Randy Phillips recently got the kind of publicity that one just can’t buy.
The owner and winemaker of Cave Ridge Vineyard in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia provided some of his best wine for a dinner celebrating the 400th anniversary — that is not a typo — of the Richard Böcking Winery in Germany.
The celebration took place on June 14 and 15 in the picturesque town of Traben-Trarbach on the Middle Mosel River, ending with a reception at a 19th-century restored building that was formerly a mail-order wine shop.
He shipped five or six cases of his award-winning 2019 Fossil Hill Reserve, which won a gold medal in Virginia’s 2024 Governor’s Cup competition. It finished as one of the top 12 in a contest that drew around 750 entries from throughout one of the country’s top wine states.
Around 400 friends, family and wine media gathered for the dinner, Phillips said, providing “great coverage” for the event including his wine.
“A majority of them were from Germany, but there were quite a few U.S. wine critics there … and also some distributors that distribute their wines in the U.S.”
The underground barrel room at Cave Ridge Vineyard & Winery in Mt. Jackson, Virginia. In. 2025, it will celebrate 25 years since the first vines went into the ground.Cave Ridge Vineyard
They published some “very favorable comments” about his Fossil Hill Reserve, a blend of 60% Cabernet Franc, 20% Petit Verdot, and 20% Cabernet Sauvignon. Per the winemaker: “Notes of spice from Cabernet Franc, black olive from the Petit Verdot, and the complex nature of the Cabernet Sauvignon which adds some current and other black fruit such as cherry and plumb. The three wines were aged in a combination of French and Hungarian Oak.”
Phillips called the invitation an “honor to play a small part in the celebration of a winery that has been in the same family for 15 generations, and to have the opportunity to present our wines to an international audience.”
So how did a rural winery in Mt. Jackson, Virginia — around 150 miles northwest of Richmond and 105 miles west of Washington D.C. — find its way into a 400th anniversary party thousands of miles away?
Phillips said that Denman Zirkle, and his daughter, Sigrid Carrol, bought their family’s winery that’s located on the Mosel. They’ve also been customers of Cave Ridge, which in turn has through the years carried some of the Richard Böcking Riesling to taste aside the Riesling that Cave Ridge makes.
Phillips began planting his vines in 2001 and opened the tasting room in 2005.
Randy Phillips, owner and winemaker at Cave Ridge Vineyard in Virignia, sent cases of his 2019 Fossil Hill Reserve to the 400th anniversary celebration of the Richard Böcking Winery in Traben-Trarback, Germany.Cave Ridge Vineyard
While the German producer is known for its high-quality Riesling, it doesn’t make any red wines. So when it came time for the Zirkles to plan their dinner, they sought out Phillips, telling him that Cave Ridge’s red blend was “as good as we’re going to find out there for the money,” he recalled.
Randy and his wife Karen made the trip over for the dinner and spent about 10 days catching up with an old friend in Munich while stopping in at some wineries. It was a good opportunity to get away from making wine and instead spend a week and a half sampling it.
He left the winery in good hands. His daughter Megan is the general manager and they’re starting to train a third generation, their 14-year-old granddaughter.
The winery is also evolving, Phillips noted, as they are completing work on an events center that sits above their below-ground barrel room and can accommodate around 180 people and a large patio that will connect to it. They already have started to book weddings for next spring.
Underground at the 00-year-old Richard Böcking Winery in Germany. Owner Sigrid Carrol is in the blue coat.Randy Phillips
“We’re excited about it,” he said. “We have a small guest space, so we’ve had to turn away a lot of events. [We figured we] might as well diversify a little more. As you know, we’re selling an experience, and the county here doesn’t have a whole lot of event space, especially wineries. So we’re going to try to provide that.”
The portfolio also is evolving, evidenced by Phillips bringing a 2022 Blanc de Blanc Riesling — made using the Charmat method, a process that traps bubbles in wine via carbonation in large steel tanks — to an East Coast winemakers summit in early July.
It’s one of several sparklings they’ve been making for a program that began seven or eight years ago, Phillips said, in addition to making bubbly for a few other Virginia wineries.
“I started that when Wine Business Monthly [printed a story] showing an increase in sales of sparkling wines worldwide,” he said. “So, you know, it’s all about trying new things and following, as much as you can, consumer demands, and the sparking demand is definitely there. It does require specialized equipment, and we do everything [Charmat Method], or if somebody requests force carbonation, we do that as well. But we think the prosecco style [Charmat Method] allows me to get the wine out a little sooner and a little less expensive.”
Vineyards in Germany’s Rhine Valley.Randy Phillips
Prices for his sparklings range from $25 to $35, and those include two Blanc de Blancs — one a Riesling-based and the other Chardonnay-based — a sparkling raspberry Chambourcin rosé and a pétillant natural, or pét-nat. Three are completely dry and the raspberry has around 1 1/2% to 2% residual sugar.
He’s also planning to experiment with some natural frizzantes, he said.
All fit within the recent trends, at least nationally, of a move toward whites and sparklings in addition to lower or no alcohol. All generally cost less than a reserve red, also seemingly a consideration.
Finally, he said he plans to experiment with making a naturally low-alcohol frizzante. For now, he’s withholding judgment on when that will be ready.
“I’ve tasted some of the low and nonalcohol wines, and right now, I’m not a fan,” he said.
And, you know, the something I learned in my my other career, was that value of networking and meeting people and being out there, and you know, you find those opportunities through the relationships that that one develops.
customer of ours,
he and his daughter bought the family’s German winery on the Mosul. We’ve we carry over, over the years, we’ve carried some of their Riesling so, so people could taste the German recently, next to our recently, we we found about three acres of Riesling here, and so we got to know them. And then they bought the family’s winery to keep it in the family. And so it’s been in the same family for 400 years. And, you know, it’s amazing. And it’s, you know, it’s a, it’s a high end Riesling product producer on the Mosul. And so for their 400 year anniversary, they don’t, they don’t make red wine, and so they wanted to feature a red wine for the celebration dinner. So they said, you know, the Governor’s Cup, fossil Hill, red blood is as good as what we’re going to find out there for the money. So they shipped it over to have as the red wine for the event, which was great for us. Had great German news media coverage. And so it was, you know, it was, it was a nice, nice thing for us. Mm, hmm, yeah, how much did, how much wine Did you ship over there? Well, I shipped five to 96 cases. Okay, and about how many people showed up for the for the dinner, for 401
one for each year. Hey, that’s pretty cool. Yeah, they had about 400 people from from the majority of them were from German. But there were quite a few us wine critics there. I didn’t know they had their names, but also some distributors that distribute the wines in the US, excellent. So I’m sure you got a lot of favorable comment. Really good favorable comments, you know, oh, good for you. And I’m and I’m not surprised so that that’s good, yeah, that’s a that is a boy that’s a once in a lifetime opportunity, isn’t it? It is. And, you know, the something I learned in my my other career, was that value of networking and meeting people and being out there, and you know, you find those opportunities through the relationships that that one develops. You
we have a good team here, yeah. So I get maybe two short vacations a year, and at some point we’ll start to train up an assistant, yeah, that can eventually take that over. My daughter is General Manager here, right? And my 14 year old granddaughter gets involved as well. So we’re trying, we’re training the third generation, yeah, I just wrote about a fourth generation down in North Carolina that, yeah, it’s pretty, pretty, pretty cool. Since, to me, it’s part of the part of the attraction, the covering the industry is just, you know, the one generation after another, although I will say 400 years, that’s a different that’s a whole different story. Well, maybe they’ll stuff out
Cave Ridge Vineyard, located in Mount Jackson, VA, was chosen to provide one of its award-winning red wines, the 2019 Fossil Hill Reserve, at the 400th Anniversary celebration of the Richard Böcking Winery in Traben-Trarback, Germany. Fossil Hill 2019 won a gold medal in the 2024 Governor’s Cup Competition and was one of the top 12 of the more than 750 wines entered.
The German winery produces world-class Riesling wines that are sold in twenty-two countries, but they produce only a limited number of red wines. The celebration will take place at the winery on June 14 and 15, located in the picturesque town of Traben-Trarbach on the Middle Mosel River, ending with a reception for 400 expected guests at a 19th century restored building that was formerly a mail order wine shop.
The owners of Richard Böcking Winery, Denman Zirkle, and his daughter, Sigrid Carrol, selected Cave Ridge to provide the red wine for the celebration because of the quality of wines produced at the Virginia winery for nearly 25 years.
Owner and Winemaker Randy Phillips said, “it is an honor to play a small part in the celebration of a winery that has been in the same family for 15 generations, and to have the opportunity to present our wines to an international audience.”
Cave Ridge’s vineyard was planted beginning in 2001 and the tasting room opened in 2005. All wines are estate grown and produced and have garnered numerous gold medals and awards including winning the Shenandoah Cup twice—in 2022 for the 2019 Fossil Hill Reserve and in 2020 for the 2017 Petit Verdot.