Patois:
an interview with Danielle and patrick
“We identify as winemakers. Taking fruit that grows where you are, that is adapted to your climate, that is able to transmit the vagaries of time and place. Like, that’s why we’re all here, right? And for central Virginia, you can’t talk about that ecological concept without apples.”
Wine made from locally sourced fruit has long been the idea behind Patois. But when we last met up with Patrick Collins and Danielle LeCompte, the couple behind the project, it took on a whole new context. What is the nature of terroir? It is more than soil. Terroir is also, as Patrick points out, a unique circumstance of people interacting with their surroundings. Terroir emerges only when people are truly rooted in a place — their labor reveals forgotten histories, and their constraints become strengths. It is improvising with each harvest, yes-anding the fruit.
The community aspect of terroir honors the history of Virginia cider as well. Some of the apples used for Patois’ Cydonia are clippings from Tom Burford, “Professor Apple,” a pomologist and author whose family has had orchards in Virginia since 1715. The clippings were acquired by Ken Harnad in the nineties, after he returned from working in Switzerland as a chef where he developed a taste for eau de vie. They are obscure and sometimes unidentified apple varieties. Cydonia is still, not sparkling, and is an example of yes-anding the fruit: adapting to the bust or boom nature of working with a vineyard in a frost pocket.
The Capriades of Crozet
“We are not trying to do an impression of a French vigneron. We are trying to live our values. What pushed me to leave fermenting for other people is I wanted to own my labor and own my time and implement my creativity.”
Patrick and Danielle fully embrace their identity as Virginian winemakers. The goal is to live fully through the wine. Attuned to their surroundings, feeling self-actualized by approaching the project with love. Danielle points out that a connection to nature is part of what brought the two of them together. Disenchanted with their more commercial beverage industry jobs, they wanted to climb trees together as their job. They feel a return to childlike joy and wonder when harvesting fruit and making wines. In fact, they first fell in love doing just that. Patois’ first pressing was with a garbage disposal into a bucket. Danielle and Patrick were both working for the same producer at the time and bonded, making eyes at each other over bottling this first pressing in that space. Fast forward to the present where they run an entire operation as a family, imparting these same values to their three-year-old.
The values are: respecting the land, the work, the people. Patrick says that when he first started out, he initially did want to be like a French vigneron because, “What I could not articulate that I was jealous of is that they were not separate from their surroundings.” To remain as directly engaged in the creation of Patois, as Danielle and Patrick do at every step of the way from selecting fruit at harvest to foot treading and pressing themselves, precludes alienation from their labor even outside of land ownership. They are making expressive, creative, and delicious wines from apples and grapes that exceed readymade classification. Patois is its own beautiful thing. And we love drinking it.
Currently in Stock from Patois:
Cydonia 2024, Macerated Still Apple Cider
Pastiche 2022
Bricolage 2022
Quaker Run 2022
Parallel Voicing 2025
Bricolage 2021
Wine made from locally sourced fruit has long been the idea behind Patois. But when we last met up with Patrick Collins and Danielle LeCompte, the couple behind the project, it took on a whole new context. What is the nature of terroir? It is more than soil. Terroir is also, as Patrick points out, a unique circumstance of people interacting with their surroundings. Terroir emerges only when people are truly rooted in a place — their labor reveals forgotten histories, and their constraints become strengths. It is improvising with each harvest, yes-anding the fruit.
The community aspect of terroir honors the history of Virginia cider as well. Some of the apples used for Patois’ Cydonia are clippings from Tom Burford, “Professor Apple,” a pomologist and author whose family has had orchards in Virginia since 1715. The clippings were acquired by Ken Harnad in the nineties, after he returned from working in Switzerland as a chef where he developed a taste for eau de vie. They are obscure and sometimes unidentified apple varieties. Cydonia is still, not sparkling, and is an example of yes-anding the fruit: adapting to the bust or boom nature of working with a vineyard in a frost pocket.
The Capriades of Crozet
“We are not trying to do an impression of a French vigneron. We are trying to live our values. What pushed me to leave fermenting for other people is I wanted to own my labor and own my time and implement my creativity.”
Patrick and Danielle fully embrace their identity as Virginian winemakers. The goal is to live fully through the wine. Attuned to their surroundings, feeling self-actualized by approaching the project with love. Danielle points out that a connection to nature is part of what brought the two of them together. Disenchanted with their more commercial beverage industry jobs, they wanted to climb trees together as their job. They feel a return to childlike joy and wonder when harvesting fruit and making wines. In fact, they first fell in love doing just that. Patois’ first pressing was with a garbage disposal into a bucket. Danielle and Patrick were both working for the same producer at the time and bonded, making eyes at each other over bottling this first pressing in that space. Fast forward to the present where they run an entire operation as a family, imparting these same values to their three-year-old.
The values are: respecting the land, the work, the people. Patrick says that when he first started out, he initially did want to be like a French vigneron because, “What I could not articulate that I was jealous of is that they were not separate from their surroundings.” To remain as directly engaged in the creation of Patois, as Danielle and Patrick do at every step of the way from selecting fruit at harvest to foot treading and pressing themselves, precludes alienation from their labor even outside of land ownership. They are making expressive, creative, and delicious wines from apples and grapes that exceed readymade classification. Patois is its own beautiful thing. And we love drinking it.
Currently in Stock from Patois:
Cydonia 2024, Macerated Still Apple Cider
Pastiche 2022
Bricolage 2022
Quaker Run 2022
Parallel Voicing 2025
Bricolage 2021
