Source: Cave Spring Connection

By Gene Marrano

On a beautiful sunny afternoon several weeks ago, dozens of people gathered for a ceremony that dates back hundreds of years, the blessing of grape vines. This ceremony was held at Valhalla Vineyards on Mount Chestnut Road in southwest Roanoke County. The Rev. Bruce Tuttle of Cave Spring United Methodist Church led the group in prayer, gave a short homily and then blessed a bowl of water. That water was then brought over in a procession to a nearby row of grape vines that will soon be harvested. The fairly dry summer makes for good grapes, said Valhalla co-owner Debra Vascik. At the vines people dipped their fingertips into the bowl of blessed water and then touched the plants. The choral group Deo, which originated in southwest Roanoke County, sang spiritual music in harmony using Appalachian shape notes as invited guests gathered outside the Valhalla tasting room, a stone building Debra and husband James Vascik opened several years ago. The blessing of the vines at Valhalla was modeled after a French ritual. “The quality of our wine is directly related to the quality of our fruit. We’ve done it every year,” said Debra Vascik. It has worked so far; Valhalla is known for award-winning wine and even won the coveted Governor’s Award shortly after opening its doors less than 10 years ago. Regarding the weather, which was rain-free for much of the summer: “We’ve been fine,” said Vascik. “Grapes are fairly drought-resistant crops. Their roots are deep [and] there’s a lot of ground water in the mountain. We have not shown any heat stress.” The warm days and cool nights found on Mt. Chestnut at 2,000 feet in elevation have been a winning combination so far. Vascik did sound one cautionary note before heading back in to the tasting room, where she exhibited some of the 10 different wines Valhalla normally bottles: she wants to see the new state law regarding the requirement that a distributor or middle man be used between all winemakers and retail outlets be changed. As of July 1, a producer like Valhalla can no longer sell directly to an ABC store or larger retail outlets. Another local winery, AmRhein’s, said it can live with the new rule. Owner Russ Amrhein expressed that sentiment at a public meeting recently saying it s because production at the southwest county vineyard has now reached 10,000 cases a year. Valhalla is much smaller, however, and Vascik said the law adds another unnecessary pricing layer. “It not only hurt me, it has hurt every other farm winery in the state of Virginia that is self-distributed.”

Frank Martin of the gourmet food and wine shop Bel Pasto at Springwood Plaza feels Vascik’s pain. “Distributors forced this change because the Supreme Court ruled that in-state and out-of-state wineries must be treated the same, and they were afraid we would find a way to cut out the middle man if allowed. The result: I can’t get any Valhalla wines now,” according to Martin. It gets worse he said: “ABC has yet to approve the application of Valhalla’s new distributor, and they can’t sell wine until this is done. What a travesty - consumers will be paying more - and wineries will be making less - all to preserve the antiquated three-tier system that insures the distributors get a cut. This system was enacted 77 years ago following prohibition. [I]n the age of the Internet when anyone can order wine online and have it shipped to their home, [the regulaton] has far surpassed its usefulness. So now Roanoke County residents cannot go to a Roanoke County retailer and buy wine from a Roanoke County winery.”

Vascik said the ability to sell directly to retailers has kept smaller vintners in business and she hopes to see the legislation reversed or modified next spring. The extra layer of distribution also hampers marketing efforts to introduce wines to consumers. “It has been a huge blow to the whole industry. There are a lot of farm wineries that will go out of business in this state.” State Senator Brandon Bell (Roanoke County) heard from small winery owners on the subject at a public session in Botetourt County several weeks ago. On a recent Sunday afternoon however all of that was on the back burner as 20 acres of planted vines were blessed with prayers and song. “Its an age-old ceremony. We thought it was incredibly wonderful,” said Debra Vascik of the ritual.

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This entry was posted on Friday, September 15th, 2006 at 7:11 pm and is filed under Distribution Laws. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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