A Conversation with AJ Greely
[April 3, 2025. I had a long telephone conversation with the newly re-elected president of the Virginia Vineyards Association (VVA), AJ Greely. Since 2018, AJ has been the winemaker at Hark Vineyards before being elected only the second woman to be president of the VVA and the first in some 40 years. That was in 2024. I did not electronically record the conversation. This post is a paraphrase of the conversation using my notes. I have tried as much as possible to be faithful to what was said and the tone in which it was conveyed. We are thankful to AJ for her time and candor.]
A. You’re right. I taught theater arts for nine years in Fairfax and Loudoun counties, and at the Duke Ellington School for the Arts in Washington. I was married to my first husband and working 80 to 90 hour weeks. I then went into teaching yoga, and I did that for ten years. It was during this time that I got divorced and married my second husband, Paul. When Paul got a job offer in the Charlottesville area, I came too, tired of the DC scene and convinced that I could open a yoga studio down there. [This was 2012] But I failed to appreciate how saturated the yoga market was in Charlottesville and the studio didn’t work. Yoga is more political than you think it is. I also didn’t like the passive aggressive aspect. Then a friend needed some help in the vineyards and I signed on. The Virginia wine industry is very different – very collaborative on both the vineyard and the wine production sides. Super collaborative, very sharing.
Q. I noticed that you sport a Star Trek tatoo with the inscription: “Because Survival is Insufficient.” [Star Trek Voyager, Season 6, Episode 6 and Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel]. How do you express that in your approach to winemaking?
A. Survival is Insufficient is an approach to life and why I’m in winemaking. I did work for a time as a bookkeeper during my transition between marriages. I could have made more money, but I feel that in the wine industry I’m thriving. This is a passion not just a job and you work with people who share your passion. For instance, we are at bud break here at Hark [EL 4] and we are now on frost watch. Every night next week one of us will be awake all night making sure we can react to any threat of frost to our vines. My night is next Tuesday. What a great crew!.
Q. You recently gave an interview where you noted that only 17.1% of winemakers in Virginia were women. While that is above the statistic for California (only 14%), it is a little below the world average of 17.8%. So far as I can tell, you are the first woman president of the VVA. What role do you see the VVA playing in increasing the participation of women in the vineyard and winemaking trades?
A. I am not the first woman president of the VVA, but there has been no woman president since the 1980’s. This is a hard question because there needs to be more than just “women in wine.” The VVA and Virginia wine has had women leaders since the start: Lucie Morton, Jeanette Smith, Joyce Rigby. These women are nationally known. Melanie Natoli, winemaker at Cana Vineyards, won the 2022 Virginia Governor’s Cup – the first woman to win the award in the modern era [First woman winner was Debra Vascik in 1998.] Still, the wine industry is behind the times. It is traditionally a man’s business. In Europe, there are traditions of not allowing women in wine cellars for fear that they carried viruses harmful to the wine. It was thought that women couldn’t handle the physical demands of vineyard work. But women can handle it – it’s just that they might handle it differently from a man. Look, I used to be a white-water kayaking guide. That’s a grueling line of work, but women do better at it than men because that kind of kayaking is not about brute strength – it’s about finesse.
Q. I know that you have been chair of the VVA’s legislative committee. When I spoke with Skip Causey, he was proud of work the VVA did in trying to move farm wineries back to their original purpose. Do you continue to see abuse in the rules for farm wineries and is there a continuing need to tighten regulations?
A. I was on that committee but not the chair. I think the recent changes in the law are starting to shift back to farm wineries. Let’s see how it rolls. To me, having one acre of vines is not a farm winery. They need to be actual farms – that’s my personal feeling. The VVA is just over 40 years old [founded in 1983] and many of the original owners and farmers are leaving the scene. New owners might decide to pull-up the vines for new grapes or other crops. That might take ten years to get the vineyard back producing again. Or they may open the acreage to non-farm development. We need to increase acreage and hold onto the farm acreage we have. In competitions we have to truly ensure that the juice for the wine is from Virginia grapes. I know the Virginia Governor’s Cup does this.
Q. You said: “I’d like to see a growth in outreach and education to vineyard workers. These workers represent the next leaders in our industry. By actively engaging vineyard owners, managers, and workers, we strengthen our industry and its future.” What do Virginia vineyard owners have to expect with regard to the future of the labor force, particularly with immigrant labor?
A. We are already seeing impacts from recent changes in immigration policy. Our vineyard crews are smaller; immigrants are concerned regardless of their status. We need to bring up all nationalities and educate them. Even with the H2A workers, getting a veteran crew that’s worked on your vines in the past is lucky if you can get them. But in any crew, there will be new people – how to train them and how to dedicate training time for hourly workers away from actually doing the labor? One answer is from Dr. Harner at the Winchester AREC [Dr. Drew Harner, Assistant Professor of Viticulture at the AHS Jr., Agricultural Research and Extension Center in Winchester – see our interview with Dr, Mizuho Nita, July 31, 2023] He has developed a series of bilingual videos on pruning, trellising, and other aspects of vineyard work for diverse work crews. VVA is also considering having a day set aside for education and training at its technical meetings.
Q. On April 2, the President announced a tariff of 20% on imports from the European Union (EU), which I presume includes Old World wines imported into the U.S. Do you have a perspective on whether these tariffs are good or bad for the Virginia wine industry? Why?
A. These tariffs are horrible! They will make our product exponentially more expensive to make, and we’ll have to pass those costs onto consumers. These tariffs – really taxes on the people – will be devastating especially since the wine industry is already in a downturn. For example, we were considering buying a leaf puller from Italy. That will be much more expensive now. Even second-hand equipment will go up in price because new equipment will have the tax/tariff applied. There are already tariffs on steel which will raise the cost of our tanks. Even things like corks and capsules (made with aluminum) will go up in price and contribute to the cost of Virginia wine. Some wine bottles are imported from Mexico, China, and elsewhere. Nothing good is going to come out of these tariffs.
Q. I think most of the general public encounters wine at the tasting room, in the wine store, or the wine aisle of the supermarket. You said: “It is my firm belief that the quality of our wines is only as solid as the quality of the fruit we grow and use.” What would you like the general public to know about the vineyard side of winemaking?
A. I would want the general public to realize that vineyard work is hard labor. In Virginia, most work is done in small establishments by hand. I think an average Virginia vineyard is only around 7 acres. The size is small but attention to quality is high. Every grape matters. Hark Vineyards is a medium-sized operation with 21.5 acres of vines. Unlike some wineries, we planted vines first, then built a production facility to make wine. Only when we were producing wine did we move to build a tasting room. Our gorgeous new tasting room should be opening early this Summer. [See our profile on Hark Vineyards, November 6, 2023, when the tasting area was an open field. We will schedule a return trip perhaps for this year to check-out the new tasting room.]
Q. You also said that you “look forward to working with the VVA Board and our membership to continue strengthening our organization and industry.” What specific initiatives would you like to see during your tenure?
A. Our efforts need to support and educate the next generation into the tradition of growing grapes in Virginia.
Q. Is the VVA still publishing the Grape Press newsletter? I see that the VVA hasn’t posted any of newsletters since Spring 2024.
A. The quarterly Grape Press newsletter was produced for many years by volunteers Bob and Chris Garsson. When they retired from this work, our lead for communication, David Eiserman, and his committee, including Jessica Trapeni and Jason Burrus, developed a new format for a twice-yearly Grape Press. We will also put timely articles and notices in our VVA blog. Make sure to check that for the regional reports you used to see in the quarterly Grape Press.
Q. Thanks so much for taking time out of your schedule to speak with me. May I touch base with you from time to time about VVA and the industry?
A. All of us welcome talking about our work. Please feel free to contact me anytime.
Q. Is there anything else you’d like to pass onto my readers?
A. Drink Virginia Wine!
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