From wine to juice: Oakencroft pioneering again

Oakencroft Winery spent 25 years churning out well-received wines as one of the pioneers of winemaking in Central Virginia. From 1982 until 2008, when the property sold, Philip Ponton planted, pruned, harvested and fermented grapes from 14 acres of vines on the Garth Road property.

When the winery was purchased in 2009 by John and Amy Griffin, University of Virginia alums who live and work in New York City, that all changed. First, eight acres of old vines were uprooted.

Then, Ponton and fellow winemaker Warren McLellan were asked to switch from making full-strength alcoholic wines to alcohol-free, child-friendly artisan grape juice.

Ponton said the change was made in part because artisan grape juice is a new and very small market.

“The impetus behind [the change] was that it was something new, something that nobody was doing,” Ponton said. “There are only four or five other places that are doing this.”

The juice is made from grapes traditionally used to make wine, but Ponton was told to skip the key step in making wine: fermentation. Instead, the new owners installed pasteurization and bottling equipment to allow their juice makers to create a non-alcoholic product.

Oakencroft Farm, as the property is now known, makes juice from three grapes that are a hybrid of the vitis vinifera variety, a European grape species used in a wide range of red and white wines, and North American grapes that are hardier than vinifera grapes. By planting hardier grapes, McLellan said, the winery is able to run a more environmentally friendly operation, as the hybrids require fewer pesticides than straight viniferas.

“We changed to a hybrid grape from a vinifera because we’re trying to run this thing a little cleaner,” he said. “Our whole spray program is less aggressive now, and we’ve cut back to six acres of vines.”

McLellan said finding the right balance between sugar content and ripeness of the grapes has been one of the biggest challenges he has faced in the change to grape juice.

Grapes that will be used for wine, he said, are harvested at peak ripeness, when they have the highest sugar content. The sugars in the grapes are eventually changed to alcohol by yeasts during the fermentation process.

With juice grapes, though, waiting that long would produce juice so sweet it would be undrinkable. But not letting the grapes ripen enough means they won’t achieve the desired flavor.

“It’s a little tricky because you’re trying to get to the point where those flavors are there, but not wait any longer when they’re too sweet,” McLellan said.

Even picking earlier in the season, Ponton and McLellan said they add both natural citric acid and water to the juice before bottling it to help mitigate some of its sweetness.

The effort so far seems to be paying off, Ponton said. Not only are McLellan and Ponton pleased with their final product, the juice has been getting good reviews at tastings and festivals around the state, including the wine festival at Monticello.

“What we’ve found is that people are kind of surprised by it, and usually buy it immediately,” Ponton said of the juice, which retails for about $10 a bottle.

The difference between this juice and a product like Welch’s, McLellan said, is the care that goes into its production, and the fact that the flavor characteristics of each grape variety come through much more clearly.

“What we’re talking about is a product that has gone through a much more careful production process than bulk grape juice,” he said, adding that several wineries in the area have begun stocking the juice in their tasting rooms for designated drivers.

“This is for people who like the taste of grapes and want a more elegant non-alcoholic drink,” Ponton said.

Oakencroft owner Amy Griffin said she is excited to be a part of the Charlottesville community, and hopes Oakencroft will eventually serve as an example of sustainable agriculture.

“I know Charlottesville like the back of my hand, because I spent my four college years there, and I love Charlottesville. The products help us feel like more of a part of the community,” Griffin said. “What we have learned is how to be good stewards of the land, and by doing that we can show other communities that they can do the same thing, and that was a fun challenge to rise to.”

As well as making grape juice, Oakencroft has begun raising beef cattle, which are fenced away from streams on the property so they don’t hurt water quality. Somewhere down the road, McLellan said, the farm hopes to begin producing grass-fed beef.

For Griffin, owning Oakencroft is all about community and agriculture.

“We took on the property first for conservation issues, and second because we love the idea of having a farm on the outskirts of Charlottesville,” she said.

Making grape juice comes from another place.

“We have three kids, and they’re small and do sports and they’re active and we’re family oriented and clean-living ... It wasn’t that we were trying to corner the market or anything like that,” Griffin said.