Pollak Vineyards' Petit Verdot takes Monticello Cup

Six judges convened on Monday, June 14, at Barboursville Vineyards for this year’s Monticello Wine Cup competition. Their task was to blindly taste 60 wines from the Monticello AVA (the American Viticultural Area surrounding Charlottesville) in 3.5 hours. But with Italy playing Paraguay in the World Cup smack in the middle of the competition, Barboursville’s […]

The future as an open picture book

 The six students and at least as many volunteers arrived at the farm around 9am, and were cut loose with borrowed and donated digital cameras. “The idea was to get the kids out shooting when the light was O.K.,” said poet John Casteen IV, looking upon one young photographer as she took a picture of […]

Steve Winter preaches the big cat gospel

“I picked up something in Bhutan that I haven’t been able to kick,” the photographer Steve Winter said last week. By the time we were done speaking, it was unclear whether he had been talking about a fever, or some contagious disease identifiable only by the afflicted’s unwavering dedication to enormous feline species. “I try […]

No more concerts at Random Row Books?

When Ryan DeRamus opened Random Row Books last fall, he didn’t have a clear vision for the space, about half of which is occupied by bookshelves and couches, so he allowed the community to do, more or less, what it wanted. With the then-recent closure of the Outback Lodge, what Charlottesville really needed was a […]

June 2010: Green Scene

 Hello, summer A bounty of pleasant garden tasks spills out of June’s bosomy embrace. Enjoy it before the hellish days of July have us scurrying for the slightest bit of shade.  Cut grass no shorter than two to three inches so that it can sustain itself without chemical treatments. If you like careful, fussy chores, […]