Growing up in the Shenandoah Valley means glimpses of the night sky that are clearer than elsewhere in Virginia.
Fond memories of night skies influenced the name of a Shenandoah Valley-grown wine created by two college friends and their wives.
“Star Party is really born out of Mike’s and my creativity early on almost 12 years ago,” said Tim Jordan, who is also co-owner of Common Wealth Crush in Waynesboro, where Star Party is fermented and bottled.
In an astronomy book, the college friends who attended the University of Mary Washington, found Star Party, which means a group of individuals looking up at a star-filled night sky.
“So, that really kind of resonated with all of us,” Jordan said of he and his business partners, his wife, Mary Kate Law, and Emma and Mike Gutzler, who also attended UMW. Mary Kate and Emma, who graduated UMW in 2003, are sisters.
The name also fit, according to Jordan, because the clarity of the air in the Valley cannot be found anywhere else in Virginia and allows for less rain, an ideal environment for growing grapes to make wine. Star Party really began to come together in 2021.
In the late 1800s through the early 1900s, the Valley was a leader in North America for growing apples. Orchards were later ripped out and replaced by beef cattle.
“The Valley was a fruit basket,” Jordan, who graduated UMW in 2005 with a degree in Environmental Science, said. Jordan also holds a master’s from Virginia Tech, during which he studied the impact of insects eating field corn, and a doctorate from Virginia Tech during which he studied the impact of insects eating wine grapes.
Jordan, who grew up in Swoope, lives on his family farm in Fort Defiance where he began to grow four acres of a hybrid grape in 2019 for Star Party. Cattle also call the farm home.
“So that’s where our wine journey started in Virginia was in Fort Defiance. And that’s where we learned, from trial and error, how to grow grapes,” Jordan said of himself and his brother, Ben Jordan, who also co-owns Common Wealth Crush.
While pursuing his doctorate at Virginia Tech, Tim Jordan began growing grapes in 2007 and studying how insects impact wine grapes. He anticipated working for an agricultural company, not becoming a winemaker. After the death of their father and grandparents, the Fort Defiance farm passed to the Jordan brothers.
Star Party wine is also made from grapes from a vineyard in Middlebrook. In 2021, Jordan and Gutzler produced three different Star Party vintages, six vintages in 2022, nine in 2023 and nine in 2024.
The 2023 Cabernet Franc, for example, was created with grapes from Timberville and Middlebrook.
“So, it’s 100 percent Shenandoah Valley,” Jordan said of Star Party, which briefly had tasting rooms at the former Clocktower Restaurant and then the site of the former Emilio’s Restaurant in downtown Staunton in summer 2024.
Jordan and Gutzler both have full-time day jobs. Jordan is a vineyard consultant and a winemaker, as well as full-time with Common Wealth Crush. Gutzler is a full-time pastor with a Lutheran church in Northern Virginia. So the pair produces only 400 cases of Star Party wine per year, which does not yet justify a dedicated space for a tasting room. By comparison, Barren Ridge Vineyards, where Jordan was a winemaker from 2016 to 2018, produces 5,000 cases per year and CrossKeys Vineyard produces 10,000 cases per year.
“We’re really small change in comparison to the rest of the [local wine] industry,” Jordan said.
For now, Star Party wines are available in Common Wealth Crush’s Waynesboro tasting room. And the business partners rely on 50 percent of Star Party cases going to distributors who make it possible for customers to buy the wine at shops and restaurants all over Virginia. The Shack and Zynodoa in downtown Staunton offer vintages of Star Party.
Star Party is also available in a few Massachusetts restaurants, where Gutzler is originally from.
Regent, a 2023 Star Party vintage, is available at The Shack and was grown nearly organic in Fort Defiance.
“It produced a phenomenal wine,” Jordan said.
Jordan will continue to work on growing hybrid grapes, which are more resilient to climate changes in Virginia, and focus on how to grow grapes as organic as possible. His vision is that hybrid grapes will replace conventional vinifera which is in contrast to more resilient “hybrid” grapes.
“It’s about storytelling, and our story is just getting started,” Jordan said of Star Party.
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Rebecca Barnabi
