Tasting the Wines in the August 2026 Walsh Winegrowing Society Allocation

   Each quarter, the Walsh Winegrowing Society receives an allocation of wines chosen by our production team. The allocations include club-only bottlings, pre-releases, and general releases. We strive to match wines with the season (heavy reds in the winter; fresh whites in the summer, etc), and also with what is hitting its stride in bottle.

   Our core team tastes the wines prior to each shipment to be sure we’re pleased with releases and to provide tasting notes.

The August 2026 Walsh Winegrowing Allocation

Walsh Family Wine 2025 Albariño

Walsh Family Wine 2024 Bethany Ridge Viognier

Walsh Family Wine 2022 What Will The Women Drink

Notes for this release:

• The 2025 Albariño is a blend of two sites and is in short supply. For the second vintage, low yields forced us to combine albariño from Hickory Wind and Bethany Ridge. Despite combining blocks, the total quantity is still low. This wine will be released to the club and will not be available elsewhere.
• The 2024 Bethany Ridge Viognier is a “return to hedonism” vintage. We are unabashed fans of well-balanced Virginia Viognier. Our “ideal” version balances a moderate level of acidity with the grape’s lush ripeness, each acting as a counterweight to the other. 2024 is a return to form – one of our most exciting Viognier vintages in recent memory.
• This marks the final bottles of the 2022 What Will The Women Drink. Technically, we should be releasing the 2023 vintage, but tannins from Petit Verdot and Tannat on the hot vintage are still rough and overwhelming, and we wanted to give it another year. Luckily for us, we have enough 2022 to bide the time…

The Wines

Walsh Family Wine 2025 Albariño

100% Albariño, Hickory Wind & Bethany Ridge

Each of these blocks represents one ends of the albariño spectrum. Hickory Wind, at a cool 1300 ft, provides herbal aromatics, length, and a saline/mineral acidity. Bethany Ridge, on the other hand, produces riper characteristics – tropical aromatics, a dense body, and a clean, quick finish. The blend of the two vineyards makes an argument for a delicious middle ground.

The 2025 vintage shows vibrant aromas of lime zest, white peach, and a hint of honeysuckle. On the palate, a racy acidity drives flavors of green apple and stone fruit, underscored by a distinctive saline minerality. The finish is clean and persistent, leaving a bright, refreshing impression of maritime sea breeze.

Walsh Family Wine 2024 Bethany Ridge Viognier

100% Viognier, Bethany Ridge Vineyard 

How to best describe ripe Virginia Viognier? Aromatically, it’s unmistakable, a perfume of honeysuckle and white melon, apricot, orange blossom, and uber-ripe peach. On the palate it’s a full-bodied white, dense in body, viscous and weighty; a showy, loud wine. Endlessly delicious.

The difficulty with Viognier is finding a way to anchor the density with enough acidity to keep it refreshing. A naturally un-acidic grape, Viognier can be clumsy and flabby when over-ripened, a task hot Virginia summers are certainly up for. Our goal, then, is to find a balance of ripeness in the fruit. It’s all about the pick date.

This wine comes from two blocks at Bethany Ridge – the “Viejo” block (the initial planting where most of our previous Viognier has come from) as well as a younger “Alta” block, planted alongside the Albariño and Chenin Blanc. Having the two distinct sections within the vineyard has been a benefit to this wine. We hope to lean on their differences more in the future.

Walsh Family Wine 2022 What Will The Women Drink

60% Petit Verdot, 20% Merlot, 20% Tannat

The real story with the 2022 What Will The Women Drink is how Petit Verdot is beginning to take the driver’s seat in a blend that has previously been Tannat-heavy. That’s more a reflection of adjustments we’ve made to Petit Verdot winemaking than anything else – blocks that used to be over-extracted and unwieldly are finding their footing in our cellar. We hope to see this varietal continue to play a starring role.

What Will the Women Drink is our most dense, heavyweight red from any given vintage. The 2022 vintage is no exception. Brooding blackberry compote, dark plum, and crushed violet petal meld with smoke and toast aromatics. On the palate, a core of concentrated black fruit frames thick tannins and a firm grip. The finish is long and unyielding, driven by a tannic spine and a lingering warmth that promises excellent aging potential.

Never Trust A July Sky

   My chief winegrowing takeaway, year after year, is that no matter how much we plan, we never know what weather is coming. As the 2026 season has progressed beyond the frost damage, we’ve experienced a positive turn. May and June have been notably dry and sunny – 15% drier and two degrees warmer than average since May 1st. Most of the dryness arrived in June, during flowering, when we needed it most.

   As we enter mid-summer, vine development shifts internally. Newly-formed berries (more plentiful than expected due to productive flowering) expand quickly, growing from “buckshot” to “pea” to “marble” size in a few weeks. To accomplish this, the vine bestows a lot of energy into cell division. Simultaneously, it becomes “self-sustaining,” no longer relying on stored carbohydrates from the previous season. The new leaves are now energy sources for cluster and canopy growth. Thus, we need full, healthy canopies. Our team is tucking shoots, clipping wires, and hedging to maximize sun exposure. It has been a pleasant early summer, which we’ll look back on fondly as we enter the sweltering July.

   County-wide, the results from the April frost are mixed: some sites are hanging larger crops than anticipated while others have no fruit. The difference is elevation and the timing of bud break. Lower, wetter sites fared the worst, with damaged cordons and, in some cases, trunks, which is a long-term problem and a possible highlight of poor site selection. The worst vines will need replanting. A general melancholy has sunk in amongst most growers. Many are halfway through a marathon that promises to yield nothing.

   Walsh Family Wine is lucky to farm high-elevation sites like Hickory Wind, Russ Mountain, and Bethany Ridge, which mostly avoided damage. Fruit set has been outstanding, particularly in Albariño, Chenin Blanc, and Cabernet Franc, all of which are currently hanging some of the best crops we’ve seen in years. We’re pleased to see that Sauvignon Rytos, damaged by the frost, has pushed mostly fruitful secondaries and will yield a moderate crop.

   The really hard work – keeping canopies and clusters healthy through the unpredictable July weather – is still ahead of us. But it has been a nice respite to see full, healthy clusters hanging after fruit set.

    We are honored to announce the promotion of Baley Loy to Head Winemaker at Walsh Family Wine. Baley will play a primary role in continuing to innovate and improve our winemaking.

   On a random Friday in the Spring of 2021, as I was chatting with guests in the tasting room, a buzz of excitement drew me to the cellar. A small group was getting a tour of our tank room. I wasn’t needed in there, but something about the vibe made me feel I was missing out. One of the guests, a young woman, was asking questions that made it clear she worked in winemaking. She asked about pumps and bottling, our vineyards and varietals, how our team worked together. I was impressed by her insight, and more than that, I was drawn to the sense of excitement. Some people stand out in ways that are hard to explain.

   That was how I met Baley. Prior to that visit, she’d been working for a winery in Paso Robles for three years. She was returning to the East Coast and was exploring wineries in the area, trying to see where she’d be a good fit.

   Baley joined our team not long after. Our reliance on first impressions can be a double-edged sword, but in this case, I was spot on. She worked tirelessly during a difficult, stressful vintage, and was promoted to Assistant Winemaker not long after. Over four years, she helped oversee the growth of our production during a quick expansion. She has become an integral part to Walsh Family Wine, pruning, spraying, racking, blending, and bottling – there is not a vineyard or cellar task she is unfamiliar with. Baley understands the big picture.

   Most notably, the buzz of excitement surrounding Baley has not waned a bit. I’m thrilled hand her the reins of the cellar as we approach the 2026 harvest.

   A few rapid-fire questions to get to know Baley:

What was your “lightbulb” moment in wine?

            My “lightbulb” moment was not a specific bottle, but a place. My first trip to California’s Central Coast is where I fell in love with the idea of winemaking. My rose-tinted glasses were on and every vineyard I passed along the coast was magic. I did not have any prior experience or knowledge of wine or the industry until that trip. The industry was so much more than I thought. So much hard work, dedication, innovation and tradition go into making a good bottle of wine. The magic I felt on the west coast was everywhere, in every region of wine. At least that’s how I felt when I became a part of Virginia’s wine industry.     

What aspect of Head Winemaker are you most excited about? Conversely, what’s the one thing keeping you up at night as harvest approaches?

            I am most excited about continuing where Kent [Arendt, our outgoing winemaker] left off and putting my mark on the Walsh wines to come.

            The one thing keeping me up at night is continuing where Kent left off! It’s both a sad and happy transition. Kent has been one of my mentors since the beginning and working as a close-knit team has been a wonderful experience. I could not have gotten to where I am now without him. His patience, respect, and wisdom allowed me to grow.

   Are there specific varietals or experimental styles that you would like to explore? Something WFW has not done in the past?

            I’m always thinking about Amarone. I love love love Amarone, an Italian red with very specific processes and regulations. Without going into too much of the nitty-gritty, it involves picking and drying grapes for a long time to get concentrated flavors. After the drying process, the wine goes through fermentation and is aged for years. It can be an intense, rich, higher alcohol wine; but it will really make you go: “Wow! Wine can be like this?”

If you could sit down and share a bottle of wine with any historical figure, who would it be?

            I’d sit down and share a bottle of Amarone with anyone… Marie Curie? Norman Borlaug? Socrates? Who knows!

“If you commit your seeds to the fields, you must expect years of barrenness as well as years of plenty. You have submitted yourself to the rule of Fortune.” – Boethius, The Consolation of Philosophy, 523 AD

        Early June finds us on the cusp of flowering with ideal bloom weather. Sunny, dry days with little wind and no rain allow for quick fertilization, clean calyptra shedding, and a boost in energy production required for prosperous fruit set. We’re about 150 GDDs ahead of average. Despite the frost and subsequent cold, vines are on track for an early harvest, although a lot can (and likely will) change during summer. While flowering feels promising and is a welcome relief, we’re in unique, uncharted territory for the next steps.

            The repercussions of the frost will be with us for years. White fruit loss will be felt next year with smaller releases of varietals like Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc. Red inventory reductions will be spread throughout 2029 and 2030, when most of Virginia, besides the winegrowers, will have forgotten about the lost crop. Those difficulties wait in our future. The more immediate repercussion must be addressed now – how do we handle notably asynchronous fruit development?

            North Gate Petit Manseng is a 1.5-acre block in front of our tasting room. On April 21^st, the low dropped to 29F, killing all newly opened shoots. Fortunately (Fortune being relative, mind you), only 50% of the buds were open. Those that had not yet “broken” were insulated by the vine’s protective layer of plant hairs, referred to as tomentum, tightly wound threads covering emerging buds. For the Petit Manseng, the tomentum did its job; wooly plant material acted as mini-blankets, insulating each tiny bud from the cold.

            Thus, the North Gate Petit Manseng lost 50% of its primary buds while the other encased 50% were undamaged. This doesn’t equate to a 50% loss, however, as frost-damaged buds push “secondaries,” literal backups for emergencies such as this. Secondaries grow identically to primaries with one vital difference: not every secondary contains a cluster, and when they do, the clusters will be smaller with fewer berries.

           A 50% bud kill might mean, in this instance, something like a 25% crop loss. In the big picture, that’s not too bad. There is a winegrowing issue, because the primaries and secondaries are on different ripening schedules. Shoots on the same vine will have started their season as much as two weeks apart, posing an unusual quandary.

            Two weeks is a big deal for ripeness. One week is a big deal. Often, three days is a big deal. For Petit Manseng, where the balance of acid and sugar is difficult to manage on a normal year, an inability to properly assess ripeness or the presence of overly acidic fruit in the fermenter may pose a significant problem. Today, we can see the differences between primaries and secondaries quite plainly. Our ability to differentiate will end once the secondaries hit veraison.

            So how to proceed?

            A simple answer, and one likely necessary for high quality red wines, is to remove the secondary clusters, thereby removing all potentially under-ripe fruit. When the goal is to fully ripen red grapes, this approach will be necessary, although it’s easier said than done in a vintage when most vineyards are reeling from losses far worse than 25%.

            Another option, and one I believe many colleagues throughout the state will adopt, is to reconsider the best use of a block. Let’s exit the Petit Manseng and enter a Cabernet Franc vineyard with a similar blend of primaries and secondaries. Uneven ripeness in Cab Franc is unacceptable in red wine production but might work well for a rosé or sparkling pick, where the mishmash of phenolics, which will still pose some winemaking challenges, isn’t as detrimental.

            We plan to make these decisions in each frost-effected block by fruit set, which on average should occur in the second week of June. At that point, the intended final wine will dictate our approach to leaf and lateral removal, so the vineyard crew needs to know the goal in each block. This will yield the best results for wines we’ll be pouring in the coming years.