Word that the acclaimed RdV Vineyards in Northern Virginia was being acquired by a Bordeaux powerhouse may have shocked the Virginia wine world, but it hasn’t shaken the operation at the center of the story.
Although founder Rutger de Vink stepped back in June and the Delaplane winery’s name (de Vink’s initials) will change to Lost Mountain, some key elements will remain the same. Founding winemaker Joshua Grainer (a master of wine) and the RdV team will stay and continue to focus on creating one wine style exceptionally well, Grainer says. (Lost Mountain is the name of the vineyard’s premier wine, a Bordeaux-style red blend of estate-grown cabernet sauvignon, cabernet franc, petit verdot, and merlot.)
“We’re going to continue to focus on wine and keep these high-touch, high-quality reservations open for folks to come out and discover us,” Grainer says. “But I’d also like to make the world a little bit more aware of us. In the future, I’m going to be looking to carve out, not in massive quantities, but whatever I can from this hillside, to continue to get wines a little further in terms of our reach.” The team is also experimenting with white varietals, including Albariño, sémillon, and petit manseng.
The Bouygues family now owns the vineyard. The family owns several wineries including Château Montrose, a second-growth Bordeaux vineyard. They’ll add RdV, their first vineyard outside of France, to a group known as Eutopia Estates, and Charlotte Bouygues will oversee the Virginia property’s operations. After visiting Eutopia’s sister wineries in France, Grainer is confident he and his team can maintain the identity of the property. He hopes the purchase might do for Virginia wine what the Rothschild family did for Napa Valley when it partnered with the Mondavi family to create Opus One.
“I’m hoping that exact same seed can kind of be the trajectory for the region,” Grainer says. He notes that the Bouygues family could have bought a vineyard anywhere in the world, “and they looked at Virginia and said, ‘Yeah, I think this not only has the quality that we’re looking for, but in light of climate change, and the future of wine growing, we think that this is a good place to be.’ Hopefully that gets the entire state very excited by it.”
Frank Morgan, who writes about wine for several publications and is the head judge for the Virginia Governor’s Cup wine competition, emphasizes the significance of the RdV team staying in place for continuity and says the sale “brings some validation to Virginia.” He adds, “I just think it’s important. At some point, Virginia has to move out of being called an emerging region. … Virginia is an established small region producing world-class wines, and I think this helps.”
Feature image of RdV Vineyards by Jeff Mauritzen
This story originally ran in our September issue. For more stories like this, subscribe to Northern Virginia Magazine.
