Thomas Jefferson had a vision for Virginia to become a major wine-producing state. To many at the time, his vision seemed far-fetched, especially when his own grape-growing experiments continued to fail. Two hundred years later, Jefferson might be proud to see Virginia’s wine industry finally take off. Today, the state has more than 300 wineries (up from only six in the 1970s), making it one of the fastest-growing grape-growing regions in the United States.
Perhaps another agricultural product from the region, Virginia’s quality cheese, pairs so perfectly with wine that it’s at least partially responsible for the state’s viticultural proliferation. After all, the only place I’ve visited both a dairy and vineyard occupying the same land is on Jennifer McCloud’s farm in Aldie, Virginia.
When I visited The Ag District, McCloud’s 412-acre diversified farm in Loudoun County, I was amazed to see how this self-proclaimed serial entrepreneur has successfully cultivated not one, but three successful on-farm enterprises just about an hour west of downtown Washington, D.C. Tucked among the Bull Run Mountains, visitors to The Ag District can tour – and taste the labors of – Chrysalis Vineyards, Locksley Farmstead Cheese Company, and the Little River Bakehouse. Yet, McCloud’s triple-threat farmstead dream wasn’t always guaranteed, and she’d use several innovative legal tools to see it through.
Of Land and Legacy
Development pressure around Washington, D.C., has been growing for years, tracking with the District’s booming economy. Loudoun County’s population has grown nearly 30 percent since 2010, making it the fastest-growing county in Virginia. McCloud knew she’d need to act fast to protect her land from encroaching development. She chose to employ conservation easements, a legal designation that puts a deed restriction on a property that prevents commercial development. No subdivisions or strip malls will be built on the property, regardless of future ownership.
McCloud also sought a special designation for The Ag District under Virginia’s Agricultural and Forestal District program. Under the voluntary program, landowners can receive tax-savings benefits by designating their properties as conservation zones, reserved for the production of agricultural products, timber, and open space. McCloud’s agreement with the state and Loudoun County is that she’ll not open her lands to industrial or commercial purposes, and, in turn, the County will refrain from investments in the surrounding area that could ultimately pressure her to lose the open-space qualities her visitors enjoy. The winery, vineyard, forest, pastures, Little River, milking parlor, and other features now operate under this umbrella of protection.
“It was exciting to me to be involved in the restoration of a historically significant use of the land,” McCloud says. With her land protected for decades to come, McCloud could confidently turn to wine and cheese.
Saving ‘Norton’
Chrysalis Vineyards launched at The Ag District in 1998, when McCloud immediately set her sights on growing ‘Norton,’ thought to be America’s oldest native grape. She got off to a good start, and her 2003 ‘Norton’ won gold in the Riverside International Wine Competition (now called Dan Berger’s International Wine and Cider Competition). Her 2001 Viognier, a white wine from grapes originating in the Rhône River valley in France, went on to win best in show in San Diego, while a 2021 vintage of Norton Locksley Reserve won the gold medal at the Virginia Governor’s Cup competition.
On the day I visited The Ag District, the grape vines drooped low in their brown tresses from a recent frost. I saw bunches of dark red ‘Norton’ grapes ready to harvest. The history of the ‘Norton’ grape is a bit murky, but is generally thought to have originated from native grapes in Virginia. In the early 1800s, horticulturalist Daniel Norborne Norton brought it into the wine-making form we know today. Famously, ‘Norton’ might have saved European wine, when cuttings of phylloxera-resistant vines were sent to France for grafting during the1860s and 1870s blight outbreak. But despite ‘Norton’s heroic response, nearly all its vines were ripped out across America during Prohibition, and we nearly lost the grape forever.
A few Midwest and mid-Atlantic farms, including Chrysalis Vineyards, are bringing ‘Norton’ back. When I finally settled into the vineyard tasting room, I paired a couple glasses of wine with the unique culinary experience of cheeses made on-site.
Cheese Board Time!
Among the land-conversion pressures facing conventional dairies these days is a shift in consumer demand: More people are choosing alternative milk products, such as almond, soy, oat, and coconut milks. For local dairies, selling milk alone is rarely profitable. The dairy farmers I meet at farmers markets in the mid-Atlantic region scratch out a living by selling value-added products, such as cheese or ice cream, in addition to milk.
McCloud felt that if she could make superior-quality cheese, her Locksley Farmstead Cheese Company would succeed. McCloud built a milking parlor and barn in 2010 and bought Jersey cows to turn loose on her pastures of diverse grasses. Her first cheese hit the market in 2018. She borrowed the name Locksley from the tales of Robin Hood, and all the cheeses bear the names of characters in the story. The company’s website states, “You may find that some of these cheeses’ characteristics match those of their namesake. In days of Robin Hood, land wasn’t just property, land was life!”
“I’m not aware of any other vineyard property that’s producing value-added cheese products at an artisan level,” McCloud says. I’ll attest that I’ve not come across one in my visits to dozens of mid-Atlantic wineries, as well as many in in California, Washington, and Oregon. At The Ag District, I witnessed grazing dairy cows fitting in naturally on this gorgeous land that George Washington had once said was the breadbasket of the American Revolution. Their milk gets pasteurized in the milking parlor and transported to the cheesemaking facility beneath the vineyard tasting room. Visitors can go down one flight of stairs and view one of three cheese-curing rooms and its rows of resting gouda, cheddar, and Manchego. By the time guests return to their seats, their pizza or panini order might be ready, made using breads baked on-site at McCloud’s third company, Little River Bakehouse.
The People
Locksley Farmstead’s cows are milked twice daily by Steven Stiles, who also manages the breeding schedule, takes the cows to pasture, and monitors supplemental nutrition in winter. Stiles is a fourth-generation Virgnia dairy farmer. When his family’s farm shuttered in the wake of a milk-market contraction, Stiles found Locksley Farmstead Cheese was a good fit. Stiles’ career at The Ag District supports his and his wife’s family, including four children, with work he clearly loves.
“A happy cow is one that is relaxed and chewing its cud,” Stiles explained when I asked him how to tell if a cow is happy. Of the 29 happy cows, Steven was milking 11 Jerseys and four Holsteins at the time of my visit, and I was able to meet two calves. About half the calves are born in the spring, and then a quarter born each in summer and fall. By spreading out the breeding schedule, Stiles is able to ensure a steady supply of milk for cheesemaking.
A colleague, Teri Scott, is the farm’s general manager and a local who grew up in Haymarket, Virginia. After obtaining a degree in computer science at the University of Virginia, Scott worked a variety of jobs, including her family’s campground. She came to Chrysalis in 2009 and worked in the tasting room until an opportunity came up in the new cheesemaking facility.
As general manager of cheesemaking, Scott now takes the milk that Stiles delivers and turns it into some of the best cheese I’ve found in the country. With the guidance of a part-time cheesemaking consultant, Scott makes eight or more types of cheese each season. She says she senses a level of pride every time the cheese ships out to either the tasting room or local businesses.
The future of dairy milk from small farms is precarious at best. But I left The Ag District with visions of warm weather, the extensive outdoor seating areas buzzing with activity. Families, couples, and groups drinking Chrysalis Vineyard wines, eating pizza, and snacking on Locksley Farmstead Cheese boards. In the John Mellencamp song “Rain On the Scarecrow,” I love the lyric, “This land fed a nation, this land made me so proud.” It’s good to see a part of Loudoun County return to feeding the nation quality cheese and fine wine.
Originally published as “Wine of a Kind” in the November/December 2024 issue of GRIT magazine and regularly vetted for accuracy.
Kurt Jacobson writes about travel, food, wine, and organic gardening. He lives in the Baltimore, Maryland, area with his wife, dog, and cats.