Happy Friday — we’re back with more Hot Bones and some good community news. So far, the HB crew has helped donate $74 to the Shenandoah National Park Trust. Big changes start with small ripples, and we’re just getting rolling.

As the official philanthropic partner of the park, the Trust does cool things like:

Always nice to not wake up at 3am with a black bear sniffing around your wafer-thin tent.

Reminder: Each new subscriber to Hot Bones means another $2 donated to the Trust.

➡ Here’s your unique referral link for when you’re ready to keep the momentum going: {{ rp_refer_url }}

➡ Or just forward this email to the person you have in mind and they can sign up here.

Do one long thumb scroll for more Cville-specific updates like local events, cool houses, and pets to adopt.

🐶 Speaking of: Madden! This loverboy is looking for a safe and caring companion in exchange for undying loyalty and as many slobbery kisses as you’d like, especially when you’re headed out the door in work clothes (lab mix, year and a half, 40 lbs).

The downside of living in a sustainability-oriented and civic-minded city like Charlottesville is that the month of April may kill you.

Last Saturday alone, there were 12 Earth Month events. And for some reason I thought I could get to all of them. I’ll have so much future Hot Bones material, I thought on Friday night.

But then came the logistical swirlies. There were 12 events. That’s a lot of events. And that’s a ton of events for an introvert.

On Saturday morning, I stared at the event list I’d made and actually processed it. The back of my knees got sweaty, and I had to sit down. Then I fully panicked, yelled some weird gobbledegoop at G, and sprinted outside to do de-stress through lawn mowing therapy. I did not attend a single climate event that day.

I have a sneaking suspicion we’re all feeling the pinch right now, even beyond the sustainability craze. G has been up to her neck in Tom Tom events, UVA students are on an adderall exam bender in the library, and best of luck to anyone in the Cville wedding industry right now.

When I came back inside from gardening, I collapsed next to G on the couch.

“I’m missing the eco fair and the bike race and the thing at Rivanna River Co and star gazing. And garlic mustard pulling! My dad will be so disappointed. He hates garlic mustard.”

“It’s okay. You can’t get to everything.”

“How is April so insane.”

“It truly is so stupid.”

“Can we just hang out and drink wine somewhere? Instead of all this other stuff?”

When you get the logistical swirlies, it’s high time to cancel all your plans and do something simple. Like drinking.

Thankfully, Charlottesville is bursting at the seams with wineries and breweries and meaderies and whatever Gen Zers are drinking these days, so G and I had no shortage of options for our escape.

The other bit of good news is that Cville is the king of (take your pick of buzzwords here) biodynamic, low-intervention, all-natural, raw, and unadulterated wine, which is why I’m counting our date as Hot Bones material. It’s great when something that’s good for newsletters, plants, and local ecosystems is also just the act of sipping cold glasses of wine on a hot day.

We went to Ethos on W Main right above the Amtrak station. Good bike parking, good car parking, good chill vibes.

G is the wine expert, especially natural wine. I follow her lead and test whatever she’s drinking. Then I go back to my tea or ginger ale and start dealing cards to play gin rummy.

Well first, most natural or low-intervention wines have amazing branding, so if you’re like me and pick wine by the label, you’ll already be a fan. Eastwood winery even has an annual wine label art competition.

And looking inside the bottle, all-natural wine is appealing in the same way that linen pants instead of slinky polyester trousers are appealing. It’s great to not have a lot of chemicals and other crap near you. Also, style points.

The best way I can describe natural wine is just that there’s a lot less stuff included besides grapes. Not much added, not much taken away. There’s no natural wine certification or governing body, but most of these wines follow practices like:

When you pour a glass, natural wine is often cloudy because it’s unfiltered, and you might find wine gloop at the bottom of the bottle. People often say things like “funky” or “distinctive” when they have their first sip.

Lastly, as you might have already guessed, low-intervention wines are often more expensive. That’s because they come in small batches from local wineries, and so they don’t have the economies of scale that larger operations have. The pricing tradeoff is that, because they don’t have to produce consistent vintages year over year for millions of Costco customers, they also don’t have to include all those stabilizing additives and other crappola. Each vintage can stand alone, taste and style wise.

All of which is to say, G and I spent a great and expensive afternoon at Ethos testing a few different wines and playing round after round of cards.

Here’s what we enjoyed.

HER: Chenin Blanc from Wellington, South Africa

📖 Backstory: This is an all-natural wine produced by Adama Wines, an all-women-run South African company spanning multiple generations.

🙋 No stupid questions: This is a white wine.

🍷 Fancy wine descriptions: Mango, yellow apple, white pear

🫠 First impressions: “Really good.”

“Anything else, wine maestro?”

“You can really taste the apple. I’d be great on a hot day if you chilled it right to the bone.”

“Also great for cider lovers.”

“This might be my favorite, and we’ve only tasted one so far. Also, it’s your turn to draw.”

DJUCE NAKED ORANGE: Grüner Veltliner from Burgenland, Austria

📖 Backstory: This unique wine brand has done cool things like switching from bottles to cans, which apparently saves nearly 80% of the CO2 emissions from packaging. The winemakers also use concrete “eggs” to ferment the wine instead of traditional oak barrels or stainless steel.

🙋 No stupid questions: This is an orange wine, which is actually made from white wine grapes that are then fermented with the skin and seeds included.

🍷 Fancy wine descriptions: papaya, apricot marmalade, bitter orange

🫠 First impressions: “Definitely the funkiest.”

“For sure. I mean, it’s orange and you can’t see through it.”

“Okay, my first impression is that this is the bottle you buy to impress your friend from Brooklyn, but not for your in-laws.”

“Also friendly reminder, the last time you drank orange wine you broke out in hives, so maybe just a few more sips of this one.”

SANTO TOMAS: Cab Sav from Baja, Mexico

📖 Backstory: Oldest winery in the region, established by Jesuit missionaries in the 1700s. It’s now run by a female winemaker who’s prioritizing reduced yields and low intervention techniques.

🙋 No stupid questions: Cabernet Sauvignon is a red wine and it’s actually the world's most popular red wine grape.

🍷 Fancy wine descriptions: blackberry, smoked cherry, bramble fruits

🫠 First impressions: “Oooo I love that.”

“It tastes like there’s blood in my mouth?”

“... ugh Charlotte. Why. But yeah, there’s definitely a metallic thing going on.”

“I meant, I still like it. But it’s strong.”

BONUS: GHOST IN THE SCENE

📖 Backstory: This is a Chambourcin and macerated Vidal Blanc mix from Common Wealth Crush, a new wine incubator and bar in Waynesboro.

🙋 No stupid questions: It’s a mix of red and white wine but it’s not a rosé. (A rosé is actually typically made by letting the skins of red grapes bleed into the juice a little bit.)

✏️ Note: Good to keep cellar-cold, not fridge-cold.

🫠 First impressions: “Juicy.”

“Anything else? Any other impressions?”

“Yeah, gin rummy.”

G lays out a perfect 7-streak of diamonds.

“You’re killing me. How am I supposed to relax if you keep winning.”

In Cville: Check out the patio at Ethos or the big front window seat. Crush Pad on the mall is another great option, especially around dinnertime when you can order Luce pasta from next door.

Near Cville: Common Wealth in Waynesboro is a fun new spot to check out, with lots of other stores popping up in the historic Virginia Metalcrafters Building. Oakencroft off Garth Road is another good option if you’re looking for a quiet afternoon (they have a pond too). If you’re looking for a drive, Revelation south of Sperryville has amazing wine and incredible views.

National: Domestique is one of top wine shops in the country, with headquarters in DC. They ship nationally and have impeccable taste. They’re also having a unique, musical wine tasting event this Sunday.

And most important of all … when you’re wine tasting just remember that April is almost over. May will definitely be less busy for all of us, and June will be practically dead quiet. Definitely.

Driving back from Common Wealth Crush last week, I finally remembered to slow down and take the scenic vista turnoff on 64. Crazy what you find when you’re not blasting 90 mph down the interstate.

The Hot Bones vintage caps are almost all gone. It’s time for a new merch drop.

🌸 Festivals of the week: Watch the rubber duck river race at SperryFest this Saturday, then enjoy the last day of the Indie Book Crawl in Staunton, and don’t miss Porchella’s live music on Sunday evening in Belmont.

☀️ You got a fast car: UVA’s solar car team will be at the inaugural Virginia Solar Exhibition this Saturday and Sunday, where they’ll see how many miles their car can clock powered solely by the sun.

🏠 Cottage of the week: Total seclusion in this 1950s craftsman cottage on 21 acres with private hiking trails, a huge Franklin stove, and a fully updated kitchen and bathrooms (3 beds, 3 baths, $525k in Barboursville).

🏡 Cool rental of the week: If you’ve ever walked your dog at Foxhaven, here’s what the inside of the historic stone house looks like, including custom mullioned windows, four functional fireplaces, and beautifully maintained gardens (5 beds, 3 baths, $6,500/month outside Cville).

🎙️ Bop of the week: Fridays After Five is up and running again for 2026. This week starts at 5:30pm in conjunction with the Tom Tom block party.

🐦 Bioblitz is on: Join the Cville community effort to find, identify, and record as many species as possible within Riverview Park. It’s part science, part scavenger hunt. All you’ll need is your phone and the iNaturalist app. Sunday, 3-5pm. All skill levels and ages welcome.

💼 Cville job of the week: Chief of Staff at PowerLines ($100k - $150k, technically hybrid in DC).

💾 Remote job: Writer for Our World in Data (£80k - £120k, remote but also open to work at HQ in Oxford, UK).

P.S. The Ivy recycling center is hosting its free bi-annual furniture collection day on Saturday from 8:30am - 4pm. Great time to toss that old mattress your in-laws keep complaining about.

There’s also a new bus route from Harrisonburg all the way to Virginia Beach, with Cville on the way.

And most importantly, Peter Chang is coming back this summer to solve all our takeout indecision.

Have an event or rec you’d like to share? Hiring? Interested in advertising? Share any and all info here.