The Women of Eastwood Farm and Winery

What happens when the talents and interests of three women – specifically a mother and two of her daughters – come together serendipitously? Sometimes it creates something magical. Athena Eastwood practiced as a commodities lawyer for twenty years and was recognized for her work helping agricultural and energy clients develop innovative strategies to combat and adapt to climate change. When she purchased a small farm just outside of the city limits of Charlottesville in 2016, she was also teaching an environmental commodities class at the University of Virginia School of Law, where the discussion often turned to the importance of developing local infrastructure – including local agriculture. At the same time, her daughter, Hannah Velie, was practicing that very theory running a non-profit farm she started in a food desert in Baltimore. Athena’s oldest daughter, Megan Velie Taub, was also focused on making a local impact – just finishing a master’s degree in developmental psychology with an emphasis on American Dream research. During that course of study, she had become passionate about the critical role of small business in creating sustainable communities. Over many shared meals and glasses of wine, the three women, along with Athena’s unstoppable partner Jeremy Christian, decided to join forces on a project in their own backyard. Eastwood Farm and Winery is now recognized as one of the fastest growing wineries of the Monticello Wine Trail.

Athena Eastwood

Athena Eastwood is a commodities lawyer, recognized for her work helping agricultural clients develop innovative strategies to combat and adapt to climate change. She was recognized as a 2021 Trailblazer by the National Law Journal for her work designing products to support innovation in sustainable agriculture and renewable energy. Eager to transition to a more local community focus, she purchased a small farm just outside the Charlottesville city limits in 2016 where she, her daughters and partner started building what is now Eastwood Farm and Winery.

Megan Taub

Co-Founder, President

Megan worked for many years on the business side of the art world as assistant director of a prominent contemporary gallery in New York City. Having also studied developmental psychology at Columbia University, with a focus on resilience and American Dream research, she has always been drawn to grass roots entrepreneurial stories and decided to take the leap herself in joining the family business. Megan has leveraged her business experience to run operations for the winery, coordinating local partnerships, and overseeing marketing and business development at Eastwood. She is looking forward to using the Eastwood platform to share some of the incredible stories of the many local community members who have followed their dreams and helped to make Charlottesville what it is today. Megan is active in the Virginia Wineries Association.

Hannah Velie 

CO-FOUNDER, chief operating officer

Hannah is known around town for her natural, farm-based skin care line, You’re in Luck. Being a locavore, and dedicated to social justice and community development, she also started and ran an urban farm in Baltimore while in college. Hannah is the daughter of Athena Eastwood and now runs the farm-to-table program and the tasting room operations for the family business. We would be remiss not to mention Hannah’s 6-year-old daughter, Josephine, who has assisted with apple and pear harvests from the very beginning (the first year, strapped to her mom’s back as a newborn).

Jeremy Christian

CO-FOUNDER, director of infrastructure and CIDERmaker

Jeremy is known by many for the numerous years he has spent in the local beverage scene in Charlottesville. Jeremy has literally moved mountains to bring this dream to life. A man of many talents and unstoppable energy, Jeremy is one of Eastwood’s cidermakers and also personally manages all farm operations.