USA, VA: Brewery and winery with a historical twist, Southern Revere Cellars opens in Richmond region
A new brewery and winery with a historical twist has opened on the outskirts of the Richmond region, the Richmond BizSense reported on January 18.
Southern Revere Cellars opened last month at 1100 E. Jack Jouett Road in Louisa County.
It’s a family business, owned by married couples Dave and Paula Spencer and Jason and Sheridan Grime. Paula Spencer and Jason Grime are brother and sister.
Located on 70 acres about 45 miles west of downtown Richmond, Southern Revere offers both beer and wine — most of which will eventually be made with grapes and hops that are currently growing on the land.
The quartet bought the land in 2018 and got to work planting crops and building Southern Revere’s roughly 2,800-square-foot barn-style taproom and production facility.
To launch Southern Revere, the Spencers left white-collar jobs in downtown Richmond. Dave said he was a brokerage operations manager for SunTrust, while Paula said she worked in health care administration and IT.
“It was definitely a stressful environment I was in, but you get into the swing of things being there for 20-plus years,” Spencer said. “It was something I wanted to be able to get out of.”
By starting Southern Revere, Spencer returns to an industry he dabbled in before getting into the financial sector.
“I bartended in college and I worked for The Canal Club,” he said. “I was a band promoter. I had a few bands I helped book around Virginia and North Carolina.”
Discussions with Jason Grime further pushed them toward the craft beverage industry, as Grime formerly worked as a brewer for a handful of Nashville-based breweries like TailGate Brewing and Southern Grist Brewing Co.
“The combination of everyone’s interests and experiences led to this being the type of business we wanted,” Paula said. “For me, just the entrepreneurial aspect of it and wanting to do something that involved the community in providing a service … that was the draw for me.”
Southern Revere has beer pouring from 12 of its 16 taps, with styles including an orange wit, blonde and amber ales, a Helles lager and a s’mores stout. For wine, it offers a variety of reds, whites and rosé. Paula said they’ve been getting grapes and juice from other Virginia wineries until theirs are ready for harvest, something she anticipates happening later this year.
Southern Revere also has some pre-packaged snacks and a small sandwich menu, but the Spencers said the goal is to bring food trucks out to the facility.
Paula said they’re open to getting into packaging and distribution of their beer and wine in the future but don’t have concrete plans.
As for the story behind the Southern Revere name, it starts with a tale of Jack Jouett — the namesake of the brewery’s street address.
During the American Revolution, historians say Jouett was in a tavern in Louisa when he overheard British troops discussing a plot to head to Monticello and capture then-governor Thomas Jefferson.
“(Jouett) rode through the night from Mineral to Monticello to warn Jefferson and the senate of the British coming,” Paula said. “That story is where our name comes from. He’s been referred to as the ‘Paul Revere of the South.’”
Southern Revere is the 44th brewery to open in the Richmond region. The 43rd was Triple Crossing Beer, which in late December opened its Midlothian location at Winterfield Crossing.
18 January, 2022
