Spring has Sprung – and it is a week before the first day of summer!* Lots of good old Veritas news—the vineyard-poor fruit set, the cellar-Emily does it again, the tasting room –Tom is rolling, the kitchen is rocking, Chloe is knocking ‘em dead and the family is growing like weeds.
IN THE VINEYARD
In the growing season there are a couple of crucial times- bud break, bloom, fruit set, veraison, and harvest. Bud break is Tax day – April 15, bloom usually is end of May, and early June is when the vines flower.
Vines are self-pollinating, so the colony collapse disorder affecting bees is not a threat to vines. But if you ask any happy Birkenstock wearing, tie-dyed, granola munching baby boomer dedicated to organic growing, (she rather than he) will tell you that in those vineyards that do not use pesticides the vines are buzzing with myriad insect life…good old fashioned spiders, lady birds, aphids and daddy long legs. Shake the vines and the insects literally fall out like organic fallout. So if you compare an organic vineyard with a not so organic vineyard, or even an industrial vineyard -the organic vineyard gets much better pollination. It’s sort of obvious really, but better pollination means more berries and more berries means small berries and small berries are much better than the same weight of a few large berries, that means more skin to pulp ratio the skins contain the flavors, so the more skin, the more the flavor —the more tastier the wine! So bloom and pollination are the precedents of fruit set—that is when the berries actually form from the flower. Now, in order to maximize the number of flowers that mature into fruit - as well as happy organic insects - the plant needs energy in the form of sunlight. Sunlight causes photosynthesis that produces sugars mostly in the form of glucose-the better the sunshine, the better the number of flowers that when pollinated - turn to berries.
Certain grape varieties are more sensitive than others for good or bad fruit set. Petit Verdot is probably the most notorious for poor fruit set. The French have a name for it (they have a word for everything in viticulture)—they call it ‘coleur.’ Lava has coleur—it flows—so the expression relates to the flowing off of the petals from the cluster as the flowers flow off the cluster so the number of berries goes down.
This spring, not only did we initially get a twinge of frost (some vineyards being hit more than others), but from May 16-24 almost every day was overcast and most days it rained. So with the twinge of frost, followed by cloudy skies-it has not been an ideal spring for grape growers. We can expect crops to be lower this year but with all clouds there may be a silver lining. Less fruit per plant is associated with better fruit per plant. Remember we often “drop” fruit at veraison (that is the time when the berries turn 
color) which is usually mid July. So it’s easy to remember: April is bud break, May-June is bloom and fruit set, July is verasion and August, September and October is harvest. And so it goes on-the eternal cycle of life.
Remember the name Rudolf Steiner? He was an Austrian born philosopher whose philosophy of nature is the underpinning of bio-dynamic and organic agriculture and viticulture. His philosophy was to give back to the land rather than extract from it—to give to the soil as we would give to anyone we loved. Taken on its own it’s a bit hocus-pocus but his philosophy is inspiring and all his practices are beneficial to the natural well being of the land. So, we are followers of our good friend Christine Vrooman who is the local high priestess of organic and bio-dynamic grape growing. She, along with Karl Hambsch, are leading the charge for sustainable (whatever that means) or perhaps “environmentally sensitive viticulture."
IN THE CELLAR
Emily does it again. I know Emily would insist, and rightly so, that it’s not just Emily —it’s the whole Veritas team. The wine is made in the vineyard: Patricia, Bill, Cesar, Alvino, Fernando and Luis. The making of wine is Emily, Paul, Jolie and Andrew. The selling of wine is Tom, Larry and our wonderful tasting room crew.
As part of our sustainability (taken in its literal sense), we run events, put on Starry Nights and wed sixty brides a year. Those activities make us all viable.
Emily entered four wines in the International Women’s Winemaker Competitions. She got a double gold with Petit Verdot, a gold with Viognier, and a gold and Best of Class with our Sauvignon Blanc. Not that we are boasting or anything.
TASTING ROOM & DISTRIBUTION
Thomas and Larry have achieved record distribution sales for this early in the year ~ aided and abetted by Nic Perez in Northern Virginia and Renée who was Larry’s co-worker in C’Ville. Despite all pleadings for her to stay – she had to walk away! Millie Blackwell, a big favorite in the tasting room and our biggest envoy of Scintilla, has now joined our distribution team to take over from Renée . "The Tonks" (see below) continue to do an amazing job keeping our inventory low and we are very grateful for that.
IN THE KITCHEN
To our greatest delight, Jonathan has been knocking ‘em dead in the kitchen. But I don’t want to sound like a broken record when I emphasize that it is all team work. Said Rhafiri, to his credit, had a well-organized and highly trained kitchen staff. The kitchen, with Jonathan's new leadership and the addition of Andy our new line chef, along with Manuel, Cecilio and Clementino, is reaching greater and greater culinary heights and delights. Good job guys! By the way, we invited Gordon Ramsey to help us reorganize the kitchen—he took a look at it and said "Not - - - - - - - Likely!"
WEDDINGS
Chris Hurley’s organizational skills enabled Chloe to take over and excel as our new wedding and event manager. Christine is now working with Payne, Ross & Associates in Charlottesville. Chloe brings a wonderful youthful spring to our stride; she bubbles with the brides having her own natural understanding of how to work even with Bridezillas (and sometimes Mother’s of Bridezilla as well). Joining Chloe is one of our best and long standing employees, Rebecca L’Abbe. Rebecca has been part of the Veritas team for five years and she has been an ever faithful and hard working wait captain working with Karl Hambsch. So this season’s employees of the month are our two newly appointed Wedding Managers: Rebecca L’Abbe and Chloe Hodson Frey. We thank Rebecca for her unstinting work with Karl working to achieve the quality standards of the wait staff at our weddings, the quality that only the wedding participants could tell you about. I wonder if that has anything to do with the fact that 2011 is almost entirely booked , so if you are a bride looking to be married at Veritas, call soon!
At Veritas we have such a cohesive group of people that enjoy working together that we score on every level from vineyard to wine making to tasting room to wedding facility - but when you boil down to it, it all has to be about quality, and quality we have.
THE FAMILY
Emily’s two, Lydia and Charlotte, exceed expectations. George’s two, Hailey and
Amelia, exceed expectations. Grandma and Grandpa are still keeping inventory low.
William Tonkins (our nephew and Bill’s son) is back safe and sound from Afghanistan and for that, we all need to thank our lucky stars. Patricia’s family (collectively known as “The Tonks”) were able to get together for Mother’s Day, an event shared by all the family members at Aftonshire.
So that is all the news that’s fit to print from Veritas. Remember Veritas ~ where all the men are good looking and all the women are beautiful and everyone is on Weight Watchers.
Don’t forget Starry Nights on July 10th, August 14th and September 11th!!
Have a Cool Summer!
Andrew
Hodson ~ Bottle Washer Emeritus
and the whole Veritas Family
*This truly was written the week before the Summer Solstice. Same as last time, it just wasn't ready for the web until now. Blame it on anybody but me!