wedded to the land, determinedly working to keep it as in Bill’ s and Bonnie’ s case? Bill muses that maybe it was his great grandfather’ s ancestral influence, a steamship captain and owner who lost his ship and everything he worked for on one fateful day when caught in the current at the mouth of San Francisco Bay. He was able to rebound three years later becoming stronger and more successful than ever. Or his father who never knew his own father, yet intent on giving his family a life on the land.“ My dad used to say about the land you own,‘ Once it’ s gone it’ s gone. You can be someplace else but it’ s not this place,’” remembers Bill.“ Optimism comes with farming— it’ s the most addictive gambling there is. Last year we had six frost events and somehow we survived. So far we’ ve never lost the whole crop. And now vintage 19 is coming up, and we’ ve only had three that were problematic.”
Saving farmland takes serious effort and the Hatch family has taken on the task of preserving the beauty and bounty of a Loudoun legacy farm, whose operation dates back to the mid-1700s, with the determination for it to remain for generations to come.
Unfortunately, according to John Piotti, American Farmland Trust CEO, farmland is being lost at a rate of“ 1.5 million acres a year... or three acres a minute. It’ s an irreplaceable resource that we need to grow our food. Some loss of farmland is inevitable, but that level is simply unsustainable.”
Bill says,“ We’ re doing it because we want to keep this land and the home we have in our family. Being somewhere else is not here. This place is where we have connection. This is where we’ ve seen everything happen. I feel like an old timer sometimes because holding onto the important things is getting to be harder and harder. And it’ s rewarding when guests see who we are and what were trying to do... and they’ re all for preserving this place and relaxing and enjoying it. Bonnie and I want people to have conversations. We want people to see that the grapes can be grown here and enjoy this land, too.”
As for the wines at Zepheniah? Bonnie will tell you that you won’ t find any descriptions of the wines at the vineyard.“ When people describe wines so intently, it often doesn’ t allow the person drinking the wine to experience it themselves. And I want people to trust what they perceive, not listen to me. Bill and I will taste wine, we’ ll disagree, and that’ s fine,” she laughs, stating that a woman’ s sense of smell has been scientifically proven to be superior to men’ s.“ Our wines are a bit less expensive than others, too. One day a visitor exclaimed that the Zephaniah wines couldn’ t be that good because of their lower price point. Bonnie’ s response was perfect.“ Actually we price our wines so teachers like me can afford them.”
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