Jake Blodinger
In an industry that is full of big egos Jake Blodinger is a breath of fresh air. Self confident but humble, Jake is just as comfortable working on a totally innovative wine project as he is cleaning a tank. Now the Head Winemaker at iconic Chrysallis Vineyards, Jakes journey to the top was driven by hard work, a blue collar mentality and a dedication to learn a craft the right way. Working his way thru school at Surry Community College he graduated with an Associates in Viticulture and Enology. During that time, he was working for Sweet Home Carolina and, as he puts it, "every winery in North Carolina that would let me play in their cellar".
Since he graduated Jake has completed 10 harvests, bottled roughly 100,000 cases and still finds that "I don’t know enough about wine". That determination to always learn more has been instrumental in the quality of wines he has produced over the course of his career. He strives to be as technique focused as possible, only making chemical adjustments when it produces the finest bottle of wine possible. He still practices this “less is more” philosophy in the cellar every day at Chrysalis Vineyards.
Accomplished with all varieties Jake has become a leading expert on the production of Norton, making him the perfect foil for winery owner Jenni McCloud. And now, with the advent of the "Norton Network" he assumes the role as one of Nortons biggest advocates.
When asked about life away from work he gives an answer that speaks volumes about what's important to him. "Outside of work I’m spending my time with the wife chasing a toddler, hanging with the border collie, or just sipping on bourbon".
Here is our conversation:
Kenny
As the founder of, and the driving force behind, the Norton Network, what do you think the future of Virginias grape is, both from the point of market demand and for its perception with consumers?
Jake
I would love to take all the credit for the Norton Network but I have to give Jill Smedley, our Marketing Manager, almost 90% of the credit. She's a marketing genius, a hard worker, dedicated, and a very silly person. She's created and manages the logistics of this crazy idea. Also, Jennifer McCloud is a big inspiration for this. She's spent the past 25 years keeping Norton on the radar and without her coaching, support, and passion, we could have never got this off the ground.
We've noticed that in the recent years, more of our guests are trying Norton and, in turn, becoming a fan. It seems to have piqued the interest of the new wine consumer as well as the seasoned wine lover. People are interested in a grape with an origin story that's wrapped mysteriously in American history. Norton was in the background of the American wine industry and was on track to be recognized as a world renown variety. In the recent months, producers and consumers alike are interested in the sustainability of farming Norton, the fantastic age worthy wines it produces, and the "underdog" vibe, it's truly "our" wine in America.
Kenny
What prompted you to start the Norton Network?
Jake
A joke. Jill and I were discussing how there's a holiday for everything nowadays...everything except for Norton. That lead to a discussion on how to start a national holiday. Turns out it's pretty easy, you send in an application, if there's enough general public interest then BAM! Holiday. From there, we started asking ourselves, "who actually makes Norton wine here in Virginia?" At the end of the day, there are around 26 growers in Virginia now, when at one time there were over 50 producers in NOVA alone. With that in mind, it became about representing the current producers, creating the outreach to consumers, and connecting all the producers together so we can represent this variety as a "network".
Kenny
With its distinctive flavor profile do existing styles of Norton offer a path to Vinifera drinkers or do new styles or blends need to be developed?
Jake
Chrysalis Vineyards has always conducted an experiment in the cellar on Norton during the harvest. It's ranged from double salt adjustments, exploring yeast strains, modified delestage techniques to remove seeds, to letting the fruit raisin on the vine. Those experiments have created a range of products for Chrysalis. Since starting the Norton Network, we've discovered that a lot of producers are doing different things ranging from extended barrel aging to blending with some of their best vinifera blocks. I personally believe that’s what makes Norton so special and provides the most relatable path for vinifera drinkers because it showcases terroir in Virginia. Every producer's Norton wine is so different, you've got more fruit forward Norton wines coming out of NOVA, classic rustic styles out of central, and bright acidity on the east coast. It does express the versatility of the grape but also the origin of the grower.
Kenny
As climatological challenges increase, do you see Norton as an answer for those wine regions heavily impacted?
Jake
Interestingly enough, yes. Norton was specifically designed to grow in Virginia by Dr. Norton because of Thomas Jefferson. We often overlook that putting this grape in the worst part of the vineyard has proven that this variety is capable of carrying the Virginia wine industry forward into the sustainability consideration coming from most consumers. It has always been sidelined to the bottom of the valley where the cold collects and the frost attacks, but has continued to grow, ripen, and make great wines in tough vintages. You will hear the long standing producers refer to Norton as "bullet proof" or free of disease in the vineyard, I don't think these folks realize they're proving that Norton is best suited for the climatological challenges.
Kenny
You are currently the head winemaker at Chrysalis, an iconic Virginia winery, working for a legend of the Virginia wine industry, Jenni McCloud. Do you feel pressure to perform to a higher than normal standard because of that?
Jake
I remember driving back after my interview with Jenni McCloud and my wife asked what I would get out of working at Chrysalis that I couldn't get out of working somewhere in NC, which was where we lived at the time. I told her that the only way I could ever be successful as a winemaker in this world was to work for someone who is more passionate about wine and more critical about what goes into the bottle then I am. I can sling wine all day long but creating good wine, that people want, that requires passion and dedication to the art and that's Jennifer McCloud.
Kenny
Besides Norton, what is your favorite variety to work with?
Jake
Viognier. I've fallen head over heels for Virginia Viognier. It's got so much depth and really humbles a winemaker because if it's made properly it's amazing but if your heart isn't in it, it won't be in the glass either.
Kenny
What do you see as Virginia's greatest strengths and weaknesses as a wine making region?
Jake
Virginia has such a foundational history in the American wine industry, for instance, the first planting of Albariño in America, the first commercial planting of Petit Manseng in America, Alan Kinne teaching America how to make Viognier, Dennis Horton bringing Norton back to Virginia. Virginia has always acted like an incubator for important mile stones in the wine industry. The weakness lies in the lack of spotlight for Virginia. Until recently, Virginia was in the background as an "up and coming wine region" well, now we are here and people are talking. Let's get loud with our accomplishments!
Kenny
What new winemaking trends and styles are you seeing? And are there any that you particularly welcome or dread?
Jake
I think there's a heavy exploration in skin contact for whites to add depth or complexity. Specifically with growers that aren't ripening their whites long enough on the vine. Rain is a scary thing and Virginia has a rough hurricane season, so, I get it. It's definitely not hurting the wines but it's been an adjustment for consumers. In the red category, I think consumers are realizing that Petit Verdot heavy blends are kind of one note, so I definitely dread the decidedly PV blends coming out right now. PV has huge viability in the vineyard but I think it's boring, personally.
Kenny
The Virginia wine industry is currently facing competition from cheap imported bulk wine, the destructive invasion of Spotted Lantern Fly, stagnant national wine sales and a worldwide glut of wine. What do you see as the single biggest threat to our industry?
Jake
Lack of connection. Right now, the industry seems to be wrapped up in the tried and true tasting room model. Come in, taste some wines, check out the venue, buy a bottle or have a glass, and then off to the next producer. In just the past 4 years, it's become difficult to connect with the consumer because we've forgot how to connect. The elephant in the room was COVID, it disconnected us, kept us home, and forced us all to find new hobbies before we were let out again. Consumers are back to exploring the world from different lenses, they've really become interested in "how is it made" and seem to be striving for a connection through that question. People really want to pull back the curtain and see the nitty gritty of the industry, they want to hear about how the wine is grown, what goes on in the cellar, and who is doing it.
Kenny
Other than yourself, who is your favorite Virginia winemaker, and why?
Jake
I have so many. I love everything that Dustin Miner is doing at Nokesville because it's this humble journey of winemaking that I have got the opportunity to be a part of. I'm a huge fan of Theo at Capstone because he's putting everything he's got into his wines and it shows. I adore Chelsey Blevins at 53d because her wines are sincere and honest expressions of her experience. To be honest, my favorite winemakers are the ones that express their passion in their wine, it's fun, it's honest, it creates a connection, and helps me improve.
Kenny
Where do you see yourself in 10 years?
Jake
Managing a teenager, convincing my wife I'm funny, and continuing to work with great producers such as yourself...and hopefully continuing to make wine.
Nancy Bauer
There are many things that drive an industry to success. Most are obvious, the hard work and perseverance of the various business owners, the availability and competence of the support businesses and, of course, the loyalty and patronage of the customer base. What isn't so obvious are the advocates. People who are more than customers. People whose only dog in the fight is the industry itself. Sometimes they are writers, sometimes bloggers/social media, sometimes just people who immerse themselves in everything that is that particular industry. Nancy Bauer is all three. There is no better friend to the Virginia Wine Industry. In the summer and fall of 2010, Nancy Bauer and her husband, Rick Collier, visited 150 Virginia wineries in 150 days and then launched Virginia Wine in My Pocket, one of the country's first travel apps. Nancy’s articles about Virginia wine country have appeared in many travel and lifestyle magazines, and she wrote and published two editions of the book, Virginia Wine Travel Journal. She’s the founder of the 18k-member Facebook group and website, Virginia Wine Love, and also the founder of the nonprofit Virginia Women in Wine. She was honored to receive the Atlantic Seaboard Winery Association's Birchenall Award for Wine Media. Here is our conversation.
Kenny White
Kenny
Having shown years of expertise on the subject my first question is do you have any formal wine training or education?
Nancy
The tiniest bit – I eked out my WSET level 2 from Capital Wine School. I was busy and a little cocky and didn’t bother to read the book before the big exam. One should definitely read the book.
Kenny
What wines, and styles of wine, are your personal favorites?
Nancy
I am an equal opportunity wine drinker. I tend to drink whatever someone talked about last. Last week I presented the Virginia Women in Wine Trailblazer award to Felicia Rogan and she said she never drank reds, and her favorite was Chardonnay. I drank Chardonnay for week. Oaked, steel, it doesn’t matter, I love it all. The week before that I was interviewing Melanie Natoli (the rose’ queen of Cana Vineyards) and she of course mentioned rose’ so that kicked off rose’ week.
Kenny
What was your first experience with Virginia wine and at what point did you realize you wanted to be an advocate for it?
Nancy
I got into wine when I was a server in college, and the guy at the liquor store told me to put down the Black Cat and buy a
Pouilly-Fuissé instead. It was all the rage at the time and it was fabulous – it completely changed how I viewed wine. My first Virginia wine was Horton Vineyards. I was blown away to see a wine made in Virginia in my Safeway. I used to buy their Viognier, Cab Franc, and even their Norton. I was vaguely aware there were wineries in Northern Virginia, too, but didn’t know how it worked – I don’t think I realized you could just go visit them. Then my employer bused our group out to Naked Mountain Winery for a private tasting one night and that kindled my interest. And then the flame was fully lit when my then boyfriend/now husband and I used to drive out to the old Piedmont Winery, sit in their Adirondack chairs, and split a bottle of Hunt Country Chardonnay. That’s when I decided I needed to be part of this.
Kenny
With your involvement as a writer, advocate and friend to all in Virginia wine I believe most industry insiders look at you as part of the industry. How do you feel about your place and would you want to change it?
Nancy
I’ve always felt a little guilty that I never worked at a winery. I feel like I haven’t really paid my dues, but I am (still) so enthralled with the industry and really love being around it, and that’s what drives me to contribute. The things I’ve done, many with my husband’s help, to promote Virginia wine were done to earn my place in the room.
Kenny
Can you tell us about the creation of the Virginia Wine Love Group, and how it has changed over time?
Nancy
My husband and I created the first travel app and consumer website for Virginia wine country, way back when, called Virginia Wine in My Pocket. A few years ago, I got rid of the app and rebranded the website Virginia Wine Love. Almost immediately, COVID happened. It was insane, with rules changing constantly for the wineries, and customers really wanting to know how to help. So I set up a Facebook group – which I had considered before but never ever wanted to do - with the highly elegant name of Support Virginia Wineries During Covid. The purpose was to help wineries communicate to all these customers. It really took off – who knew there were so many really ardent Virginia wine fans out there? And of course, we were in COVID, so there was plenty of time to drink. And after awhile, it just made sense to change the name to what it really represented – Virginia Wine Love.
Kenny
One of the hallmarks of the Virginia Wine Love Group is your insistence that things be kept positive. With thousands of members how do you balance that mandate of positivity while still allowing members to fully express their opinions?
Nancy
I thought it would be awful. Honestly. I had no desire to be the kindergarten teacher, or the enforcer. So I set the ground rules and tried to keep it light and take the time when people were rude to explain what the group was about, that our ethos was to support the wineries, and that Yelp was where to take the negativity. (One woman left the group because I used the word ethos. Which I don’t blame her for.) It was pretty Pollyannish, but I’m pretty Pollyannish. But very quickly the group members became the enforcers - I think everyone was tired and nervous and really needed a safe, positive place, so they took on the burden. I do work hard to not be ridiculous about the negativity – balanced discussion is good, but it can devolve pretty quickly.
Kenny
You are also the founder and the driving force behind Virginia Women in Wine. What is the mission of VWW and where do you hope to take it?
Nancy
VWW started as wine dinners that I put on once or twice a year to get together with women I really liked or wanted to get to know, to help build the community of women in the industry. Just for fun. But as the groups grew and – women being women – got loud, the energy in the room was just incredible, and people started telling me that it needed to become something more. That we needed to find a way to capture that energy. So I invited a bunch of them in to serve on the board and in six months we’d defined our purpose, got the thing launched, raised $50,000 in start-up funds (thank you, Founders and Patrons!), scheduled a bunch of networking events, and started work on several more big projects. We’re working to help the industry overall as well as women in the industry. It’s been busy, and we’re still finding our way, but it’s becoming clear that we can do big things quickly, and I think that will be what distinguishes us in the future.
Kenny
Virginia has some incredible women winery owners and winemakers. Do you feel the Virginia Wine industry has been properly inclusive to both women and other protected classes?
Nancy
In many ways, yes. I can really only speak to the women side of the question. Most wineries are co-owned by married couples, so women are very represented at the top levels. And tasting room staff is predominantly women. I do hear about pay inequities among male and female winemakers. One of Virginia Women in Wine’s projects is a white paper called Closing the Gender Gap in Winemaking, and that’s one of things we’re talking to people about – that only 17% of winemakers in Virginia are female. That’s about the same as the national average, but we want to understand it better. Why wouldn’t there be more? We’ll be publishing that paper in January.
Kenny
If you had to select three Virginia wineries that, as a group, would represent everything good about Virginia wine, what three would you choose?
Nancy
That’s an impossible question! But I love it. Let’s see. First would be Granite Heights in Fauquier County – I love them so much. Toni and Luke Kilyk. Very nice wines, and the two of them do it all, all the vineyard and winemaking work, and in the tasting room all weekend, while they both hold down full time jobs outside the winery. On the other end of the spectrum is Veritas Vineyards, owned by the Hodson family. Highly polished, diversified into hospitality with lodging and fine dining, a growing sparkling wine operation. They’re a tourism magnet – top notch. And for the third, I’ll say Bluestone Vineyards in the Shenandoah Valley because their winemaker, Lee Hartman, is a wild man. Incredibly enthusiastic and curious. He does wine in cans, wine in kegs. He currently has 27 wines for sale, including wines he partnered on and some that are very experimental. And the winery itself, which is run by the Hartman family, never stops growing.
Kenny
Can you describe a time you may have had to convince a wine snob of the quality of Virginia wine?
Nancy
Oh lord, how about last week, on a cruise in Portugal? I happened to be sitting with people from Virginia, who made the sniffy “Virginia wine has gotten better but it still has a long way to go” commentary. So of course then you have to start the drill-down – what’s the last wine you had? What else have you tried? What didn’t you like about it? And of course it’s been ten years since they tried one. It’s nice that the Monticello region received that wine region of the year honor from Wine Enthusiast this year – that’s good ammunition.
Kenny
What do you find most rewarding about being one of the leading advocates of the Virgia wine industry?
Nancy
I think the correct answer here is to say that the continued success of the Virginia wine industry is reward enough. But I really love the free wine! And I love being in the room. Wine people are smart and quirky and funny and hard working and they have the best dogs, and none of them talk about spreadsheets or mission statements. But yes, seriously, talking Virginia wine now is very different than twenty years ago – now you’re very likely to get a highly positive response and lots of sharing stories about favorites wines and wineries. That feels really good. It makes me happy.