Photo by Jane Fullerton Lemons
Grace Estate Winery will take part in a wine dinner at the Homestead this month. Grace Estate Winery is situated in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains west of Charlottesville.
Nestled in a cozy nook in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains, Grace Estate Winery has been producing wine since it was established in 2013, but grapes have been growing on the hillsides for more than three decades.
Under the guiding hand of winegrower Robbie Corpora, Grace Estate is entering a new production phase with a focus on sustainability and an eye toward the future of agriculture. The estate’s wines will be featured during an upcoming winemaker’s dinner at the Omni Homestead Resort & Spa in Hot Springs, about a three-hour drive from Alexandria.
Corpora takes a page from wine producers in France’s famed Burgundy region, which is dotted with many small plots of land, following the philosophy of farming “the little pieces.” What that means, he explained, “is understanding the marriage of the grape variety and a particular piece of land.”
At Grace Estate, the result is deciding to plant the white Sauvignon Blanc grapes in a certain section of the rolling hills he calls “Slope of Grace,” and planting the red Cabernet Sauvignon grapes in another area — each location selected specifically for each variety.
Photo by Jane Fullerton Lemons
Manor House at Grace Estate Winery
These careful decisions made in the vineyard when the grapes are growing, to take advantage of the farm’s distinct soil types, mean less intervention will be needed in the cellar after harvest when the wine is made.
“I prefer the term winegrower over winemaker because the yeasts and the vines do the wine making,” Corpora said. “We as farmers grow the vines and help foster a healthy environment for the yeasts, allowing them to express the place from which the grapes come rather than attempting to force the grapes to express what we are ‘doing’ in the winery.”
Producing Wine by Learning from the Land
Photo by Jane Fullerton Lemons
Stop by for a glass of wine at Grace Estate Winery.
Grace Estate encompasses 450 acres near Crozet, just west of Charlottesville in the Monticello American Viticultural Area (AVA). It includes a magnificent manor house that sits atop a crest with sweeping views of the surrounding Blue Ridge Mountains. While the vineyard long produced grapes that were sold to other Virginia farms, it began making its own wine in 2013.
Those wines — including several that have won Governor’s Cup medals — are made only from grapes grown on 37 acres at Mount Juliet Farm, including Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Sauvignon Blanc, Petite Verdot, Petit Manseng, Vidal Blanc, Chardonnay, Merlot, Malbec Tannat, and Viognier.
The labels on those bottles pay tribute to the history and ancestors of the Grace family, which date as far back as 1060 in the Medieval Era. John and Lola Grace, of W.R. Grace & Company, a global specialty chemical company, own the farm and winery.
Corpora takes a hands-on technical approach to winemaking. Having grown up on the vineyard that his parents once owned and sold — nearby Afton Mountain Vineyards — his knowledge comes from years of experience rather than a viticultural degree.
“I am very interested in farming wine, because unlike other agricultural products, wine seems to have this innate ability to tell a story that people pay close attention to,” he said. “Therefore, wine as a product has the potential to change the way we farm for the better.”
That’s exactly what Corpora is doing at Grace Estate — changing the way the vineyard is farmed. He relies on less intervention, focusing on regenerative practices that will diversify and increase the soil microbe populations, ultimately leaving the farm healthier each year.
Reaching that goal means constantly learning from the land. Paradoxically, he said, “you have to understand a lot more to do less.”
In the tasting room at Grace Estate, manager Michael Gagliardi enjoys telling this story — from the family legacy to the historic labels to the vineyard stewardship — weaving together how all those threads ultimately impact what ends up in the bottle.
“The most important thing is the winemaking itself, taking an elegant approach that is different from what many others are doing,” he said.
A Night of Fine Wine and Gourmet Dining at the Homestead
The Omni Homestead Resort will showcase wines from Grace Estate at its October 11 winemaker dinner, a carefully curated four-course meal that will pair local cuisine and local wine to highlight Virginia's distinctive terroir.
You can buy tickets for the dinner here.
The dinner is part of a series of wine events offered by the Homestead, which are led by Chief Sommelier Quynh Cohen. The resort features a tasting room well stocked with Virginia wines, offers educational events, and hosts regular dinners spotlighting Virginia winemakers. You can even sign up for a “poses and pairing” yoga class taught by Cohen.
Cohen constantly strives to add new experiences or wineries to the Homestead’s repertoire to underscore how Virginia wines have blossomed on the national and international wine stage over the past several years. Sharing the stories behind those wines — like the team at Grace Estate — can help people understand the process of how wine goes from vineyard to cellar before ending up in their glass.
“We’ve got to do a better job when we’re telling the story of Virginia wine and why the winemaker does what he or she does to make these world-class Virginia wines,” Cohen said.
All the wine-themed events at the Homestead aim to showcase Virginia’s winemaking heritage — a history that dates to Jamestown, was championed by Thomas Jefferson, finally became a reality in the 1970s, and now continues to earn international acclaim.
