In the third installment of our Virginia winemaker’s series, we meet Corry Craighill who is the head winemaker at Septenary Winery as well as her own small label Wound Tight. Corry took a winding path to where she is today, learning her craft all over the world including experiences in South Africa, Oregon, France, Australia, New Zealand, and in California with modern winemaking legends Raj Parr and Sashi Moorman. Corry is forever curious, and brings that sense of wonder and desire to learn to the wines she makes today. She is also someone who really prizes connection - connection with people, connection to the land, and connection to the juice that is made into wine. We hope you will join us on this fun journey to hear how Corry got to the place she is today, which is just the first step on what we know is going to be a great career.
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Show Notes
Special Episode! The Virginia Winemakers Series #3: Corry Craighill of Septenary Winery
Introduction 00:00
Hello, and welcome to this special episode of The Wine Pair Podcast! I’m Joe, your sommelier of reasonably priced wine, and for this special episode, I am on my own as my wine pairing partner in crime is busy making cakes for her Baby Cakes micro-bakery, which by the way you can learn more about if you head over to her website lovebabycakes.com.
Today, we are on our third interview in our series on Virginia winemakers and today we are interviewing Corry Craighill of Septenary Winery as well as her own label Wound Tight. For a bit of background, when I was initially contacted about Virginia wines and winemakers, I was going to put all of the interviews together into one episode, but that felt like a bad idea once I started talking to the winemakers and getting their stories. And you’ll be able to hear more why once you hear Corry’s story.
Corry had a fairly roundabout path to get to where she is today, but one of the things I really was thrilled by in her story was that she had the chance to not only meet Raj Parr, whose wines I love, but she worked a season in one of the wineries he is associated with just because she wanted to learn. I will also note that about 3 weeks before we spoke, Corry had just given birth to her first child - so I really can’t thank her enough for taking the time to talk with us. Not only that, we spoke in August, so she was just getting into the busy harvest season. So, you don’t want to miss this story.
Before we get to Corry, let’s do a quick orientation to what we usually do in our podcast because many of you may be here for the first time, and we are happy to welcome you to our podcast tribe. Now, in most episodes we learn about, taste, and review two to three wines that are reasonably priced, which means under $25 each, and should be easy to find. However, for this special set of episodes, we interview people who are involved in actually making wine. Because part of what we want to do with our podcast is to educate ourselves and you on different aspects of wine knowledge in a fun, entertaining, and unstuffy way, and that is what we are doing today!
A small plug before we get to the interview with Justin - if you like what you are hearing or are interested in hearing our other “regular” episodes, please subscribe or follow our podcast so you can hear more - especially since you are only getting one half of The Wine Pair Podcast in this episode! You can also go to our website thewinepairpodcast.com to send us a note or subscribe to our newsletter, you can follow us on Instagram and Bluesky at The Wine Pair Podcast, and, if you like what you are hearing, you can even leave us a nice rating and review!
But without further ado, let’s head over to our interview with Corry Craighill
Interview with Corry Craighill of Septenary Winery 02:55
Hi Corry, and welcome to The Wine Pair Podcast. Thanks for joining us and being willing to share your story. We have had lots of listeners ask us to do more on Virginia wine and Virginia winemakers, and so this is giving all of us a great opportunity to learn more by talking with you.
Are you ready to jump in?
Interview Questions:
- Tell us about your family background growing up and if wine played a role at all, and then tell us how you ended up as a winemaker, and a winemaker in Virginia
- What do you think makes Virginia wine special?
- What is your prediction on what will make Virginia wines take off?
- What is one wine you are very proud of that you make?
- How can our listeners find you and your wines?
Outro and How to Find Corry Craighill of Septenary Winery 37:35
Thank you very much for listening to our interview with Corry - and again, you couldn’t tell in our conversation, but Corry is a new mom and so I am not sure how she was so clear headed and engaging in the midst of the new parent fog. So good on her! Here is information about Corry and her wines, and we really hope you will take the time to search them out, and you can find these links in our show notes:
- Website for Septenary: https://www.septenarywinery.com/
- Email for Septenary: info@septenarywinery.com
- Website for Wound Tight: https://www.woundtight.com/
- Email for Wound Tight: woundtightwine@gmail.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/woundtightwine/
Thank you again, and, we hope you will subscribe to our podcast and follow us on Instagram and Bluesky, please visit our website at thewinepairpodcast.com where you can reach out to us and sign up for our newsletter, and you can also reach out to me at joe@thewinepairpodcast.com if you want more information, especially if you have winemakers you think we should interview, and we look forward to hearing from you!
But for now it’s time to go, and as we like to say, life is short, so stop drinking shitty wine.
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