Oenophile, dough-maker and Pizza Bones owner Ashley Patino is hoping to break down the mystique of low-intervention wine.
Patino hosts weekly tastings at her popular Church Hill pizza shop, and each Thanksgiving folks can forgo turkey in favor of Patino’s larger scale “Bonesgiving” natural wine tasting and celebration.
This April, Patino approached local wine importers and distributors Native Selections, Second Bottle shop owner Erin Keene and Sub Rosa’s Evrim Dogu about hosting a Richmond wine fair.
“It evolved quickly,” she says.
The team was hoping to gather a strong group of 10-ish wine producers who would zip into the River City for a tasting event. Instead, 35 producers from Virginia to Lebanon will be vending all afternoon at the Institute for Contemporary Art at Virginia Commonwealth University on Sunday, Nov. 12, pouring more than 100 wines at the aptly named inaugural fair, Encounter.
“With the name, the premise is that people might be coming into contact with wines they’re unfamiliar with,” says Patino.
If the buzz phrase ‘natural wine’ makes you turn crimson with “What if I say the wrong thing?” fear not. There are no alien queries here – Patino understands that the wine world is sometimes wrapped in shadowy enigmas.
“These events are often geared toward industry professionals,” she says. “I wanted something targeted to curious consumers. Education is a huge component.”
Tickets are $45 for the tasting (open 1 p.m.-5 p.m.) or $55 for the tasting plus educational panel. During the event, guests can purchase bread from Sub Rosa, oysters from Alewife and hots and brats from The Mayor Meats.
The panel takes place from 2 p.m. – 3:30 p.m. in the ICA auditorium and features a stellar lineup of wine experts.
Attendees will hear from Lee Campbell of Virginia Winery Incubator Commonwealth Crush; Patois Cider owners Patrick Collins and Danielle LeCompte; vineyard worker and consultant Tim Jordan; sommelier and past wine director of Noma (which closes at the end of 2024) Mads Kleppe; the “queen” of natural wine, writer and journalist Alice Feiring; and Jesse Goldstein, an associate professor of sociology at VCU.
According to Patino, the two things that set Encounter apart from other events like it are a focus on education and a “tangible connection.”
Encounter’s vendors will be selling a limited number of bottles. If you are in love with a certain wine, you need not hold it in your heart as merely a fond memory—you can take your beloved home with you.
“It happens all the time, even to me as a wine professional,” says Patino “I’ll go to these events and won’t be able to take home what I’ve tasted.”
In addition to Sunday’s fest, there will be more than a dozen satellite events happening at restaurants and venues around town on Saturday. Free events include tastings with Botanist and Barrel at Union Market, Patois and Troddenvale cider at Afterglow and bubbles from Clos Lentiscus and Vinyes Singulars at Sefton Coffee Co.
Patino hopes that events like Encounter, and the domino effect of other businesses jumping in to be part of the natural wine weekend, will help to lure producers out of New York.
“When creating this event, I was thinking ‘How do we get producers to come to Richmond?’ they’re often hesitant,” says Patino. “But when they do come, they love it and want to return.”
Richmond’s inaugural natural wine fair, Encounter Wine Fair, takes place Sunday Nov. 12 from noon to 5 p.m. at the Institute for Contemporary Art. Tickets can be purchased online; tasting tickets are $45 and tasting + seminar tickets are $55. Check out the full schedule of satellite events online.
Correction: We updated that Noma is not shuttered yet but will close at the end of 2024.
