History
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A Long time effort by the Conrad Brandts family
culminated in the opening of Oak Crest Winery in 2002. The
winery’s creation involved a combination of genetics, scientific
bent, fortunate opportunities, and the urge to create good
wine and share it with others. Conrad’s home wine-making dates back to the 1950’s and the family’s wine grape growing in Virginia dates to the early 1960’s. Participation in the King George Chapter of the American Wine Society has provided breadth and depth to the Brandts’ wine knowledge and appreciation. They developed preferences for Bordeaux style red wines and Rhine style white wines. When they purchased their current house site in 1971, the Brandts’ recognized the grape growing potential of the adjoining 14 acre tract. In 1986 they acquired that tract and began planting the sandy 8 acre plateau-like field with grafted Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc grapevines procured from Gabriele Rausse. |
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| Gabriele invested his time teaching the Brandts' how to bench graft and today many of the vines in their vineyard are the results of bench and field grafting. The old-world vitis vinifera vines are grafted onto American rootstock. | ||
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| Anticipated customer needs dictated planting the limited acreage to half red and half white grapes. Jacques Recht, famous as a Virginia winemaker, advised that the red Bordeaux varities would do well in the Northern Neck area but was pessimistic about producing good wine from locally grown Reisling grapes. Reisling, Emerald Reisling and Sauvignon Blanc were grown experimentally, but did not prove to be satisfactory. | ||
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On a winery surveying trip through California, the Brandts’ got
a lead on Symphony and followed through with a visit to Harold
Olmo at U.C. Davis. After a meeting on campus, a visit to his
winery and lunch at his house the Brandts’ were convinced to try
Symphony. Symphony is a cross of Muscat of Alexandria and a rose
of Grenache and produces wine similar to Riesling. |
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| Immediately after the vineyard site was acquired, sketches and calculations were initiated for a winery design. Average vineyard yield, grape-to-wine-to-bottle process flow, bulk wine aging, bottled wine aging, energy consumption, waste disposal, aesthetics, and target market were a few of the factors that influenced the final design. The design has proven to be very energy efficient and elegantly functional. | ||
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All of the family’s talent and time resources were challenged when construction of the winery began in the spring of 1999. At harvest that fall, Oak Crest had licenses to produce commercial wine in the basement fermentation room while the roof was still under construction. |
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| An informal “name the winery” contest was conducted among the local American Wine Society members and family friends. “Oak Crest” was selected because of its depth of meaning, the oak trees that grow on the edge of the crest surrounding the vineyard, Oak’s use in wine making, and the presence of an oak tree on the family's German crest. The acorn, a bit of Dorothy’s artistic license, was added to brand the tree as an oak tree. | ||
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"Our goal is to become ‘The Best Little-Ole Winery in Virginia’; customer suggestions to help us reach that goal are welcome.” |
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