Every spring I am filled with optimism. It’s spring; it’s opportunity; it is change, almost a rebirth as we watch those beautiful green buds burst forth.

Yes folks, this has been a Humdinger of a winter – we’ve had it all, blistering cold for days on end, power cuts, interstate highways blocked and the ever-lingering cloud over all our heads, COVID. Why I obsess about the weather. You may have noticed that my newsletters tend to obsess about weather and as […]

Now you may or may not know that one of the most successful segments of the English wine market is sparkling wine, known more familiarly to the Brits as English Fizz. Why am I writing about English Fizz when we are in Virginia? Because the manager of the Virginia Sparkling Company (VSC) is Elliott Watkins, […]

“Now over everything the autumn light is thrown And every line is sharp and every leaf is clear…” – Poem in Autumn, by May Sorton It really does seem like the light is different in autumn. I’m not sure why. There seems to be a clarity often enhanced by the morning chill. The sun lights […]

Merlot is a wine that to some people is bland and uninteresting and to others is their absolute favorite. Now if, for example, you want to drink a red wine that is soft, fruity, is easily affordable, and that doesn’t make you pucker with bitter tannins, then Merlot is for you. Similarly, if you are […]

Where does Viognier stand after a whirlwind affair followed by a tragic break-up as the state’s darling white grape? My blog this week features the Viognier grape, how it was popularized in Virginia over the last 15 years and where the grape stands now relative to other wines like Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc and Petit Manseng. […]

Veraison – What was that again? If you Google the French term “véraison” the English equivalent is “veraison.” Under the French entry it says, “Maturation des fruit, spécialement du raisin qui prend sa couleur.” That roughly means ripening of fruits, especially of the grape which takes its color. When I come across a term like […]

I was debating whether “Bud Break” for the vine is Christmas or Easter and thinking about it, it is clearly Easter. First of all Easter and bud break occur at roughly the same time and secondly for the vine it is a re-birth and thanks to Mother Nature she never disappoints us, except perhaps when it comes to timing.

Winter 2021 Happy Benevolent Snow It was this time last year when we started to hear about this novel coronavirus and it was this time last year that we were forced to shut down.Our world as we knew it was turned upside down. The humdrum routines of daily life evaporated. It’s hard to imagine how […]

Andrew Hodson’s Newsletter This season of mellow fruitfulness seems like and is like no other, as you may well say is true of everything about 2020.  Autumn is always my most favorite season of the year. The time when autumn leaves start to fall almost as declarative of a change in season as spring is […]