Masterclass

Tracey Love manages wine distribution, social media and marketing, wine club, and winery events at Blenheim Vineyards. She has been with Blenheim since 2013, and in the wine industry on all sides of hospitality and winemaking since 2006. She also co-founded Oenoverse with Reggie Leonard in 2021 with roots at Blenheim, and coordinates marketing with the Monticello Wine Trail.

Ben Jordan began his career in Sonoma County and has worked in Virginia as winemaker at Early Mountain Vineyards, as well as GM and winemaker at Michael Shaps Wineworks. Alongside his brother, Tim, he oversees his family’s wine project, Midland, and associated vineyards planted on their Shenandoah Valley farm, Mount Airy. He recently co-founded the grape breeding program, ViRV, which works with the USDA and Virginia industry to develop resistant varieties that produce high quality wines in the state’s shifting climate. Been is also a co-founder and winemaker at Common Wealth Crush Co., where he also produces Lightwell Survey wines. Ben is a graduate of Duke University and received his MFA in playwriting from Carnegie Mellon University.

Matthieu was born in Crozes Hermitage in the Rhone Valley of France and comes from a family of viticulturists and wine lovers. He first studied viticulture and oenology at Beaune. After graduating in 1995, Matthieu worked in many wine regions around France and then worked in Italy and South Africa before settling in Virginia. Arriving in 2003, Matthieu has worked with wineries throughout Virginia and is a founding member of the Winemakers’ Research Exchange and Board Member of the Monticello Wine Trail. He enjoys being active the local winemaking community and challenging his skills through experimental design at King Family, working with different terroir at Turk Mountain Vineyards, which he currently manages, and partnering with his brother to establish and expand Domaine Finot in two regions in France.

While attending University of Virginia for a degree in chemical engineering, Justin’s father pursued his dreams of opening a winery on family land near Lake Gaston in south central Virginia. Justin spent summers working the vineyard and cleaning out old hay barns on the property. A trip to Napa Valley with Rosemont viticulturist Lucie Morton introduced Justin to the idea of turning winemaking into a career. As prestigious as his chemical engineering degree was, Justin knew he needed further education about winemaking. Justin completed Napa Valley College's two-year Viticulture and Winery Technology in 10 months. The first Rosemont vintage, in 2007, made for perfect wine given the ideal hot and dry growing conditions. Today Justin is responsible for Rosemont’s 7,000 annual case production, and his wine has received accolades, from a Best in Show at the Atlantic Seaboard Wine Competition to the Virginia Governor’s Cup Gold Medal. In 2020, his peers voted him Virginia Wine Person of the Year. He is a former president of the Virginia Wineries Association. Justin continues to be drawn to the idea of improving blends and the process that goes along with experimenting with different varietals that showcase the Virginia terroir.