Dave Matthews and Brad McCarthy Take a Unique and Minimalist Approach at Blenheim Vineyards

Virginia Wine Gazette (Volume 6.2, Spring 2002)
By Brendan Kelleher, Contributing Writer

At 35 years old, winemaker Brad McCarthy can hardly be called a founding father of Virginia wine, but with fifteen vintages currently under his belt, he has experienced more of the growing process than nearly anyone else in his field.

Blenheim Vineyards, one of Charlottesville's latest wineries, is his new baby, providing him the opportunity to create a unique winemaking process using the aggregate knowledge of his years of work in the Commonwealth and beyond.

However, instead of utilizing this favorable situation to manufacture a distinct mark on a vintage, McCarthy is choosing a more radical path, one that is a departure for himself and the local industry in general. At Blenheim, Brad McCarthy plans to let the wine speak for itself.

Duner's Restaurant, just west of Charlottesville, is not exactly a breeding ground for winemakers. But two decades ago, that is where you would have found Brad McCarthy, cooking full-time and tasting wine on the side. But a taste was all he needed to recognize his future. A native of Charlottesville, Brad soon joined the Virginia wine industry in 1988 at Montdomaine Cellars. Doing odd jobs and working in the tasting room of this Charlottesville vineyard, McCarthy discovered winemaking as the perfect vehicle for his love of wine. This passion soon led him westward to California and Acacia Winery, where he started as harvest help but was eventually hired as a full-time winery employee. His dedication and extra effort in all aspects of winemaking convinced his superiors of his future in the field. Some in the Virginia industry also noted McCarthy's intense love of wine, and after a vintage out West, he returned to become assistant winemaker at Horton Vineyards, the offspring of Montdomaine.

But it was not until Mr. and Mrs. Antony Champ, looking for a new winemaker for their White Hall Vineyards, took a chance on a 28-year old McCarthy that he finally got to put his personal stamp on Virginia wine. This move also brought McCarthy home to Charlottesville.

"I credit the Champs with really giving me my break in winemaking," says McCarthy, who began his work at White Hall in 1994. Though Champ is himself a former chemical engineer, experience useful in making wine, he allowed McCarthy's creative skill to drive the process. For the next seven years, McCarthy proceeded to make a name for himself with big, fully oaked Chardonnays and balanced reds unfiltered and unfined. This latter effort to "handle the wine as little as possible" offers a glimpse into McCarthy's current philosophical incarnation.

Andrew Hodson, owner of the soon-to-open Veritas Vineyards near Charlottesville, met McCarthy during his White Hall tenure. Hodson was so impressed that he hired McCarthy to supervise his first vintage, due out this year. What makes McCarthy special is that he works from "creative skill rather than technical background," says Hodson. "His winemaking skills are intuitive."

This intuition, mixed with a bit of luck, helped McCarthy turn White Hall into a success and prepared him for the Blenheim venture. But it is his relationship with longtime friend Dave Matthews, musician and co-owner of Blenheim, which landed him at his present station.

Matthews, a Charlottesville resident, was toying with the idea of a vineyard two years ago, and presented the plan to Brad McCarthy for critique. McCarthy, excited for the possibility of the new project, sketched out on paper a rough drawing of the potential winery. Come to find out, his drawing nearly mirrored Matthews', a coincidence neither could ignore. McCarthy signed on as winemaker, Matthews agreed to construct a winery complex, and with the backing of a world-renowned musician, Blenheim Vineyards was born. "David was involved in the early stages, but he won't have any input in the winemaking process," remarks McCarthy. With Matthews as somewhat of a patron for the venture, McCarthy has found an ideal environment to make wine "how [he] wants to do it." That, in broad strokes, means a more intense effort at affecting the grapes as little as possible during the winemaking process, taking his White Hall work a step further.

Specifically, McCarthy plans on using gravity flow instead of pumping during the winemaking process. With less intense methods of transport, whole-fruit fermentation has become a tantalizing option for the coming years at Blenheim. While many winemakers believe that the difference between intense pumping and gravity flow is minimal at best, McCarthy is convinced that removing much of the "deus ex machina" aspect of winemaking renders a purer product.This philosophy pervades all aspects of work at Blenheim, from harvesting to the labels on the bottles, labels that will bear the name of the single vineyard from which they were produced. McCarthy wants to remain true to the grapes he uses, but the methods used at Blenheim are only as useful as the facility itself. Luckily, Matthews has spared little expense on the physical project.

Just south of Charlottesville, off of routes 20 and 53, you can see a surprising number of vinifera vines peppering the pastures and cornfields outside your car window. These are not Brad McCarthy's vines. You have to push deeper into the central Virginia hills to find the private farm upon which lies Blenheim Vineyards. From the roadside, it is not at all evident that a vineyard even exists on the property. But hidden down an old dirt drive lie young vines and a brand-new, state-of-the-art winery designed by artisanal builders Tim Smith and Willie Johnson. Down that drive you will also find McCarthy's tools for his low-impact winemaking and an assembly line that runs on gravity.

Blenheim boasts four acres of mostly third-year vines, with three different varietals included therein. McCarthy has made a name for himself on the merits of his Chardonnays, and this effort will be no different. Still, he has also planted Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot in the hopes of producing a Meritage in the coming years. Yet, with three varietals dispersed among but four acres of vines, McCarthy appears, on the surface, relegated to small production. This is where his philosophy comes to play. Instead of producing all his own grapes, McCarthy's efforts will be focused on purchasing the majority of his fruit from elsewhere in the Commonwealth. With fruit from vineyards like King, Merriweather, and Redlands he plans to create single-vineyard wines that reflect the marriage of his techniques with the styles of the individual owners.

There is also a drive toward purchasing grapes by the acre rather than by the traditional ton, a trend that McCarthy hopes will let vineyard owners concentrate on quality rather than quantity of fruit. And in order to allow each vineyard's characteristics to shine through, McCarthy and the builders have created a winery that attempts to imprint little extra on the grapes themselves. A tall A-frame with a bright copper roof, Blenheim's winemaking facility has been built onto the side of a hill, allowing for a downhill process requiring little work. At its highest point, the fruit is received and dropped onto a concrete crush-pad below. From there the must is racked into fermentation tanks lying yet another level down.This continual downward movement allows McCarthy to eliminate pumps, devices which he believes can sometimes "do more harm than good" to a grape. It also introduces the possibility of whole-fruit fermentation, another ingredient in McCarthy's attempt to let the wine speak for itself.

Though the choice of gravitational flow as opposed to pumping grapes is one more often seen in the West Coast regions of Napa and Sonoma, it is not completely out of character for McCarthy after his tour of duty at Acacia. That Canernos, California winery, known for its single-vineyard wines, also helped provide some inspiration for this aspect of Blenheim. But the aging process is where McCarthy departs from his West Coast counterparts, as well as from his own past history. Though he has aged wines in oak throughout his career, up to this point he has primarily preferred new barrels. This has led some critics to remark that his Chardonnays and other whites are too heavily oaked. Blenheim's single-vineyard wines, however, have been aging since September in almost exclusively used barrels. McCarthy hopes this choice will render the wine more true to its individual origins, another key element of his low impact winemaking philosophy. The barrels at this time hold several different single-vineyard Chardonnays, Merlots, and a Meritage, due to be released this summer (whites) and fall (reds). Blenheim's wines, however, cannot be experienced within the confines of a tasting room. Though the upper floor of the winery does boast a tasting bar, the building will be used for private events only, a decision based on the high-profile status of the vineyard's co-owner. But McCarthy's status in Virginia as a top-flight winemaker will surely render this seemingly small and inconspicuous vineyard a favorite in wine shops across the state.

Blenheim mirrors McCarthy and his philosophy. With an emphasis on quality and a disregard for production quantity, McCarthy is creating a style that is "distinctly Virginia." Along with his fellow Virginia winemakers, he hopes to buoy wine from the Old Dominion to a level equal to other famous regions of the nation. For McCarthy, who has worked from the ground up in the evolution of local winemaking, this is a most exciting time. "It's fascinating to be actively involved in such a growing, dynamic industry. But it takes a lifetime." With the opening of Blenheim Vineyards, Brad McCarthy's successful lifetime of winemaking rolls on.

To contact McCarthy, email brad@blenheimvineyards.com or check out the web site at www.blenheimvineyards.com. The winery will not be open to the public, but wines can be purchased through McCarthy.

Reprinted with permission from The Virginia Wine Gazette. The Gazette is published quarterly by Recorder Publishing Co. and is available at Virginia wineries and wine retailers.