Summer’s longest day provided the setting for an evening of food, wine and celebration at Southwest Mountains Vineyards (SMV.) On June 20, 2026, the Keswick winery hosted its Summer Solstice Wine Dinner, bringing together seasonal cuisine from Charlottesville restaurant Luce, Southwest Mountains wines, live music and midsummer-inspired traditions.
A Solstice Wine Dinner at Southwest Mountains Vineyards
Held from 7 to 11 p.m. at the vineyard, the dinner featured a multi-course meal from Luce, with each course paired with Southwest Mountains Vineyards wines. As daylight faded, the celebration continued around the firepit with floral crowns, a festive maypole and firelight.
For the culinary component, Southwest Mountains Vineyards partnered with Luce, a Charlottesville restaurant known for handmade pasta and Italian-inspired cooking. The restaurant prepared a multi-course dinner specifically for the event, with each course accompanied by a Southwest Mountains Vineyards wine.
The collaboration brought together two elements of the Charlottesville-area food and wine scene in a vineyard setting just outside the city. The evening was designed around the season, with dinner beginning during golden hour with a festive wrapping of ribbons around two May Poles that the guests had fun with before transitioning into a more relaxed nighttime gathering.
Live music added to the atmosphere, with Charlottesville guitarist Vincent Zorn performing during the dinner. Zorn is a rumba flamenco guitarist whose music draws on flamenco, Latin and jazz influences. His rhythmic style provided a lively soundtrack as guests dined and lingered into the evening with a gathering around the firepit afterwards.
The Summer Solstice Wine Dinner also offered a beautiful glimpse of Southwest Mountains Vineyards beyond its traditional tasting experience, combining estate-grown wine, food, music and the vineyard landscape in a single evening.
About Southwest Mountains Vineyards
Located in Keswick at the foot of the Southwest Mountains, Southwest Mountains Vineyards is an estate winery in Virginia’s Monticello AVA. Its tasting room and production facility opened to the public in 2023 inside a fully restored 1903 barn. The space combines the historic character of the structure with a contemporary approach to wine hospitality.
The winery’s vineyards span three estate properties in Keswick, with varied elevations, exposures and soils that create distinct growing conditions. The team farms each vineyard block with those differences in mind, cultivating varieties including Chardonnay, Viognier, Grüner Veltliner, Petit Manseng, Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot. The wines are made with an emphasis on expressing both the character of the Monticello AVA and the individual growing sites.
SMV Winemaker Boela Gerber
South African winemaker Boela Gerber, seen here at left, brings more than three decades of winemaking experience to Southwest Mountains Vineyards. After earning a degree in viticulture and oenology from Stellenbosch University in 1995, Gerber built his career through winemaking positions and harvests in South Africa, France, Italy, Spain and California. His international experience includes work in Bordeaux, Tuscany, Rioja and California, giving him a broad perspective on grape growing and winemaking across different regions.
Gerber spent more than two decades as head winemaker at Groot Constantia in Cape Town, South Africa’s oldest wine-producing estate. During his tenure, he helped establish the estate as an internationally recognized producer and earned accolades for his wines and winemaking. He also served as chairman of the Cape Winemakers’ Guild, an invitation-only organization of South African winemakers.
In 2023, Gerber began a new chapter in Virginia when he joined Southwest Mountains Vineyards as head winemaker. Drawn to the potential of the Monticello wine region, he brought experience with Bordeaux varieties and Chardonnay while working with Virginia varieties such as Petit Manseng and Grüner Veltliner. At Southwest Mountains Vineyards, Gerber and the vineyard and cellar teams focus on producing wines that reflect the region’s climate, soils and growing conditions, allowing the character of each site and vintage to guide the finished wines.
Visitors can experience Southwest Mountains Vineyards through guided tastings, table-service seating, outdoor vineyard views and seasonal food offerings. The winery also offers an intimate barrel-room tasting that provides a closer look at its wines and winemaking process. Together, the historic barn, estate vineyards and thoughtful hospitality make Southwest Mountains Vineyards a distinctive stop on the Monticello wine trail. ~
