A blend of imagination at Va La

Safe to say there are few wineries nationally, let alone regionally, as unique as Va La Vineyards in Avondale, Pa. For one, they grow their own grapes over a modest seven acres, producing between 1200 to 1400 cases per vintage. And you won’t find a varietal in the house. They’re all blends, with names that range from Cedar to Patina to Silk to Cristallo. You won’t find any name you recognize in this place, except the foods they put out to accompany the drink.

Anthony Vietri, the winemaker and owner, said recently that there’s no science to naming these wines. “They usually name themselves,” he said. “Our philosophy, I guess, at Va La, the whole idea of what we’re trying to do there is just take this little piece of dirt and discover what the ingredients are to do the best that we can and make something really unique, and hopefully, eventually, make something a little bit special from the little piece of dirt. To us, the varieties are not very important and it’s the wines, you know, I kind of have in my head that I want to make, and whatever it takes to do that that’s what it ends up being.

“So, the names, it’s just, um, I don’t know where they come from,” he said, then breaking out into a laugh, “They just come out of the sky.”

That’s from being beneath the sky, working the vines and grapes with a zest throughout the spring and summer. It led Vietri into telling a story about one particular vine that has a beginning but no end, at least at this point.

“You know, you work with a wine for a couple of years before you even put it out,” he said. “And it’s more than that because . . . I can give you an example: We grow certain things and one of them I can’t actually tell you what it is because I signed [an agreement]. Those little guys, I was just in those rows today, as a matter of fact. Like with something like that, there was a variety that I had really wanted to see how it would work with what we were trying to do. All the varieties are selected that way, that’s how we selected them, kind of like cooking. The varieties are, simply, to us, ingredients, and you have an idea of what each ingredient will bring to the table, or to the pan, so to speak, but you don’t know that until you get it in the ground for sure, but you have an idea. And, so, there was this one variety that I was interested in and it did not exist in the United States. So it took me two years to come to the conclusion that it was an impossible thing to get. . . . so long story short, I had made some contacts with people across the Internet. Heard a rumor that [University of California] - Davis had this vine, but they weren’t saying it was this vine. That it was a misidentified variety and an expert was walking through their vineyard and they said, ‘Oh that’s not what you’re calling it, I think it’s this other variety,’ and it was the variety I was looking for.

“So then I called UC Davis. I tracked down what clone it was and what variety and then I called UC Davis and made friends with somebody on the phone. I said, ‘Listen I’d really like to get some of that wood.’ And they’re like, ‘Well, it’s on hold, you can’t have it’ and I’m like, “Look, I’m not going to hold you responsible. I’ll sign whatever documents you want. I know its not the variety you have in your documentation so I’m going into this completely eyes wide open.’ And they said, eventually, ‘OK,’ and I got it, got it grafted and then, anyway, that’s 10 years, and we still haven’t made a drop of wine out of it yet. And there’s a very good chance that, in three years, if I’m able to pick some of it this year that I’ll taste it and go, no, it doesn’t work.” He chuckled, then paused. “So that’s kind like just the way things go, just the way the kind of path that we’ve chosen and so we accept that, and so every year I’m pulling things out and adding new ones in because we only have the seven acres, so there’s not much room there.”

Vietri said that, in general, the grapes they use in their wines come from their own vineyard, going into a bit more detail on the reasons for that in the following short recorded segment. To summarize, they rely on their own grapes because “the ingredients that we are seeking most of the time are not out there yet.”

Chat with him for a few minutes and you understand why the Web site provides lessons sprinkled with humor. It parallels our conversation: A serious explanation followed by a self-deprecating comment. According to the site . . .”The barrel cellar is constructed underground in order to obtain the optimum temperature and humidity for aging our wines. Plus it makes a wonderful bomb shelter.”

No question they’ve needed that humor as well as patience, not only to fashion these blends but welcome an audience that is used to sampling Chardonnay and Chambourcin, not Sirenetta and La Prima Donna. “We just kind of knew,” Vietri explained in this second recorded segment, “that the public perception thing was going to be a difficult task and that we would just have to work at it with them one on one.

“It’s exciting to have somebody say, ‘Oh, I never of that variety, I really like that,’” Vietri said. “’Or I’ve never heard of such a blend, I really think that’s interesting.’ That’s a, god, just gives you goose bumps sometimes. It’s very fun and exciting to see that.”

An Allegro update

Ideally I'll get to the point with this blog where I reach out to wineries and receive a response within 24 hours. That would enhance my ability to get news out to you and give you a better feel of everyday life at the winery. Oh, well. That obviously will take some time.

So it makes me more appreciative when the turnaround does occur quickly. Carl Helrich, my first blog interviewee and a valued supporter of what I'm trying to do, chimed in with an answer to my question about how things were going at his Allegro Vineyards in The Brogue, in southcentral Pennsylvania.

Wrote Helrich:

Our vineyard is in the best shape it's ever been. Things are really moving along with the rain from two weeks ago and the subsequent heat. Crop levels look good. We're going through bloom right now, and we have more than enough clusters to work with. In a week or so we'll start pulling leaves. From there we'll assess the crop load and start to drop clusters.

In the winery, we're moving wines through, getting tanks empty before harvest. We'll start pulling wines from barrels in a couple weeks and start making blends. We have numerous barrels that are of a quality level that we can take them a second year in barrel. Sometime this summer, we'll bottle our 2006 Cadenza (our flagship reserve red). We'll also release our Dry Rose (from Cab Franc from Twin Brook). We already have our Riesling out. Later this fall we'll release our first Sangiovese and our second Pinot Noir.

We've opted out of the entertainment business as well. We used to run a hugely successful Chef Series (for about 15 years.) I found that it really interfered with my real raison d'etre, which is winemaking, from vine to glass. We are doing the Split Rock wine Festival this weekend. There'll be about 25 wineries there, I think.

Paradocx set to open new tasting room

Paradocx Vineyard in Landenberg, Pa., will be having a grand opening celebration of its Flint Hill Road Winery & Tasting Room. The celebration will begin this Friday and extend through Sunday. Hours Saturday and Sunday are scheduled to be noon to 8. Admission is free and you'll receive a complimentary glass of wine.

Food by Brandywine Prime or Carlino’s Market plus wine by the glass and bottle will be available for purchase Saturday and Sunday, along with live music and hayrides through the vineyard.

That tasting room also will be used for wine and accessory sales, special events, concerts, private parties and weddings. You can find directions to the tasting room at this link.