Elizabeth Pelly on Merrie Mill & Virginia Wine Country

What happens when an art-loving couple trades London for Virginia Wine Country with a baby in tow and a wild idea to start a vineyard? You get Merrie Mill Farm & Vineyard—one of the most visually stunning, community-focused, and creative wine experiences in the region.

In this episode, I’m joined by Elizabeth Pelly, co-owner of Merrie Mill and one of the women I’m most excited for our Wine Camp crew to meet this summer. She shares the story behind how Merrie Mill came to be, why their soil and wine are so special, and how she’s infused her artistic eye into every inch of their tasting room (yes, even the ceilings!).

We chat about:

• The leap from London to Keswick—and how a wedding changed everything
• Building a vineyard and community from the ground up
• What makes Virginia wine unique (and why it’s finally getting noticed)
• Designing a tasting room that feels more like a home
• Bringing art, ballet, books, and British vintage cars to the vineyard
• The magic of gathering over great wine

Whether you’re a wine lover, a design junkie, or someone dreaming of doing something wildly different with your life, this episode will lift your spirits and spark your imagination.

Connect with Elizabeth and Merrie Mill:

Website: https://www.merriemillfarm.com
Instagram: @merriemillfarmandvineyard

🍷 Want in on next year’s retreat?
 Get on the list for Wine Camp 2025 here: https://pennyforyourshots.com/winecamp2025

Join my Insiders crew for weekly updates, tips, inspiration, and fun: https://www.pennyforyourshots.com/insider

Looking for my courses or options to work together? https://www.pennyforyourshots.com/about

Wanna sip with us? Join my Sipper Club here: https://pennyforyourshots.com/sip

Learn More, get on the list, or Register for Wine Camp 2025: https://pennyforyourshots.com/winecamp2025

To connect with Penny, get notified, or learn more, check out www.pennyforyourshots.com

- Follow Penny on Instagram: @penny4yourshots
- Or Facebook: Penny (Kuhlers) Fitzgerald

Transcript

Elizabeth Pelly on Merrie Mill & Virginia Wine Country

If you noticed a little glow up in the intro, why, Thank you. We're keeping things snappy and spirited just like today's guest. I'm so excited to introduce you to Elizabeth Pelly, Artist, entrepreneur and co-owner of Merrie Mill Farm and Vineyard; one of the unforgettable stops on our upcoming wine camp retreat in Virginia wine country. 

Elizabeth and her husband moved from London to Keswick, Virginia with a wild dream. To buy a farm, plant a vineyard, and build a [00:01:00] space that's equal parts. Art gallery, wine destination, and community hub. In today's conversation, she shares what makes Virginia wine so special, how they created an experience that feels more like a home than a tasting room, and why every corner of Merrie Mill has a story to tell, including a taxidermy sea lion named Chantal.

Yes, really. If you're coming to Wine Camp this July, get ready. We'll be visiting Elizabeth's gorgeous vineyard in person. And if you're not on the list yet for wine Camp updates, I. Girl, what are you waiting for? Head over to Penny for your Shots dot com slash wine Camp 2025 and get in on all the juicy details.

For now, let's pour a glass and dive into my chat with Elizabeth Pelly of Merrie Mill Farm and Vineyard.

Elizabeth Pelly: Hey Penny. How are you? I'm good. How are you? Yeah, really doing really well. Thanks. 

Penny Fitzgerald: Nice meet you. You too. Wonderful. 

 So Elizabeth, I'm so [00:02:00] curious about your background. I read on your website that you and your husband were attending a wedding, right? In Virginia. Yeah, 

Elizabeth Pelly: exactly. 

my husband Guy is English and we moved here from London. So there, there's often the common misconception that we're both English because. We did move here from England, but um, I was over there doing, uh, part of my master's degree at Sotheby's Institute of Art, and I met Guy and I was meant to stay for three months and I stayed for six years.

Um, so that's what we were doing in England. And then we had just had our first daughter and we. A friend, uh, I went to UVA as like, okay, oh, nice. Going back to the real, the real roots of why we're here. I went to UVA, 

Um, but we had a UV, a friend of mine got married and Guy and I flew over with our sort of six month old at the time, and the wedding was at Castle [00:03:00] Hill, which is. Like five miles down the road. It's really close to where we are right now, where we live. Yeah. It's a Cery and um, guy. My husband just fell in love with Virginia and he was kind of like, why have you never brought me to this part of America?

It's beautiful. Um, you know, it's not European history, but when it comes to American history, it's the hotbed and, you know, the most historic place. Pretty rich, really rich in history and um, mm-hmm. It's really reminiscent of the English countryside, the rolling hills. Oh yeah, the fox hunting. My HU husband grew up fox hunting and riding horses.

Oh. And so there's a lot of similarities between this area. Um, not to mention Keswick is a English word and they pronounce it "Kez-ick". So it's taken my husband all of six years to say Keswick when his friends go, what do you say? Mm-hmm. He started this whole idea, [00:04:00] it was not me. People ask me all the time, how did you convince your husband to move to America?

And really, I loved being in London and I thought we were gonna be there for, you know, maybe forever. Mm-hmm. And he said, let's do this. The, you know, the wine thing in Virginia's really interesting. I think we should buy a farm and plant a vineyard and. I thought he was absolutely crazy. Um, and I told him, and he found this farm, Merrie Mill he found it online and he said, let's go back and, and look at this farm.

And I said, no way. I'm not going back. But you know, you go knock yourself out. Go see the farm. 

Penny Fitzgerald: And then. He came back in October to meet with some estate people and land managers. And then we were in America for Thanksgiving at my home in Tennessee, my parents' house.

Elizabeth Pelly: And he said, you have to come see this farm. So we took a little side trip during Thanksgiving and I said, wow, you know, it's great. [00:05:00] and we moved le it was less than a year from the wedding and the first time guy stepped foot in Virginia when we moved to Keswick.

Wow. Uh, that's fantastic. We planted the grapes in 2018. Okay. Um, and then we did a very long renovation on our house, which was built in 1857. 

Audio Only - All Participants: Mm. 

Elizabeth Pelly: Um. And we built the tasting room and opened everything up, opened doors in May of 2021. 

Penny Fitzgerald: Wow. Whirlwind. 

Elizabeth Pelly: It's been, it's been a lot. And we had a child in between all that time.

And then we had another. So, um, we, we've done a lot in a short amount of time and a lot of times it really felt crazy. And what are we doing? And sometimes it still does, you know, you're like. I hope we made the right choice, but it's really, you know, it's a beautiful place to live and I wanted to create something different than the other wineries, [00:06:00] and I think I have accomplished that.

So I'm, I hear that a lot and that brings me great joy to know that I've created something just a little bit different and a little unique to the, to the wine world here. Nice. 

Penny Fitzgerald: Well, and for our, for my listeners who may not know, a lot of my listeners are in the know about wine camp and many of them are coming and going to be visiting your winery, which we're very excited about.

But for those that don't know, we have Wine camp coming up. Um, it's a retreat that my partner Robin and I hold every year. Um, this is our second year, so I can say every now Good. Um, but yeah, we're, um, coming in July. 25th to Merrie Mill Estates. Uh, is it called Merrie Mill Estates? Merrie Mill Farm and Winery?

It's, um, 

Elizabeth Pelly: it's called Merrie Mill Farm. And Vineyard. 

Penny Fitzgerald: And Vineyard. Okay. And it's gorgeous and we can't wait to see it. So that's one of the reasons I wanted to have you on the show is because, well, first of all, I love [00:07:00] lifting up female entrepreneurs and thank you. Yeah, absolutely. Thank you for being on. It's just, it's amazing.

I mean. You are, um, very artful and thank you. You have taken, I was just, I was 

Elizabeth Pelly: actually, um, I was a studio art major at UVA. Okay. So art's my background and that's, um, that's also why I, um. You know, that's why I was in London as well for 

Audio Only - All Participants: Oh, cool. 

Elizabeth Pelly: Yeah. Uh, studying, um, art and museum studies at Sotheby's. Um, so that's, that's my background and I've been able to harness that creativity into my design work now.

Penny Fitzgerald: Yeah. Wow. Well, the pictures online are stunning. The tasting room and well, even the whole property. I mean, you look out over the vineyards and over the mountains. I can't wait for you to see 

Elizabeth Pelly: it in person. I Oh, 

Penny Fitzgerald: me too. Yeah. We're gonna have a wonderful time and um, I know the ladies are gonna just absolutely love it.[00:08:00] 

Elizabeth Pelly: Uh, well, I hope so. That's the point. But I'll tell you a little bit about our mission and who we are. Yes, please. Um, is we're really, I kind of call it trifold. Um, so it's about the wine, definitely about the wine. We wanna create great, amazing quality wine. Good wine. We want it to be, um, inclusive wine. We want it to be casual drinking wine.

We want you to enjoy it now, enjoy it in a few years, but, you know, don't take it too seriously, right? It's, um, mm-hmm. It's fun. It's for everyone. And we, we have, we've got great soil, which I'll tell you about. Uh, so we are able to make a really high quality wine, and that is one of the sort of pillars. Um, the other pillar is the experience, the space that I've created.

So it's about the space too. It's the tasting room is really an extension of my home. That's the way I looked at it when I was designing it. Um, there's soft furnishings, there's [00:09:00] wallpaper, there's personal artwork, um, and lots of different mix of modern and eclectic, modern and antique and, uh, different styles.

There's lots of color, there's lots of pattern, there's lots of texture. I am a maximalist. More is more. Um, so we want you to enjoy that space and enjoy the grounds and the, the property that we've created. And the third thing we wanna do is host, host events for the community. So we're really community focused as well.

Um, we do a art festival twice a year, an art festival and a book fair. And we do that twice a year. Uh, we do a British vintage car show once a year. Um, we host a holiday market, an outdoor winter holiday market in December, uh, with mold wine and fire pits. And, um, we host an [00:10:00] outdoor performance series every other year with a Charlottesville ballet.

They bring a mobile stage to Mary Mel. Wow. And they do series of three days of outdoor performances and they partner with the Charlottesville, um. Opera and they partner with, uh, the chamber singers and the Oratorio Society and the Symphony, and they do three days of like really magical outdoor, uh, performances.

Bringing the ballet to us, bringing the ballet to people that might not, um, have access to it or bringing the ballet to just a different, a different place. Mm-hmm. Uh, so we are working on. Other fun events. Um, we're doing a, we are partnering with Land Rover, actually our art festival's tomorrow. Oh wow. And we're partnering with Land Rover and they're bringing a bunch of Vintage Land Rovers and New Land Rovers and, um, they, they're gonna let people test drive, I think [00:11:00] the Land Rovers around the farm, which dunno.

Um, so, you know, we, we did a, um, a wine lunch during, there was a, I don't know if you are familiar, but there was a Women in Wine month, um, was, I think it was in March. It just happened and we hosted, it wasn't March and we hosted, uh, because my winemaker's a female, Emily Hobson mm-hmm. Who, um, comes from Veritas.

So Emily and I hosted a, a wine lunch and a, a tasting where we. You know, it was one of those things where I was like, this is gonna be so embarrassing because we're probably not gonna sell any tickets, but whatever. And we sold out immediately and it was so wonderful that people wanna come and hear your story.

Yes. And they wanna come and, and hear it straight from you. So that was great. And we might do more of these wine lunches. Um, awesome. We've done, we did a Build Your Own Bouquet workshop for Mother's Day. So we [00:12:00] really wanna do events that engage the community and that, um. You know, obviously get people to Merrie Mill, but also mm-hmm.

Create a, a space for them to, to, to do a new, to do something new or to, um, you know, experience a farm outside of just eating and drinking you. So mm-hmm. That's kind of what we're about. So I hope when you're there, you'll, you know, we won't have an event going on, but you'll take in and understand like, this, this space is really important to the experience.

Penny Fitzgerald: Yeah, we're bringing our, bringing our event to you, so, 

Elizabeth Pelly: yeah, 

Penny Fitzgerald: exactly. Wonderful. Well, yeah, I think we sell ourselves short so often that we think that, oh, nobody would wanna do that. Nobody would wanna hang out with me. But 

Elizabeth Pelly: it's just, I was like so important to build community. Nobody even knows that we're hosting this event, so it won't be so embarrassing when we don't sell any tickets and suddenly we're like, have a wait list of people that wanted to join that couldn't so.

I'm glad [00:13:00] to know that and we will do more of these things. And it was really educational too. Emily did a great, great, um, we, we just tasted the reserves. So we have, we make 10 wines a year, and eight of them are kind of our core series. Um, it's a rose, a white blend, a vier, a petite menen, and then a red blend.

Uh, petite Verdot, a cab, Frank and Merlo. And those are our core series. And we two do two extra special wine that are our reserve series. So they're aged a bit longer, um, and they are more premium and they're called the Rock Tree Chardonnay and the Calibus Cab Sauvignon. So with Emily, we just tasted the rock tree and the Calab, the Rock Tree, and the Calab base.

And um, you know, she went into. You know, all the tech technical, you know, technical notes about the wine and the grape and when, when we harvest and when we do this. And people had great [00:14:00] questions to ask both of us. They wanted to know about the history of the farm and they wanted to know about the viticulture.

So it was a really fun. Celebration of women and wine. 

Penny Fitzgerald: Mm. I love it. I, I'm gonna have, um, Emily on the show soon too, so, um, listeners stay tuned for that. Yeah, she's, I'm so glad that she's scheduled everything. Glad I connected 

Elizabeth Pelly: you guys, but I didn't see where it went, so I'm glad it went somewhere. Yes.

Penny Fitzgerald: Thank you so much. Yes, absolutely. I'm really looking forward to chatting with her and, um, mm-hmm. Talking to a female winemaker. I, I'm a little prejudiced. She's just great. Yeah, I'm sure. I mean, she's the head wine maker for you and for Veritas as well as part of the Veritas family, 

Elizabeth Pelly: and she's been doing it for 20 something years.

Yeah. Um, we, we are really close with the Hodgsons because when we started this crazy idea, we, we enlisted the help of George, her brother George, and he was, Hmm. He was our consultant about, you know, what, where should we put this and what should we do that, and how big does this need to [00:15:00] be? And really, you know, do we really need a bathroom here?

And how big should the parking lot be? And he was doing it for so long. We finally said, George, we need to pay you. Like you. It started out as a nice favor. We're like, now we really need to. Pay you because you are offering such a great consult con consultant service. Mm-hmm. Um, and now Emily's the winemaker.

So we love the family. They, they love bringing great wine to Virginia and it's, you know, it's not all about them. It's a rising tide floats all bits. So we're, we're really pleased to have been able to benefit from their years of experience. Um, and Emily has never made a cab Sauvignon. 'cause they don't have the soil over there.

So she made Cap Souvignon here and I can tell you a little bit about her soil, but I just wanted to point out that she wanted gold medal at the Governor's Cup for her first cab souvignon she's ever made. 

Audio Only - All Participants: Hmm. And 

Elizabeth Pelly: that's incredible. Amazing. Um. We, we have this [00:16:00] soil, um, it's called Manteo, M-A-N-T-E-O. And it's not the Virginia red clay, which everybody's got and everybody makes great wine on.

And that we, we do have two of our acres are the Virginia red Clay 'cause they're right by the tasting room, but 12 of our 10 of our acres and we're now planting three more are up on a ridge and it is mano soil, which is really rocky and well draining. So, 

Audio Only - All Participants: wow. 

Elizabeth Pelly: The grape doesn't wanna sit in water. The vine wants to search.

Mm-hmm. And try and find the water. And it wants a struggle. It's like a metaphor for life. The, the harder the struggle, the stronger the vine and the better the fruit. So yeah, they love this soil. And, um, it, she took a big handful of it home and it's sitting in a jar on her desk. 'cause she just couldn't believe what she was seeing.

That these, all this like, you know. Great rock in the soil. So that, that was kind of like we, we, we struck gold with that soil. So [00:17:00] we have decided, um, you know, as we're growing, we've had to buy in some grapes from other vineyards. And this could be either demand or, uh, damage from grape, from, from the fruit for frost.

So we've decided to plant, um, three more acres, which will allow us to use. You know, as much as possible only our estate grapes. 

Penny Fitzgerald: Nice. That's very cool to, to be able to say that. That's really big. Yeah. Now, was Guy in the, in the wine industry before or how did, how did you segue into wine? 

Elizabeth Pelly: Um, this idea segue us into wine, just, okay, we're gonna do this, this romantic 

Penny Fitzgerald: notion, 

Elizabeth Pelly: we're gonna plant this vineyard so we better learn a little bit.

So we, we both started a course. We started a course at Christie's, the auction house. Yeah. Um, obviously they, there, there's a big wine component and this is when we still lived in London. And so we started this eight week wine course to just [00:18:00] really knock out as much knowledge as possible. And about week two or three, I found out I was pregnant.

And not only was I not, not, you know, I could, I could taste the wine right and it's fine, uhhuh, I did not want to taste the wine. I did not want to smell the wine. I was like, I quit the class. So Guy finished the course on his own. Um, and from then it's just been a real learning curve. Um, so we've been learning as we go.

I. 

Penny Fitzgerald: Wow. Yeah. That I can imagine. Um, 

Elizabeth Pelly: I'm, I'm a big, big believer and if you don't know how to do it, find someone who does and learn from them. Yeah. Or get them to do it for you. Right. Like we bring them on board, make wine. That's not where our skillset is, so mm-hmm. We do, it's called custom crush. Emily makes the wine for us.

We know where, where to put our focus and um, and that makes a whole lot of sense to us. You know, I have no desire to make wine. I have a desire. Yeah. That's. Build a venue that people want to be in, and I have a [00:19:00] desire to, you know, that hospitality aspect is a real desire and I have desire for our wine to be great.

And we are really involved in the wine making process. So we do tastings with Emily and she'll say, we kind of. We, we are influencing the taste direction, you know, more oak, less oak. We should put more of, uh, petite verdot in the blend and less of the petite men saying in that blend. So we, we taste and we inform the way the direction's going.

And that could be personal taste, um, preferences, or it could be mm-hmm. What do our customers want and what is mm-hmm. You know, what is selling and what is not selling and um, so there's a lot of different aspects. It's a process. 

Penny Fitzgerald: Yeah, it's a real process. Um, I live in Iowa, um, a little over half the year and our, um, wine industry here.

Um. What was selling [00:20:00] 20 years ago was just sweet, sweet wines. People loved. Oh 

Elizabeth Pelly: yeah. People ask for sweet wines a lot here. Yeah. And we don't have sweet wine, but you know what? The petite mensing. Is the closest thing to kind of off dry uhhuh. And so we've been, we take that into consideration and we say maybe we should have, you know, put less of the petite men saying in the blend and have more single varietal petite men saying, 'cause it could check that box for a 

Penny Fitzgerald: customer who wants, if someone comes in or a group comes in and you have somebody that likes Sweet.

Yeah. Yeah, it's, I I feel like it's a, it's, well, it's a definitely a pendulum. So you swing, you start with something sweet and you move into something a little bit drier. A little bit drier, and soon you're loving them all. Yeah, exactly. But yeah, you really have to kind of educate your palate or the more you taste, the more you learn what you really like and what goes well with exactly foods that you like and what you enjoy and yeah.

That's wonderful. 

Elizabeth Pelly: Um, I, this is. The petite man saying, made me think of this. It's a [00:21:00] little off topic, but I don't know if you read, there's a really great New York Times article that came out this week. Um, Virginia, you know that there's the phrase Virginia is for lovers. Yeah. Do you know that phrase? Yeah, I do.

So the article title is Finally Virginia, is for Wine Lovers. 

Penny Fitzgerald: Oh, I love it. And 

Elizabeth Pelly: the article talks about, um, this, this mentality that, you know, Virginia. Now has its own identity, which is really great because for a while there, there we were, you know, years ago trying to be California, trying to emulate the French, trying to do the, and now there's been enough, um, experience and enough time has passed and enough we've put in the hours and, and we're not trying to be anybody else but who we are and I think it's a great place for Virginia wine to be.

Its own identity and really recognized for doing great things in the wine industry. Absolutely. 'cause you [00:22:00] think about people probably turned their nose up at Australian wine 50 years ago, right? Mm-hmm. Like what? Wine from Australia. It's not from Italy or France and Chilean wine. All these things. Yeah.

That we're, we're gaining great momentum and, um, I think it's gonna, I think Virginia Wine's gonna start to be recognized. Um. You know better and better as we continue to produce great products, and as we continue to create a really inclusive, wonderful environment and industry, 

Penny Fitzgerald: I. Right, right. And to find what really works there, because certain grapes, like you were saying, don't grow in certain soils and certain climates.

So finding what works for you in your area, like Petite Eaux and Cabernet Franc are really well known there. Right. Really well done. And 

Elizabeth Pelly: vi and vier as well. 

Penny Fitzgerald: Mm-hmm. Yes. 

Elizabeth Pelly: Um, so it's these Bordeaux style French wines that really do well in this climate. Also understanding our limitations. Like we're never gonna be [00:23:00] organic.

We can't do it, you know, our climate humidity, you have to, it, it might not be bugs you have to spray for, but you have to spray for some of those bacteria and the things that, um, can really damage the fruit. And so I think it's, it's. Check out the article before you come this way. 'cause I think it'll be really interesting for you to read.

Penny Fitzgerald: Okay. I'll share that with our, with our group too, for sure. You know, and this, the whole organic notion, um, it sounds, it's buzzy. I mean, people are talking about wanting to be more pure and more natural, more organic, and that's great, but. Some, you know, I, I don't think people realize how intentional farmers and vineyard owners, um, yeah.

Are actually, you know, they're very careful with not only what types of chemicals they use or what types of. Things that they need to use for vineyard management. They're stewards of the vines. Yeah. And of the soil. They're not going to over. Um, 

Elizabeth Pelly: [00:24:00] exactly. We want them to be healthy vines we don't want, you know.

Penny Fitzgerald: Exactly. 

Elizabeth Pelly: So, um, and you're right. Organic's a buzzword and sometimes it, you know, it's not the right thing to do. 

Audio Only - All Participants: Mm-hmm. 

Elizabeth Pelly: Yeah, exactly. Wow. I'm getting thirsty just talking to you. I know. I was like, I should have had a glass of wine while 

Penny Fitzgerald: we were chatting. Would that be, I know this was a missed opportunity on our part.

Audio Only - All Participants: Mm-hmm. 

Penny Fitzgerald: It is earlier in the day though, so happy hour will begin soon. Yeah. It's only two 30. Yes. Yes, yes. Oh gosh. Okay. So tell us a little bit about your, um, the tasting room. 'cause it sounds gorgeous. It looks gorgeous online. 

Elizabeth Pelly: Yeah. How did you furnish 

Penny Fitzgerald: it? 

Elizabeth Pelly: I, I had a decorator that was helping me. Um, and we always chat like, how do you, we we're like, what do you think our relationship is?

Is it you doing more? Me? And we, we really both agree it's 50 50. She brings 50% of the ideas to the table. I bring 50% of the ideas to the table. [00:25:00] She, um, orchestrate, she puts all my ideas into reality. Right. I don't know how much. Okay. How much fabric to, to order for a drape or how much wallpaper to order for a wall.

But, um, I wanted it to feel. Like a home, like I said earlier, just, um, a comfortable place that is different. And I, you know, a a a someone who came in early days, just having a look around, someone else in the industry said, oh my gosh, I can't believe you're putting wallpaper in the bathroom. Aren't you worried that's gonna get ruined?

And I can't believe you're putting, uh, a rub down here, or that that sofa is white. Aren't you worried? And you know. I, I wasn't, and then I thought, should I be, and listen, people for the most part are really respectful and that's good. Um, and I, I love the tasting room. Um, there's a lot of color, there's a lot of texture.

Um, I've got a, uh, [00:26:00] I sea lion hanging from the ceiling. Um, this is taxidermied sea lion. And she raises a lot of eyebrows. she's floating on big pink balloons. Um, and the story, her name is Chantal, and the story of Chantal is, 

I love animals. Um, I love to, to. To look at animals and I love to share their beauty. So, um, that's why I have the taxidermy I have and it's all old. And Chantal's story is really great if you look and make sure you look when you're here, if you look up under her belly, she has really, um, obvious stitching on her flippers and on her down her belly.

And she was done in the last quarter of the 19th century in the Victorian era, so like 1875. 

 so we are celebrating Chantal and she's hanging in the tasting room and she's fun and it's a great photo op. Um, and the other thing that gave me [00:27:00] inspiration for my design was. Um, in my art and museum studies course, I learned about sort of the precursor to museums and the precursor to museums were these cabinets of curiosity.

So, you know, in the Victorian era, people would go traveling with their trunks and they would collect artifacts and souvenirs from all the places all over the world, and they'd come home and display these really exotic, interesting. Trinkets and it was often in a cabinet of curiosity. So I have a lot of things to look at.

There's a lot to look at. I've got these beautiful bird cages with these tiny, really meticulously, beautifully painted birds, and they wind up and they tweet and it looks like the bird's tweeting.

Wow. You know, personal artwork, ev things. I've collected one, one of the prints, um, I spent a semester abroad when I was 20 years old in Avignon, [00:28:00] France. And I bought a wine map of France, you know, oh, 23 years ago. And I pulled it out of I'm, thank goodness my mother saved everything and I have it all. I pulled it outta an old folder and I said, I'm gonna frame this.

It's in the tasting room now. 23 years ago when I bought it, I had no idea it would go anywhere. We have a painting above fireplace of my husband's great, great grandfather. Um, and we have pictures of his other grandfather, his great grandfather and his grandfather doing really, one of 'em is fly fishing on a horse in Scotland.

It's just a beautiful, um, scene and we, above the tasting bar, we have these stained glass windows that my mother-in-law. Had in her attic and she said, does anybody want these stained glass windows? I don't know what in the world I'm gonna do with these stain glass windows. One of them has the Pelly signet, which is an elephant in a crown and initials JPG, 

so these windows, these stained glass windows [00:29:00] that. Um, nobody wanted in the family. 

Penny Fitzgerald: And that's John Gurney Pelly that's guy's father's initials.

Elizabeth Pelly: So they're, they're family heirlooms, but nobody knew what to do with them. And I said, I'll do something with them, box them, crate them up, and send them to me in Virginia. And we're hanging them above the tasting bar. Near a window. So they get, they catch some light and it's just interesting things. It's interesting, historic things.

Everything has a story. When we, um, when we hired our first team of tasting room associates and we were giving them kind of the first intros to their job, I started by talking about the tasting room and my husband had to stop me and say. Lizzie, we only have an hour. You are, you have talked for 45 minutes.

And so I could go on and on about everything in there has a a story and that's special to me. I hope you'll appreciate and love it and it's not everybody's style.

I know. I know that, you know, you might not wanna live there, but I [00:30:00] hope you wanna enjoy a few hours there. Yeah. 

Penny Fitzgerald: While we're there for sure. Well, and wouldn't it be fun. To do an event that was like maybe a scavenger hunt for find this particular artifact or 

Elizabeth Pelly: we have That is just funny you say that. There is somebody I think who's done something similar to that and I can't remember, but this is jogging my memory and I think maybe something had happened.

Like, and, but I, I thought at one point, um, of doing a detail of the day on my Instagram, ah, you know, nice. And to be totally honest. I've got so much on my plate and Instagram is, needs to be better at it. But I'm not that, I'm not that great at it. I 

Penny Fitzgerald: get it. Yeah. It's a lot. But 

Elizabeth Pelly: there's a lot I could do. But there was, I, you know, I started making a list of the detail of the day.

What could I put on this, you know, and highlight some special thing in the tasting room and tell it story. Yeah. But I, we have told this story to a lot of. To all of our staff. So people ask [00:31:00] questions a lot and sometimes they'll come to me and say, Hey, people keep asking a question about that. Can you tell me the, you know, the history or the origin?

Penny Fitzgerald: Nice. Yeah, I know it, it looks so, um, it just looks like, like I'd wanna go and like look for all the details. You know, I saw the elephant on your website and now knowing the story behind it is so cool. The sea Lion. No, no, the elephant on your, like the art, the, uh, crest. Oh, oh, 

Elizabeth Pelly: oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. The, this, the crest.

Yeah. Yeah, yeah. I was like, oh, no, it's not an elephant hanging from the ceiling. I hope you know that. Well, that I saw the C seal too, but that's my, um, yeah, it's the Pelly family Crest is the elephant in the crown. Yeah. Um, which, you know, I think my husband probably has a sign ring. He, he's never worn with it.

Uh, but it's cool. It's just fun to, to draw those really personal things into the message. 

Penny Fitzgerald: Mm-hmm. One of my girlfriends is really into elephants. She's gonna love that. 

Elizabeth Pelly: I'm glad. 

Penny Fitzgerald: Yeah. Yeah. Great. I just, [00:32:00] yeah, we're, look, so looking forward to coming and visiting and seeing all the things and tasting all the wine.

Thanks for choosing 

Elizabeth Pelly: us to be one of your stops. I really, we're really thrilled. Uh, I can't wait to hear the after thoughts. 

Penny Fitzgerald: Yeah, for sure. Yeah. And yeah, and I can't wait to talk to, um. Emily either. She's coming up soon on the podcast and I'll 

Elizabeth Pelly: get over her. I'm so pleased, pleased to talking to her. She's got so much knowledge and she presents it in a really easy to understand way.

It's never like com it, she makes it very accessible. It's not comp, you know, it could be really complex. And she's like, oh, 

Penny Fitzgerald: absolutely. Really? 

Elizabeth Pelly: The name of that, uh, chemical is C 9 12 42 18. But, you know, like, so it's, it's chemistry, you know, it's like it is. He's a scientist, 

Penny Fitzgerald: right? Yeah. It's part, part science and part finesse, part love, part romanticism.

It's just you have to have a really good palette, which I feel like women have very good [00:33:00] palettes, are pretty, um, I'm prejudice, but I feel like women have, have a better palate for tasting like some of the nuances of things that you really wanna put in the wine or that you want it to re represent or express and.

It's just, it's, it's an art. She great that, but it's also science. Yeah. I can't wait to talk to her too. It's, 

Elizabeth Pelly: it's very scientific. I'm always like, Uhhuh and she'll get, she'll get excited about, oh, I put a little different, I put, you know, a yeast called, you know, B 18 three in this one, and look at like, can you taste the difference?

And you're like, wow. Yeah. Would not have known its yeast. 

Penny Fitzgerald: Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Nice. Um, so what have I not asked you that you'd love to share with our group or with anyone listening? 

Elizabeth Pelly: I think I shared a lot. I mean, I also own a shop in town, um, in Charles called Feast. And so Feast is a gourmet grocery store and a [00:34:00] cafe.

Um, and I bought Feast two years ago, and there's some really great synergies between the two businesses. So we sell, there's an, there's a great wine selection at Feast, so now we're selling the Merrie Mill wine at Feast. Um, and it's the only retailer we have. Everything else is direct to consumer for, you know, onsite or wine club.

That's the only way you can get our wine. Um, except now you can buy it at Feast. Okay. And then Feast makes really great food, super high quality, wonderful ingredients and products. So most of the Merry Mill menu is now coming from Feast. 

Penny Fitzgerald: Oh, wow. Nice. So 

Elizabeth Pelly: great synergy between the two businesses. It keeps me very busy.

Um, but I, I was really pleased because it really upped Merrie Mill's food game and it, it, we started. Being able to serve a, a really, a much better quality product, um, and more interesting flavors. So, um, hopefully you'll be trying, trying some of that. 

Penny Fitzgerald: Yeah, absolutely. We, [00:35:00] yes. You're 

Elizabeth Pelly: hummus and cheese? 

Penny Fitzgerald: Yes. Yep.

We're doing a couple platters. So those, 

Elizabeth Pelly: it, we make both of the, the hummus and cheese we make at feast. And sell it at Feast. So if you guys are in in town in Charlottesville, you could pop by and check out the shop because it's got some really, really cool, cool products. I think. I think I like being unique, right?

Having a unique tasting room, doing something a little different. And at Feast I like to stock products that you might not see anywhere else, and you might not even know what they are at first, but, um, we, you know, hopefully also educate you to. How to use these products or mm-hmm. Or encourage you, our tagline there is feed your curiosity.

So encourage you to try a new flavor or cook with a new product. Um, or try a different wine or, or, you know, so that's, that's sort of the, the two, two things that, you know, other than my three children, those are the things that keep me busy. 

Penny Fitzgerald: They're all kids. Right. [00:36:00] These projects that you're nurturing and bringing up and, exactly.

Yeah. 

Elizabeth Pelly: Many and then so many, you know, hope you'll learn about our wine club. We've got a great wine club. Um, unfortunately we can only ship to DC and Virginia right now. Okay. Every state is a separate a, b, c shipping license and it's just yeah. A real, you know, it's a real thing. Yeah. So you might, um, broaden our shipping.

Capabilities, but right now we can't. So I'm not sure where your ladies are coming from and whether Wine Club makes sense for them or not, but yeah. Um, we host wine club dinners, uh, for, for their, the pick. We post pickup parties and Oh, nice, nice. Have a ticketed, really nice dinner, and it's again. We get a hundred people.

We, we, we, we have to host two dinners at pickup now because we're getting so many people that wanna come to these dinners and it's a great community. And, you know, they, people, I, I meet people [00:37:00] who say, we are so close now when we met here three years ago, um, at, during a wine club dinner or whatever. So it's fun to see how, how something I've created has brought people together.

Penny Fitzgerald: Yes, wine brings people together. 

Elizabeth Pelly: Yeah, I think it definitely. 

Penny Fitzgerald: Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. And you know, I keep thinking too that you're, you're a boutique style winery that, and you're very, uh, near the beginning of your starting phases of growth. So it's really gonna be exciting for those of us coming to be a part of that and to kind of watch your growth as you go.

Yeah, I mean, we're 

Elizabeth Pelly: only, we are 21 was our first vintage, so 

Penny Fitzgerald: Yeah. 

Elizabeth Pelly: We're now getting, we're now starting to drink 23 and 24 is. Working its way up. It's ready. 

Penny Fitzgerald: Yeah. Well, yeah, and I, a lot of people, our group will, will know we're wine drinkers. We love our wine. So a lot [00:38:00] of people though don't necessarily know that.

Okay. Wine. You just, you don't just pick the grapes, turn it into wine and drink it whenever you know, like now it's ready. Yeah. That's not the way it works. So you have to age at a certain amount of time. Yeah. It's a process. It's 

Elizabeth Pelly: the real process. And sometimes it gets really confusing 'cause you're like, all right, it's, it's the year 2025.

So what grapes are, what grapes are in barrel? Okay. The 24 grapes were in barrel. And then what's in bottle? Okay. 23 is in bottle, so sometimes it's get, I get, like I have to check myself about which, which vintage are we on? Uhhuh, but actually this is interesting. Just we opened, um, in 2021 intending to sell our 2020 vintage, but May, in May of 2020, we had a frost on Mother's Day.

It was the latest frost in something like a hundred years, and we lost 80% of our harvest. So we didn't even pick, we just, we, we, we lost a whole year. And um, the good thing is when there's no fruit on the [00:39:00] vine, the vine focuses on the vine. So it just made the vine that much stronger. But we had no wine, so we opened our tasting room, selling somebody else's wine.

So for a year, wow. We sold a different table wine in our tasting room, and until our wine was ready and you just. You pivot when you need to pivot and mm-hmm. It wasn't our intention, but it, we handled it and you know, it's just weather. Right? We're like, we're beholden to mother nature. 

Penny Fitzgerald: Nothing you can control.

Elizabeth Pelly: Yeah, exactly. Yeah. 

Penny Fitzgerald: That's been a really recurring theme among so many of the entrepreneurs that, you know, you have these things that come up that you, you know, you can plan till you're blue in the face and have all the, all your ducks in a row, but some things come, come in and. You just need to be able to think on your feet and be resilient and Yeah.

And 

Elizabeth Pelly: pivot and yeah, and pivot and, and tell the story. Whatever the story is, tell the story. Yes. It might be a different story now. 

Penny Fitzgerald: Yeah, exactly. Get on the other side of it, but you know, and some, for so many [00:40:00] it's just hard to get there. You know, you might have limited funds or you might have. Not the right resources or timing or it's just difficult for people to get from here to there and see the, you can't see the end of it in when you're in the thick of it.

Elizabeth Pelly: Exactly. Oh, no, you can't. You're just like, can't see the forest through trees. Right, 

Penny Fitzgerald: right. Exactly. Exactly. That's why we have wine to drink. 

Elizabeth Pelly: Exactly. To calm us down and just make it all seem 

Penny Fitzgerald: okay. 

Elizabeth Pelly: That's right. Get through it. 

Penny Fitzgerald: And friends, friends. 

Elizabeth Pelly: People ask me and my husband, oh, what vineyards do you like in Virginia?

What? And we are always like, we don't really go to that many other Ven. We need to kind of busy professional curiosity. We need to get out there and go see what other people are doing. And you know, but we just, it's hard to leave when it's all right here on your doorstep. Yeah. Well, and you're busy 

Penny Fitzgerald: running it, you know?

Yeah, exactly. You're, uh, one foot in front of the other when you're, you know, an [00:41:00] entrepreneur. 

Elizabeth Pelly: Yeah. 

Penny Fitzgerald: Building the train as it's going down the track is the way I've heard it described many times. 

Elizabeth Pelly: Yeah. That's a great way of looking at it. You're right. It's like, just keep up, keep going. It's gonna keep going whether you want it or want it to or not.

Penny Fitzgerald: Uhhuh, 

Elizabeth Pelly: unless you crash and you don't want 

Penny Fitzgerald: that 

Elizabeth Pelly: Crashing is not 

Penny Fitzgerald: good. Oh, no, no. Well, okay, so Wine and Friends brings me to, um, the fun question I like to ask at the end of my conversation. Mm-hmm. So what, what's your favorite. Kind of wine. What's your favorite wine that you guys carry? What, what, what do you love to drink?

Elizabeth Pelly: Um, I really love our calibus, our cab souvignon. I think it's great. Um, I think it's really well balanced. Um, and it is age worthy, so it can, it's, it's one that you could keep on your shelf for five years and drink Nice. But you can also drink it now, which is nice. So I think we, we drink. Guy and I drink a lot of that.

Um, and [00:42:00] do you know what? It's so boring, but our rose is so popular, everybody loves Rose. Mm-hmm. Um, but if I'm not drinking wine, I'm a real gin and tonic girl. 

Audio Only - All Participants: Mm. I just talk to someone that speak for my 

Elizabeth Pelly: days in England, you know? Nice. Oh sure. Love nice C and tea, but I like it with lemon, not lime. 

Penny Fitzgerald: Oh, interesting.

I'm gonna have to try that. It's to me, gin and tonics go hand in hand with golf. A lot of things go hand in hand with golf, swing oil, you know, you gotta have the right, right amount, but Exactly. But yeah, I would, I'm gonna try lemon next time just to see. 

Elizabeth Pelly: Yeah. 

Penny Fitzgerald: Let me know what you 

Elizabeth Pelly: think. 

Penny Fitzgerald: Yeah, absolutely.

Okay. So tell me about a, a fun tell with, with friends over a nice glass of wine or, or g and t. 

Elizabeth Pelly: Um, you know what we, I. Just recently hosted a birthday party for myself and it was a karaoke happy birthday. [00:43:00] It was a what? Um, karaoke party. Ah, and that is something that you need a glass of wine or a cocktail in order to participate.

Yes. And I was like, oh, I don't know if people are gonna get into it or not. It might be. Suddenly the DJ never played any regular music because the, the cue for karaoke was so long. Everybody wanted to sing whether they were good or not great or nervous, or not nervous or old or young. My children sang about a million songs.

It was super fun, and I was like, you know what? I love it. Probably wouldn't have been as much fun without that open bar. 

Penny Fitzgerald: No, absolutely not. You know, the more you drink, the better I sound. So drink up a 

Elizabeth Pelly: little lip. Liquid courage. You know? So that was a really fun time with a lot of glasses of a lot of different things.

I love that. A lot of that, that a lot of, 

Penny Fitzgerald: I love karaoke. 

Elizabeth Pelly: It was so, we had a, we had a really, [00:44:00] really good time. 

Penny Fitzgerald: Oh, nice. 

Wonderful o Okay, so, Elizabeth. where can people find information about Merrie Mill? 

Elizabeth Pelly: we've got a website, www.merriemillfarm.com and we are on Instagram, Merrie Mill Farm and Vineyard. We're on Facebook. Um, join our mailing list to find out about the cool events we're doing, or check us out on Instagram. 

Penny Fitzgerald: Wonderful. Yes. And I can't wait to see you guys in July. 

Elizabeth Pelly: Same. It's been such a pleasure talking to you.

Penny Fitzgerald: Yeah, you too.