A changing of the guard at the Williamsburg Winery

Stooping down to pick up a wayward piece of trash that’s found itself adrift on a gravel pathway at the Williamsburg Winery, Patrick Duffeler’s expression is wry.

“I also pick up the litter,” he said good-naturedly.

At 5800 Wessex Hundred, Duffeler has worn many hats during his nearly 40 years of running the winery. In addition to beautification — picking up the odd bit of litter, straightening picture frames, re-centering rugs — he’s also the winery’s primary meeter and greeter, stopping by guests’ tables to clasp their hands and tell them it’s good to see them, as well as the mastermind behind just about every facet of the winery’s expansive operation.

But now, Duffeler has stepped back from his CEO role, recently turning the reins over to a fellow winery owner.

Walking the sprawling corridors of the winery feels like taking a journey through Duffeler’s scrapbook. From the ornate antiquities lining the maze of halls to the Formula 1 posters adorning the walls in the winery’s hotel, Wedmore Place, each corner of the expansive property is decorated in shades of Duffeler’s vision — and his innate sense of European style. Gesturing at the wide wooden doors that stand at the front of Wedmore Place, Duffeler said, “I made these.” Further into the building, there’s another set of doors, just as ornately carved, which Duffeler also claims.

On the top floor of the main building, which also houses tasting rooms, a shop and, naturally, plenty of award-winning wine, his office is bright and sprawling, with a large desk scattered with papers and a computer, where he stores the many pictures detailing his long, always-interesting life.

Before coming to Williamsburg and opening the winery in the 1980s, Belgium-born Duffeler lived many lives, pieces of which are now captured in the winery’s decor.

At 15, he’d decided he was going to go on a “quest for freedom,” said Duffeler, who was born in 1942. “It was my opportunity for freedom and opportunities.” He completed his last year of high school in the U.S.

While in college, he worked at Eastman Kodak, working during the day and taking classes at night. Then in 1970, he got a job in Switzerland working for Philip Morris International and created the inaugural Marlboro Formula 1 car team, though he never smoked a day in his life, he said. After his father, George, was diagnosed with emphysema, Duffeler began searching for something else to do with his life — something that he really liked, as his wife, Peggy, who died in 2004, suggested.

Eventually, this led to Duffeler and Peggy searching for a farm to buy to realize their vision of starting a winery. In 1983, they finally found what they were looking for at Wessex Hundred: “300 acres alongside a creek where an agricultural business could blossom,” as described on the winery’s website. They began growing grapes on the property, which lies in James City County just south of Williamsburg, and in 1988 released their first bottle of wine.

“The biggest reward I have is when people say, ‘I love coming here,’” Duffeler said. “It puts warmth in yourself. Some people say, oh, I made so many millions, but that’s not what life is all about. Life’s about achieving something where you have solid relationships and where you have added an element to your community.”

Now in his 80s, Duffeler is still hands-on and active. Every morning, he does 40 pushups, and just about every day, he gets out into his own Black Forest, which stretches out along the back half of the 400-acre property, where he planted thousands of trees and continues to manage, chopping down small saplings.

Though Duffeler recently stepped down from his CEO role, those who worked with him say his legacy and influence will shape the winery for decades to come.

Annette Boyd, marketing director of the Virginia Wine Board, has known Duffeler since the 1980s, when he joined the original Virginia Winegrower Advisory Board. Throughout the years, Duffeler was appointed by a number of governors to serve on the Virginia Wine Board, which promotes the interests of vineyards and wineries in the state.

“His contributions to Virginia Wine, I don’t even know how you would calculate that,” Boyd said. “We are decades ahead of any other state that is nearby us in terms of the caliber and the quality of our wines, and that is directly attributed to the work of the Virginia Wine Board, of which Patrick has been a part of a number of times.”

Throughout the decades, the Williamsburg Winery has been one of the premier wineries in the state, Boyd added.

“When you have wines and wineries like Williamsburg, there is a saying in our industry: A rising tide lifts all ships,” she said. “That is so true when you have strong team players interested in building quality product and not only the quality of the wines, but the caliber of the hospitality. It’s all part of the package.”

Michael Weatherly, who was named the winery’s new CEO in May, was a fan long before he became involved with the winery’s business.

For years, he and his wife traveled to Williamsburg to visit the winery, and over time, Weatherly and Duffeler built a relationship. When Weatherly purchased his farm in the Shenandoah Valley, he came to Duffeler to ask for advice. Then, when Duffeler was ready to take a step back, he went to Weatherly, by then a minority shareholder with Williamsburg Winery, to ask if he’d be interested in taking on the role.

“With Patrick being a mentor and still continuing to be, I was very familiar with the business,” Weatherly said. “Being one of the shareholders, understanding how the business operates, I’ve spent a lot of time there so I’ve gotten to know a lot of the employees already, and they knew who I was.

“It’s a big business. There’s a lot to it, with the restaurant and the hotel and everything with the wine and in general.”

During his first month as CEO, Weatherly has been working to get to know the business and its employees even better as well as looking for ways to continue to build on what Duffeler and his wife, Francoise, have already done. Among the Duffelers’ more recent additions is an ongoing art exhibit in the winery’s Susan Constant Hall Tasting Room, highlighting work by local artists.

Currently, the Williamsburg Winery is one of six wineries that falls within the Virginia Peninsula American Viticultural Area, which extends from New Kent County to the Newport News area. An American Viticultural Area, or AVA, “is a geographically defined grape-growing zone with boundaries determined by the U.S. government,” the Peninsula Wine Trail website says, adding that the Virginia Peninsula is the eighth federally recognized winegrowing region in Virginia.

Weatherly is also hoping to create a sister winery dynamic between the Williamsburg Winery and his property in the Shenandoah Valley, Ecco Adesso Vineyards. Already the wineries are collaborating on a wine, using grapes harvested on Weatherly’s farm last year.

“It’s really all about teamwork and partnerships and trying to find where it makes sense to grow the brand,” he said.

The Williamsburg Winery has already welcomed some new additions thanks to Weatherly and the winery’s new chief operating officer, Michael Kokolis, who brought in 10 new beehives in May. They hope to use the hives and honey to introduce new practices and programs to the winery.

Weatherly and his wife, Cierra, are the founders of Vet First Inc., a nonprofit that employs veterans in regenerative farming methods that grow produce for those in need, and the hives will eventually be maintained by veterans, who will be trained to care for the bees and harvest honey. The plan is to also eventually bring in sheep, which Weatherly already has at Ecco Adesso, to help reduce weeds in a regenerative agriculture-friendly way.

“I’m really excited about the future,” Weatherly said. “My wife Cierra and I are just really excited about carrying on the vision and legacy that (Duffeler and his family) have created.”

With so much to look forward to at the winery, Duffeler will still be close at hand to lend an ear.

“He’s not CEO anymore, but he’s not going anywhere,” Weatherly said. “Every day I’m on site, I go meet with him and chat about what’s going on and ask him any questions. Obviously, with a business that’s been around that long and as big as it is, there’s a lot of questions. Sometimes it’s silly, small stuff and sometimes it’s big stuff, so it’s good to know that he’s going to be around.”

Peggy is the “spiritual mother” of the winery. She and Duffeler had two sons, Patrick II, who served as the winery’s CEO for a handful of years before Duffeler took it back over, and Terrence, an executive at JPMorgan Chase. In 2007, Duffeler married Francoise, whom he had first met a number of years before. Plans aren’t yet set in stone, but Duffeler mentioned the possibility of moving with Francoise to France.

Boyd said she wasn’t exactly surprised to hear that Duffeler was planning to take a step back and hand over the CEO role. After decades of hard work, he deserves it, she said, though she wondered how much he would really step away. Likewise, Weatherly joked that it wouldn’t be so much of a retirement as nominal changing of the guard.

With characteristic humor, Duffeler offered his own vision of what his future role might be: “I told Michael, I’ll be the doddering idiot,” he said with a chuckle.

Sian Wilkerson, 757-342-6616, sian.wilkerson@pilotonline.com