Mousseux, French for the bubbles or the effervescence, and became an instant hit as an alternative beverage to serve in a wine glass or flute with dinner.

Tom sold his import business and concentrated on the wholesale market for sparkling cider. He worked with distributors to move his cider to market and quickly realized that he had to take responsibility for creating demand by the public.  He investigated various venues and found that wine festivals were an ideal market for introducing the Ultimate Alternative. Since the late 1990s he has been invited to participate in festivals from Boston to South Beach, Florida.  Vintage Virginia, the Virginia  Wine Festival and numerous other events in Virginia are on the schedule.  Recognizing that he needed a more varied product line when selling directly to the public, Tom added apple butters and spreads based on his West Virginia grandmother's hand written apple butter recipes.

Tom's association with his partner, Sharon Bradshaw, started in 1994 when she served as floor manager for his first "International Wine Festival", an event held on the grounds of a Virginia winery.  Sharon had been a viticulturist and co-owner of a Virginia winery, served on the board of the Fredericksburg Area Wine Festival and was an active wine educator. It took a few years and occasional assistance at a several more festivals for the relationship to go beyond a casual friendship. At this point Tom and Sharon are partners in La Provençale Cellars, Ltd. and in life. They relocated three years ago from Fredericksburg to Woodstock, in Shenandoah County.  (Copyright, 2008 Sharon Bradshaw)

La Provençale Cellars
P.O. Box 573 - Woodstock, VA 22664
888-532-4373
www.lemousseux.com