You may recognize Lance Lemon from wine tastings around town or Richmond Times-Dispatch events. But he wants you to know that first and foremost, he’s an actor. “My passion has always been acting. That’s the dream and the goal I have for myself,” he says.

Lemon studied acting and cinematography at the University of Virginia and he’s been in films like “Loving” (2016) and local commercials. Pursuing one dream also helped him discover another. When he moved to New York to seek bigger roles, he also got a day job at a wine distributor and fell in love with wine and entrepreneurship.

Back in Richmond, he teamed up with Kristen Gardner Beal to launch RichWine natural wine delivery service in 2020 and Penny’s Wine Shop and restaurant in 2022. While starting RichWine, Lemon also worked in the tasting room at Early Mountain Vineyards. “I’m a big supporter of Virginia wine,” he says. “And I’ve tried to put myself in different places to learn more about Virginia wine with different winemakers and wineries.”

Recently, he teamed up with friend and fellow wine expert Reggie Leonard to launch the Parallax Project wines as part of Commonwealth Crush’s incubator program in Waynesboro, Va. Lemon describes Parallax as “a different perspective and different way of viewing things. We wanted to focus on hybrids and also vinifera grapes, and we knew we wanted to make a red and a white out of the same grapes. So hence, the parallax effect.” The Parallax Project wines are currently available at Penny’s.

If that’s not enough, Lemon also works for the Richmond-Times Dispatch as a new business development specialist, finding new leads and planning events. “It’s allowed me get involved with other organizations and to tell the story of Richmond,” he says.

For Lemon, continuing to embrace new opportunities is just who he is. “I know we live a short life. And I just don’t want to leave anything behind,” he says. “Do it with a passion or don’t do it at all. It’s a motto I live by.”