By Tina Caputo
Before August 12, the town of Charlottesville was known to many as a charming college town in northwest Virginia, surrounded by green rolling hills, lush vineyards and some of the state’s best wineries. That idyllic image changed when a white supremacist rally turned violent, resulting in the murder of one counter-protester and injuries to dozens of others.
While many shops and restaurants along Charlottesville’s pedestrian mall reported a downturn in business during the tragedy’s aftermath, local wineries have been largely unaffected from a tourism standpoint.
Virginia wineries attract 2.2 million visitors each year, and Charlottesville is a popular home base for tourists visiting the 33 wineries along the Monticello Wine Trail.
“The violence happened in the downtown area and (the effects) didn’t seem to spill over to the wineries,” says Annette Ringwood Boyd, director of the Virginia Wine Board Marketing Office.
The only negative response she’s seen so far has been a nasty email sent to the wine board’s general mail box declaring, “Virginia wine is Nazi wine.” It didn’t faze her. “We get some kind of crazy message about once a quarter,” she says, “so this wasn’t the first.”
Even so, local vintners were deeply affected by the protest violence, and many took to social media to express their feelings of dismay and hope. One winemaker posted a Facebook message inviting people in need of a place to go to come to his winery, adding the caveat, “Except Nazis. You have no place here.”
Christine Vrooman, owner of Ankida Ridge Vineyards in Amherst, wrote and posted a heartfelt poem on the winery’s Facebook page that was “liked” and shared by dozens of fellow vintners. “The Charlottesville wine community is a tightly knit group, and we are saddened and shocked,” she says. “I truly haven’t given any thought to the effect this might have on tasting room traffic. It seems so insignificant in the face of such a serious time.”
“I personally don’t fear that people will stay away,” she adds. “In fact, those committed to equality, human rights and love for their fellow man might even find themselves wanting to visit, to somehow be a part of that cause.”
Charlottesville’s downtown association is already working on a new marketing campaign with the tagline, “Charlottesville Stands for Love.”
