Following a Growing Interest

BY KATHERINE CALOS - Staff Writer
Published: July 22, 2008

Geoffrey Cooper is the first to say he was no expert when he started Cooper Vineyards with business partner Jacquelyn Hogge in 1998.

“It was a bit like ‘Green Acres’ at first,” he said, referring to the 1960s sitcom about a New York City lawyer who decided to move to the country to be a farmer.

Though not quite as clueless as the TV characters, the fledgling grape growers were definitely out of their element. Cooper is an ophthalmologist who does lasik and cataract surgery in his “real” job. Hogge is an radiologist.

“I had made wine as a hobbyist,” Cooper said. “My father had grown up on a farm. I was just a suburban kid.”

Previously, his closest encounter with wine came when he lived in Italy during his last year of high school and helped some Italian friends with their harvest. But he had a vision. 

Learning to Learn

“I went into it not knowing how to farm and being a rudimentary wine-maker, but I knew where I wanted to get to,” he continued. “One of the things about having an education, you’ve learned how to learn.”

Cooper Vineyards now has 14 acres of vines and produces about 5,000 cases of wines a year. Last year, it finally turned a profit. This year, that profit will finance construction of a 6,800-square-foot, solar-powered tasting room. The current tasting room is in a small house near the production facility.

“Our wines are a lot better than the tasting room,” Cooper said.

One big boost came in 2001 when Graham Bell, who has been working in the Virginia wine industry for more than 15 years, became the winemaker for Cooper and Lake Anna wineries. The full menu of wines now ranges from a dry white and dry red to sweet ice wines, one of which is infused with chocolate. 

Earning Medals

In the 2007 Governor’s Cup competition, Cooper Vineyards won a gold medal for its petit verdot and silver medals for chardonnay and cabernet franc. In the Tasters Guild International Wine Competition, gold medals went to the viognier, cabernet franc and Noche chocolate wine.

The popular Noche wine resulted from a bumper harvest in 2005. Even though the winery bought extra tanks, barrels and crush bins, they couldn’t keep up with it.

“We still had two tons of Norton and vidal blanc that we took to the freezer to make ice wine,” Hogge said. Ice wines are created from frozen grapes, which intensifies the sugar content.

While they were deciding what to do with the frozen grapes, “Jeff went to California and came back with a chocolate-infused port,” she said, “and Graham created Noche.” She adds that it has been a big hit.

Other bits of happenstance have inspired some of the winery’s annual events. 

Community Events

The annual MINI-Cooper rally on Aug. 23 brings together lovers of Cooper Vineyards wine and MINI-Cooper cars. Admission costs $10 in advance, $15 the day of the event.

Lucy’s Weekend in May, an annual benefit for the Richmond SPCA, was inspired by the dog Hogge found on Memorial Day in 2001. The SPCA brings its pet wagon to offer adoptions on site. Cooper’s two poodles already were regular vineyard visitors when Hogge spotted her beagle mix on the exit ramp. She said she thought the puppy would bite her because it had a broken leg and was in pain. Instead, “I picked her up and she kissed me on the cheek,” she recalled.  Serious Sideline

Operating a vineyard has become a serious sideline for the owners. They bought another 24 acres in June to increase their total to about 100 acres.

Despite having another full-time job, Cooper spends at least one afternoon a week on-site, sometimes getting on a tractor to spray the vines with fungicide. During the crush season, he said, he’s doing things every day.

“Many of the people who have started vineyards have done it because they were passionate about it,” he said. It’s not a field you enter to get rich. “As a business, it’s capital-intensive and takes a while to be profitable.

“My goal was not to produce vast quantities of inexpensive wine. Our goal is to produce wines that present the best qualities of the site.

“Wine is one of those fascinating, subtle, complex areas where you can never know it all. There is always more nuance to discover.”

IF YOU GOING TO LOUISA:

Getting there: Cooper Vineyards is about 50 miles from downtown Richmond. Go west on I-64 to exit 148 toward Shannon Hill and continue about eight miles to the vineyard.

Where to eat: In the town of Louisa, Obrigado offers Mediterranean-inspired cuisine with a Portuguese twist (the name means “thank you” in Portuguese). To reach the town from the winery, continue north on Shannon Hill Road to U.S. 33 and then head west for about 7 miles.

Info: Cooper Vineyards, (540) 894-5253; http://www.coopervineyards.com; Piedmont Crossroads Visitors Center, (540) 832-0555 or http://www.piedmontcrossroads.info.