Leah McNamara and Lindsay Kagalis try wines at Celladora Wines in the Fan (Photo by Jay Paul)
A white wine made from Grüner Veltliner grapes from Austria. Vintage 2012.
“Hints of citrus, a little pithy,” says Megan Hopkins, owner of Celladora Wines, a bottle shop and restaurant on Lombardy Street. The next selection is from the same winemaker, the same grape, vintage 2014: “Here you can really taste the minerality,” she says, or the flavor of wet stone drawn from the earth. “It might even be that the roots of the vine have grown deeper into the soil. More tannic [drier, more bitter].”
It doesn’t take an expert sommelier to taste what she’s referencing. Each wine is, indeed, distinct. The final example, from 2015, is my favorite; less fruity, more minerality, a texture that Hopkins calls “round,” or smooth, with a defined body.
What causes these wines that come from the same vineyard, featuring the same grape and produced by the same winery to each have a unique flavor and texture?
“Commercial wine is made to taste the same every time. The flavor profile is controlled so much that some people even have the conception that all reds or all whites taste the same,” Hopkins says. “Natural wines taste different every year.”
Celladora, open since 2022, is part of a growing class of wine shops in Richmond that allow customers to have a wine tasting experience outside of commercial offerings and purchase bottles to go. Penny’s Wine Shop in Jackson Ward does the same, along with Main Street’s Jardin and Union Hill’s Friend Bar, located inside Pizza Bones.
Once a month, Celladora hosts a bottle share night, where guests pay $30 for food buffet-style and purchase a bottle to drink while sampling dozens of other wines. The event date is announced each month via the shop’s Instagram account.
Photo courtesy Jolene Family Winery
Outside city limits, there are traditional wineries catering to curious oenophiles, too. Open since summer 2020, Jolene Family Winery in New Kent County has a tasting room and an on-site vineyard. “My brother had a vineyard that he started seven years ago,” says Sandy Lewis, one of the owners. “We had this family property we needed to refurbish, and since he was growing the grapes, we decided we’d try to learn about making wine.”
Jolene Family Winery offers flights, guided tastings and private tastings for larger groups. Recently, the family red blend won Best in Category in the Atlantic Seaboard Wine Association competition.
Though the wine world has borne the stereotype of being pretentious, Hopkins suggests leaving hang-ups aside and focusing on the fun. “When you’re tasting a wine, one of your first thoughts should be, am I enjoying it?” Hopkins says. “Maybe that’s not everyone’s first thought, because they’re thinking about what they’re getting out of it, if they’re tasting the right things. But really, it’s about enjoying it.”
