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Tag: winery

Work begins on organics-to-renewable gas facility in Amelia County

Vanguard Renewables, an organics-to-renewable natural gas company with headquarters in Massachusetts, broke ground Wednesday on its newest facility at Oakmulgee Dairy Farm in Amelia County. 

An anaerobic digester system on the property will allow Vanguard Renewables to convert cow manure along with inedible and unsalable food material into natural gas. The company expects Oakmulgee Dairy Farm will produce more than 259,000 metric million British thermal units (mmBtu) of renewable gas each year. 

Billy Kepner, a Vanguard Renewables spokesperson, declined to provide the estimated cost of constructing the facility, which will create about 200 jobs during construction and 12 full-time positions once it’s completed. The facility is expected to be operational in 12 months, he noted.

Oakmulgee Dairy Farm currently has more than 300 Holstein cows, according to Jeremy Moyer, a fifth-generation dairy farmer who operates Oakmulgee with his father and brother.

“We’ve been here since 1895,” Moyer told the crowd Wednesday. “We’ve been shipping Grade A milk since the 1920s. We’re the oldest continuously operating dairy in the state of Virginia.”

Vanguard Renewables currently has seven operational facilities, three under construction (including this one in Amelia County) and has plans to begin construction on multiple additional sites by the end of the year. 

U.S. Rep. Bob Good, R-5th, told event attendees that the United States is in “a self-inflicted energy crisis.”

“Right now we have a federal government that is at war against affordable, reliable energy,” said the Republican congressman, adding that the groundbreaking for the Vanguard Renewables facility is exciting because “it represents another way to steward the resources that God has given to Virginia, to Amelia County and to America.”

Neil H. Smith, CEO of Vanguard Renewables, noted 1,600 dairy farms closed in 2023. “It’s projects like these that partner with dairy farms that make them be able to continue into the future,” he said.

Vanguard Renewables provides its farm partners with a dedicated income stream from a 20-year-plus land lease, according to a news release distributed Wednesday afternoon. Additionally, the farms benefit from the byproducts of the anaerobic digestion process, which are used as biofertilizer and herd bedding. 

Larkin Moyer, Jeremy’s father, noted in the release that Oakmulgee also boasts a ground mount solar array that powers the farm, including its robotic milkers and heading and cooling barns. “We have embraced innovation as key to preserving our family farm,” he said in a statement.

The gas produced at Oakmulgee Dairy Farm will fuel the Maryland biopharmaceutical production facilities for AstraZeneca. The British-Swedish biopharmaceutical company has announced a goal of having all U.S. research and manufacturing sites using renewable natural gas by 2026.

“We’re committed to a deep decarbonization across our supply and value chain,” Dan Wygal, vice president of U.S. corporate and government affairs for AztraZeneca, said Wednesday. “Our innovative partnership with Vanguard Renewables in the U.S. is an illustration of this commitment. We are focusing on delivering our medicines with hard science-based targets and reduction of emissions, ensuring that we can meet the needs of patients, while looking after the health of the planet.

Nine people wear hard hats and hold shovels.
Brandon Moyer, co-owner, Oakmulgee Dairy Farm; Larkin Moyer, co-owner, Oakmulgee Dairy Farm; Kim Martin, vice president of development, Vanguard Renewables; Jeremy Moyer, co-owner, Oakmulgee Dairy Farm; Marc de Lataillade, vice president biogas,TotalEnergies; Neil H. Smith, CEO, Vanguard Renewables; U.S. Rep. Bob Good, R-5th; Rebecca Soulliere, vice president of human resources, Vanguard Renewables; Dan Wygal, U.S. vice president of corporate and government relations, AstraZeneca; Kevin Chase, co-founder and chief development officer, Vanguard Renewables, Victoria Lepore, chief legal counsel, Vanguard Renewables. Photo by John Maciel, courtesy Vanguard Renewables

The Amelia County organics-to-renewable-gas facility will be built and operated by Vanguard Renewables. It is part of a joint venture between Vanguard and TotalEnergies, a global integrated energy company based in France, that was announced in April. The two companies agreed to advance 10 renewable natural gas projects into construction by April 2025. 

“This project in Virginia, and two others currently under construction in Wisconsin and Minnesota, are part of a promising potential pipeline of projects that will support TotalEnergies’ ambition to be a leader in the fast-growing renewable gas market,” said Marc de Lataillade, vice president of Biogas at TotalEnergies. 

Vanguard Renewables is a portfolio company of Global Infrastructure Partners, a New York-based infrastructure fund manager, which is a part of BlackRock, a global asset manager in New York.

In August, Vanguard Renewables announced Prince Michel Vineyard & Winery in Madison County would become the first vineyard in Virginia to partner with the company. Vanguard will help the winery establish a custom organics materials recycling program, with the waste being converted into renewable natural gas and a low carbon biofertilizer.

100 People to Meet in 2024: Hosts

Nourishing and delighting us, these Virginians welcome us to their communities through food, hospitality and entertainment.

Chris Albrecht

Senior vice president and general manager, Caesars Virginia
Danville

In May, the temporary Caesars Virginia casino opened in Danville, led by General Manager Chris Albrecht. A Florida native, Albrecht has worked for Caesars Entertainment for 18 years and is also overseeing the construction of the $650 million permanent casino resort underway in Danville’s Schoolfield neighborhood, formerly a hub for textile manufacturing. “We’ve had really strong demand” for casino jobs, Albrecht says, adding that when the permanent casino opens in late 2024, “we’ll have three times as many table game dealers” — 400 to 500 employees serving 90 poker tables. Albrecht earned his MBA from UCLA and his bachelor’s degree in finance at MIT, but joining a poker club in business school made him take notice of the gaming industry, he says.

Ann Butler

Owner, 21 Spoons
Chesterfield County

Ann Butler opened her small, local cuisine-focused restaurant in a Midlothian shopping center in early 2021, mainly to fill unused space while the pandemic forced her to put on hold Edible Education, her business offering cooking classes to kids. So, she started 21 Spoons as a pop-up, and then in March, Southern Living magazine named it Virginia’s best locally owned restaurant — a pleasant surprise for Butler. “I’m not a 27-year-old male chef opening a restaurant.” Indeed, she is 61 now, and recommends, “Just really do follow your passion.” Butler, who also sells “Kitchen a la Cart” portable teaching kitchens, has put Edible Education up for sale so she can focus on her 21 Spoons and Kitchen a la Cart businesses.

John Haggai

CEO and president, Burtons Grill & Bar
Richmond

If you’ve eaten at an Outback Steakhouse in Virginia, chances are John Haggai was behind its opening. He started working at the Australian-themed restaurant as a busboy in 1989 while still in high school and worked his way up to management, becoming a partner before he left in 2010. He then co-founded Richmond’s Tazza Kitchen, which now has six locations throughout Virginia and the Carolinas.

Haggai took over as CEO of the growing Boston-based Burtons Grill chain in 2022, setting as a parameter that he would stay in Richmond instead of moving north, and now there’s a Burtons location in the city’s Carytown shopping district. Though it specializes in American fare, Burtons is also committed to allergy-free offerings.

“It’s food people crave and love,” Haggai says, “and it’s warm hospitality. It’s reliable.”

Caitlin Horton

Head winemaker, Horton Vineyards
Gordonsville

At 29, Caitlin Horton is Virginia’s youngest head winemaker and one of a minority of women to hold that title. “Grandma grows the grapes, and my mom is vice president and general manager. I didn’t realize it was special until later in life, to be a female-run winery in an industry that is mainly a boys’ club,” she says. Under Horton’s direction, her 40-year-old Orange County family winery yields 400 tons of grapes annually, including 18 varietals ranging from Virginia classics like viognier to lesser-known grapes like the Portuguese tinta cão. As a third-generation vintner, Horton is influenced by tradition but also driven to innovation, introducing experimental wines such as her steampunk-themed Gears & Lace line.

Check out the other 100 People to Meet in 2024.

Incubator hopes to grow Virginia winemaking

Tim and Ben Jordan are first-generation grape growers on a Shenandoah Valley farm that has been in their family since the 1700s. 

Although the brothers “leapt off the ground quite blindly” to pursue their passion, Tim Jordan says — first planting grapes in 2007 — their dream of building a winery on the farm proved “a wall of investment” they couldn’t scale.

Instead, with business partner Patt Eagan, they opened Common Wealth Crush Co., a collaborative winemaking business in Waynesboro’s Virginia Metalcrafters complex. Over three years, the company plans to invest $1.5 million in ongoing renovations of 17,000 square feet of space, including a tasting room expected to open this spring.

Their vision, Jordan says, is to provide the resources needed for growth “for others like us who were bootstrapping every step of the way.” 

The facility provides a range of services for small-scale growers to build their brands, from full production to helping experienced growers who lack the equipment to make their own wine, Eagan says.

The winery began operation in August 2022 with the necessary equipment — from grape presses to fermentation tanks — to produce 11,000 cases of wine from the 2022 harvest. The vintage represents eight distinct brands, in addition to their own house wines.

The goal over the next three years is to process an estimated 450 tons of Virginia-grown grapes with a market value of $1.1 million and create six jobs, likely five full-time and one seasonal.

If it meets those metrics, the company will receive a $25,000 grant from the city of Waynesboro matching an award announced in October 2022 from the state’s Agriculture and Forestry Industries Development Fund.

The city’s contribution will come primarily as reimbursement of local taxes and fees paid by the company during its first three years, says Greg Hitchin, director of Waynesboro’s Office of Economic Development.

The city expects the winery and a brewery already located in the complex to attract tourists from the Shenandoah National Park corridor. The state has more than 300 wineries that draw 2.64 million visitors and contribute $1.7 billion to the economy annually, according to the governor’s office.

Eagan says the winery is focused on but not limited to the Shenandoah Valley.

Virginia’s varied geology produces “really dynamic and interesting wines,” he says. “Wine as a beverage is such as great storyteller of the place it comes from.”

Revalation Vineyards toasts $2.3M winery expansion

Gov. Ralph Northam announced Thursday that Revalation Vineyards will invest more than $2.3 million in an expansion, building a wine production facility, tasting room and event space in Madison County. The expansion will create five jobs. 

Home to 312 wineries, Virginia is the sixth-largest wine region in the United States, according to Northam’s office. The wine industry contributes $1.4 billion annually to Virginia’s economy. 

“The expansion of Revalation Vineyards is an exciting addition for Virginia wine tourism, especially at a moment when our outstanding wines and the vineyards are being discovered — and rediscovered — by wine lovers and oenophiles from Virginia and beyond,” Virginia Tourism Corp. President and CEO Rita McClenny said in a statement. 

As part of the investment, Revalation Vineyards has committed to purchasing nearly 60 tons of Virginia-grown grapes during the next three years for production.

“This expansion is a great win for Virginia’s flourishing wine industry and further highlights the vital connections between viticulture and agritourism,” Northam said in a statement. “We thank Revalation Vineyards for investing in Madison County, for helping ensure our commonwealth remains a premier destination for high quality wine, and for continuing to inspire future winemakers.”

Revalation Vineyards, which is owned by Belgium native Françoise Seillier-Moiseiwitsch, was established in 2014, with its name a nod to its first vineyard in Reva. The company produces wines and verjus, an acidic, nonalcoholic juice used in gourmet cooking.

The commonwealth is partnering with Madison County through the governor’s Agriculture and Forestry Industries Development (AFID) Fund, administered by the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services. Northam approved a $25,000 grant from the AFID fund for the project, which Madison County will match with local funds. 

“Revalation Vineyards is very grateful for this grant,” Seillier-Moiseiwitsch said in a statement. “It will help implement our commitment to producing the very best wines from the Madison terroir, to training the next generation of viticulturists, and to creating viable jobs for local residents.”

 

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