Believe it or not I last wrote in late spring and now - guess what? Summer has been and gone! Where did the summer go? It was kind of cool and kind of wet, singularly unmemorable. We are now in the midst of Harvest and considering all things, including global warming, the recession and health care reform we are by everyone else’s standards doing OK. Nevertheless, it has not been a good growing year as I noted in the June newsletter. A cloudy May resulted in poor fruit set. We need good sunlight at fruit set to produce lots of sugars that allow the flowers to give rise to big, fat luscious bunches of grapes. So, all across the board, whites and reds, bunch weights have been down resulting in lower than normal yields from the vineyard. Alas there are only three barrels of Sauvignon Blanc Reserve, less Chardonnay, less everything. Almost all the whites are picked except Petit Manseng which has an amazing capacity to just hang out there! We pick, it rains--we wait for things to dry out then we pick again. We have been dodging the rain you can imagine, all our Blackberries are locked into the weather channel. Most of the reds are still out there but the outlook this week is more cloud and potential for rain.
I know I sound like a broken record but you have got to want to grow grapes and make wine in Virginia; it is after all what makes it such a challenge – or that is what I keep telling myself – anybody could make wine in California--they don’t even have weather out there! Actually we do enjoy the challenge – I think in that book about “How to Win Friends and Influence People” the last resort when all else fails is to issue someone a challenge - so with that in mind we brought Chloe on board as our VIT (Viticulturalist In Training). Chloe has been doing all sorts of things like spraying, mowing and doing crop estimates which she was doing with Richard Smart in Tassie (Tasmania) so she came well prepared.
We got our first harvest from our baby Petit Verdot planted two years ago on a less 
vigorous rootstock called Riparia, not a big yield but babies ripen earlier so they came in a full week ahead of the grownup Petit Verdot, now in its tenth leaf. Interestingly almost every year (three out of the last four) when we have a short period of good ripening sunshine - KABOOM -1-2 inches of rain in 24 hours, the grapes and Petit Verdot that seem the most vulnerable suck up the rain and then split, opening them up to every nasty bug, fungus, and pesky critter that God created- or Darwin selected. So Petit Verdot growers beware – but it is still lovely to drink, just ask Paul Shaffer.
We have bottled Merlot, Claret, Petit Manseng and Othello over the summer – VR has sold out as has the 2006 Merlot. The 2008 Cabernet Franc and Merlot are gorgeous and I am not biased – Yeah Right!
Our latest star in the bubbly range is a scintillating Scintilla; released in August Scintilla takes over where Mousseux left off. Brut in nature it has a huge volume full of delicious tiny scintillating bubbles and it tastes great too!
Emily won yet another gold medal with our Kenmar in the Monticello wine competition – Ho Hum poor old Ems can’t help it if they keep awarding gold medals for her wines. My dear old Mum Marjorie would have been proud – she loved sweet wines. She not only won a gold with the Kenmar but also a double gold for the Flying Fox Petit Verdot. Well done Rich & Lynn and Emily.
EMPLOYEE OF THE SEASON
Karl Hambsch has, rather like Molly been one of our unsung heroes; he has been working as our master of ceremonies – weddings, dinners and Starry Nights for over three years now. Karl gets it done - he is truly the “go to guy” when it comes to events. He has a fantastic work ethic appreciated by everyone who works and enjoys working with him; inspiring his teams of expertly trained wait staff for which we are complimented with almost every wedding. He is by the way making his own wine – he gave me a sample of his wine to drink – blind of course - I sniffed, swirled and tasted thinking it was a Chardonnay; I triumphantly exclaimed "pears!' - Yes Sir, it was a lovely homemade pear wine.
IN THE KITCHEN
We celebrated Said’s wedding to Donna at Veritas on July 12th. A splendid celebration was had by all – Congratulations to the lucky and happy couple.
EVENTS
Christine continues to make every bride happy – interestingly we have never had a groom write to us to say what a wonderful time he had and how it was the happiest day of his life. There has got to be a moral there! Starry Nights have been starry for the most part – occasional showers and clouds but we managed a couple of Hum – Dingers – Abbey Road and the Hackensaw Boys each drew over 3000 happy campers and Little Freddie King our first Blues Under the Stars was a knockout.
BIG NEWS: Do not miss your one and only opportunity to see the Vienna Boys Choir, yes the real 100% VBC here at Veritas on October 26th, the start of the Viennese Season of Music for the Wintergreen Performing Arts.
FAMILY AND FRIENDS
Dr. Niles and his wife Judy came to visit from Boston. Clyde Antony Niles and I started Medical School together long ago – longer than we care to remember. I was from Bideford, Devon and Clyde was from St. Lucia in the West Indies. To us at the time, both our homes seemed as far away as the end of the universe and here we were in Medical School. Our friendship has endured despite (or perhaps because of) internship, residency, medical boards, immigration to the USA, marriage, children and now, time to have a few beers together.
The family continues to thrive - the kids are growing like weeds – Charlie is walking, Amelia is almost as beautiful as her Mom and Lydia and Hailey have started pre-school.
Chloe is getting married on New Year’s Eve - second announcement. AJ has started Law School at Washington & Lee.
Jennie Tonkins - Patricia’s niece is visiting from England and is having a ball working the harvest with us.
The Easter chicks are now chickens and we are getting almost a dozen eggs a day – hang on to your cholesterol! Well folks, that’s all the news from the Veritas Foundation where all women are beautiful all the men above average and all the kids are happy!
CHEERS!
Andrew Hodson, CBW
(Chief Bottle Washer)