A Flourishing Variety
A roundtable discussion with queer + femme wine industry professionals
Join us for an engaging and exciting conversation (plus wine and snacks, duh) with wine professionals Evan Lewandowski, Lee Campbell, Summer Wolff and Núria Aviñó. They’re visiting from across the state, country and globe for the Encounter Natural Wine Festival, and we’re bringing them together in one room to hear about their experiences as femmes and LGBTQ+ people in wine.
Your ticket includes four wines to taste and snacks from Richmond favorite Alewife.
Evan Lewandowski
Winemaker, Ruth Lewandowski Wines
California, USA
Evan Lewandowski is the heart of Ruth Lewandowski Wines. It began as a personal project in 2012, stemming from Evan experimenting with obscure grape varieties from organically farmed, old vine sites in California's Mendocino County. Before then, Evan worked in wineries around the world and earned a degree at The Walla Walla Institute for Viticulture and Enology. He returned to the states and split his time between the vineyards in California, and producing the wine in his chosen hometown, Salt Lake City, Utah.
Evan’s winemaking is rooted in a hands-off philosophy, crafting heartfelt, honest wines made to showcase the true expression of the Mendocino terroir. No additives are used: no acid, no sugar, no water, no tannin, no filtration, and no cultured yeast. Evan roots his philosophies of winemaking and farming – and many other parts of his life – in the cycle of life. The name Ruth was derived from the Biblical book of Ruth and its compelling depiction of the natural cycle of death and redemption.
Lee Campbell
Sommelier, Wine consultant, Common Wealth Crush Co.
Virginia, USA
Lee Campbell is known for being an integral player in the establishment of natural wines in the United States. She spent several years working in some of Washington, D.C.’s and Manhattan’s top culinary and wine institutions, eventually becoming a norm-breaking wine director for the Tarlow Restaurant Group and founding The Big Glou and Wild World Austin natural wine fairs.
Lee recently became part of the partnership team at Common Wealth Crush Co.: a winery, custom crush facility and incubator for new producers, located in the Shenandoah Valley. She is also a wine consultant for various clients, including Early Mountain Vineyards in Madison, Virginia.
Lee is an ardent supporter of sustainable vine-farming and traditional, low-intervention winemaking. She ultimately sees herself as an advocate for the thoughtful procurement of real and soulful foods and wines, and hopes to bring a bit of beauty, grace, and slowness to the lives of the people she meets.
Summer Wolff
Winemaker + importer, Cascina Iuli, Azienda Agricola Summer Wolff, Hootananny Wines
Piedmont, Italy
Summer Wolff has had just about every wine job in the book - wine director, importer, head somm, wine broker, a marketing and export assistant, a partner in a custom wine tour company in Tuscany, a winemaker’s wife – and of fall 2021– a winemaker. Summer and her family live and work on their organic farm in Italy’s Monferrato region, where she and her husband Frabrizio Iuli make wines under the name Cascina Iuli. Summer says building and growing a winery with her husband gave her the inspiration and motivation to become an importer. She runs the natural wine import company Hootananny Wines with her best friend, born out of a common passion for the preservation of nature, a free spirited love of food, fun, song and dance, and an ongoing search for the best natural wines from artisan farmers all over the world.
Summer produces her own natural wines under the name Azienda Agricola Summer Wolff. In her own words, natural means purity, grace ,elegance, clean and individual, with a responsibility, above all, to the land you’re farming. Her goal is to continue her devotion to taking care of the land in order to take care of her children and the future generations.
Núria Aviñó
Winemaker, Clos Lentiscus
Catalunya, Spain
Núria Avinyó is at the helm of the next generation of natural winemakers. She works with her father Manel Avinyó, who began the project Clos Lentiscus in 2002, on their biodynamic vineyard just south of Barcelona, Spain. Located in the Garraf Mountains and along the Mediterranean Sea, they mainly grow native grape varieties, and believe in farming without the use of pesticides or herbicides. In biodynamic tradition, they follow the moon’s cycles for planting, pruning, harvesting, and bottling. Núria has been learning and honing her craft alongside her father for years, now putting out her own creations for Clos Lentiscus stamped with her name. She affectionately describes her wines as natural Catalan wines made with amor.