USA, VA: Everleigh Vineyards and Brewing Co. aims to launch in Louisa County this summer
Ten years ago, Joe and Barbara Evers bought 5 acres of land off of U.S. Route 33 in Louisa County about 45 miles west of downtown Richmond. The Evers, who live in Midlothian, said their initial plans weren’t to build on it, the Richmond BizSense reported on March 29.
“It was really just for entertainment: riding ATVs, camping, that type of stuff,” Joe said.
But after getting some soil samples done, he decided to take his longtime hobby of wine collecting to another level by seeing if he could successfully cultivate the land.
“I thought it’d be a (fun) challenge to grow grapes in that part of Virginia and try to make some excellent wine,” he said.
This summer, eight years after first planting grapevines, the Evers are aiming to open the fully-realized version of his vision: Everleigh Vineyards and Brewing Co.
Located at 9625 Jefferson Highway in the town of Mineral, Everleigh will offer wine, beer and cider out of a tasting room that’s currently under construction.
From vines planted in 2014, Evers said they began selling Everleigh wines a year ago by contracting with Charlottesville-based winemaker Michael Shaps to produce it using Everleigh grapes. Shaps also makes wines for a handful of other Virginia wineries, including Charles City-based Upper Shirley Vineyards.
While their success in growing the grapes was exciting, they learned that the low margins in selling grapes made little financial sense.
“I’d sold grapes and realized there’s absolutely no money in selling grapes. It’s a labor of love. You cannot make a profit unless it’s done on an industrial scale,” Evers said. “We had too many acres for personal use and I wasn’t going to go ahead and be a grape seller.”
So they decided to put their grapes to work in another way and build a three-story, 7,500-square-foot tasting room for Everleigh. It’ll sell the wines that Shaps will continue to make for Everleigh offsite.
“It’s a mid-century modern vibe. It’s got a cantilever slanted roof viewing toward the vineyard. There’s a basement production area, the main level with a bar and fireplaces, then we’ll have two upstairs galleries with balconies. Then there’s a nice big deck being put on the front,” Ever said of the tasting room.
“It’s pretty ambitious, I hope we haven’t bit off more than we can chew,” he added, laughing.
All that room is allowing for Everleigh to go beyond wines. Evers said they thought they might as well go all-in and get brewing and cider making equipment, adding beer and cider to their offerings. The cider operation will be overseen by the Evers’ son, Ryan, who’s been a cider maker at Scott’s Addition-based Buskey Cider for four years.
Barbara Evers said they estimate that in their first year they’ll sell about 65 barrels of cider, 250 barrels of beer, and that they’ve harvested enough grapes to produce about 14,300 bottles of wine.
The Evers said they plan to primarily sell everything out of the tasting room, including cans of beer and cider, and that major distribution isn’t in the immediate plans.
“We can sell some wine to restaurants, but that’d probably be on a very small scale,” Barbara said.
Everleigh will also eventually have an in-house food operation and the Evers said they also plan to bring in food trucks.
It’s the second such winery and brewery combination spot coming to the western outskirts of the Richmond area. Southern Revere Cellars opened in late 2021 at 1100 E. Jack Jouett Road, about 20 miles west of Everleigh.
As for the Everleigh name, Barbara said it is a portmanteau of the Evers’ last name and leigh, which she explained has meanings that play on Joe’s day job as an oncologist.
“Obviously, Evers is our last name and leigh in Gaelic means meadow or healer,” she said. “Of which I have both… (The winery) helps all the way around and helps keep the family close.”
29 March, 2022
