Vineyard dogs: Meet the canine guardians of the vine

The vineyard dog is often as glamorized as the winemakers themselves, but really these animals are typically blue-collar farm dogs: loyal to their tasks and their humans, the bane of foraging creatures, the beloved heroes of the vines. SyrahGerman shepherd, 6Horton Vineyards, Gordonsville I want grapes. All the grapes. But the humans say no. They…

Read More

Visit Virginia | Shockoe Bottom, Richmond

Once the site of bondage and commerce, Richmond’s Shockoe Bottom is now home to high-end eats and shopping. Turn your back on the shiny high rises and gleaming white Capitol building in downtown Richmond. Head downhill instead, toward the river, toward a section of town with cobblestone streets, where enslaved people once trudged in coffles…

Read More

Visit Virginia | Roanoke, Star City of the South

Virginia’s largest city west of Richmond has grown into a destination for food, art and the outdoors. The man bellies up to the dimpled counter at Roanoke’s Texas Tavern, under a sign that reads, “We seat 1,000 people, 10 at a time,” and orders his meal in a code familiar to locals. “I’ll take a…

Read More

Brian Boggs, Master of The Chair

A lifetime of tinkering has led Brian Boggs to create a line of innovative woodworking tools, and some of the world’s finest chairs. “I’ve always been kind of intense,” Boggs says, “but if I’m going to do something, especially for this long, I want to know it inside and out.” Brian Boggs made what some…

Read More

The Quarantined Country Musician

Undaunted by masks, social distancing, and sheltering-in-place orders, North Carolina’s Jonathan Byrd continues to draw large audiences to his virtual performances. For more than 20 years, Jonathan Byrd has written and performed country and old-timey, flat-picking folk and rock ‘n roll, most recently at The Kraken, one of the diviest of North Carolina’s dive bars.…

Read More