(mellow music) >>So I'm here today at Chatham Winery with John Wehner who with his wife Mills, owns this beautiful property.

So John, tell us a little bit about the property, your wines.

>>I can't wait to hear.

>>Sure.

Yeah, it's a great story, actually the farm itself is 400 years old.

>>Oh, wow.

>>Yes, the oldest contiguous court records in America are in Eastville.

And this farm dates back to 1640.

>>Oh my gosh.

>>Yes, the home Chatham was built in 1818 during the Federal period.

And my mother and father bought Chatham in 1979.

And we're originally from Fairfax County from Great Falls where my parents had an experimental vineyard there in the seventies and eighties.

>>Wow.

>>And my wife and I moved here in the late nineties and started planting vineyards in 99.

So it's hard to believe we have vineyards over 20 years old now.

>>Oh, that is incredible.

And you know, when I look at them, the grapes, as I see your grape clusters, it seems like you're probably a couple of weeks ahead of where people are more toward Richmond and Charlottesville.

>>Right, so right now we are at fruit set, and you'll see everything is green, so it's pre-veraison.

So veraison is the next stage, and that's when the grapes convert the harsh tartaric acid to sugar and they begin to color.

>>Yeah, yeah.

>>So from veraison we're about two months from harvest.

So typically we begin harvesting first, second week in September.

>>Well, let's talk about some of your wines.

>>Sure, sure.

So this first wine is our steel fermented chardonnay.

And so I've been making steel fermented chardonnay since 2004.

>>Wow!

>>And actually, my mother came up with this idea because we were doing blending trials and I had barrel samples, traditional chardonnay, oak-aged.

And we tasted them and they were very nice, but we all gravitated towards this unoaked fermented entirely in stainless steel >>chardonnay.

>>Fresh.

Yeah.

>>So this is fresh, it's crisp, it's a seafood wine.

And we're very much of a seafood culture here on Virginia's eastern shore.

The famous Cherrystone Creek is just a few creeks away from here.

And so we're one of the largest clamming industries in the world, we also have a very large oyster industry and fishing here.

My son who just finished his freshman year at JMU is a captain and he does charters outta Cape Charles- >>Oh, wow!

>>with Tidewater Charters.

>>Wow!

>>And so this is a big area for seafood.

So this is our seafood wine, and- >>Yeah, yeah.

Well, and you were ahead of the curve, you know, when I think about 2004, almost everybody was going for that rich, buttery malolactic.

>>Sure, sure, sure.

>>Yeah.

>>So this doesn't go through malolactic, so we do a cold fermentation and then sterile filtered and bottled within nine months.

So it's very fresh, it's very crisp.

And what's so interesting about the chardonnay vineyards is they're over 20 years old and they're first generation French clones.

>>Oh, wow.

>>So we have French Dijon clones.

So it produces this wine with this great citrus, you get sort of a nice crisp green apple, and it's just delicious.

Wonderful with particularly, oysters.

>>Oh, I can imagine.

Well, let's try it.

>>Sure.

We actually have a mile of waterfront in front of Chatham and we lease the shoreline out to oyster producers, and over a million oysters are grown at Chatham.

So this is our oyster wine.

And the first weekend in November, we do a big oyster roast, an oyster festival, so.

>>Oh my gosh.

>>Cheers.

>>Cheers.

(glasses clink) Mm, boy.

Oh, that's so good.

>>It's very recognizable.

>>It is.

>>The other thing that's so interesting about this wine, our soils, we're growing in marine deposits, so this is ocean bed basically.

And 32 million years ago a meteor hit the mouth of the bay and fragmented these soils.

So we have a lot of bleached out oyster shells and all kinds of marine deposits.

>>Right.

>>And the soils here are very deep, some of these vineyards, the roots go down to about 12 feet to the iron ore, which is the beginning stages of gravel.

So you get this really interesting minerality, but you also get sort of a saline character.

>>Yeah, I was getting that a little bit.

Yeah.

>>Right.

So you can see how it pairs beautifully.

>>With seafood.

(both laugh) >>That is perfect.

>>And I think it's the most expressive wine that we produce because it really tastes like Virginia's eastern shore.

>>It does.

>>And more specifically Chatham.

>>Oh, yeah.

Yeah, it's really, the aroma on it, the bouquet, it's just beautiful.

And then on the palate, my tongue is just dancing right now with the minerality, the salination, it's just beautiful.

>>Yeah, it's a wonderful wine.

>>Mm, that is incredible.

So John, we have a little bit of your cab Franc, tell me a little bit about this grape.

>>Yeah.

So this is Cabernet Franc, we planted in 2007, and it's French clone 214.

So this whole vineyard is first generation French clones.

>>Wow!

>>And what I love about it, it has this nice sort of raspberry and bright cherry.

The fruit's really bright, the aromatics are classic Cabernet Franc.

It has very fine tannins, very fine tannic texture.

It's such a versatile food wine, it's why Cabernet Franc is so popular.

(Tassie sniffs at the wine) >>This is amazing, the bouquet on it is just beautiful.

And the flavors, just when they hit my tongue, it's just classic.

>>Classic.

>>Cabernet Franc.

I love it, mm.

>>So what you're tasting is good viticulture, tasting all the work that takes place in the vineyard.

>>Yeah.

>>We have over 21 acres, so we produce about 75 tons a year.

>>Yeah.

Well, John, to chatter.

>>Cheers!

(glasses clink) Thank you so much for having us and for letting us share these wonderful wines.

>>My pleasure, it's wonderful to have you here.

>>Thank you.

>>Cheers.

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