At the annual Virginia Vineyards Association meeting on Feb. 21st, Virginia Secretary of Agriculture Matthew Lohr presented the annual Grower of the Year Award to Tremain Hatch, of Zephaniah Vineyards in Loudoun County. “He has been involved in the industry since he was a teenager and has become one of the most respected viticulturists in the state. His determination and drive have helped Virginia’s wine industry to thrive and become a tremendous economic driver for the Commonwealth,” said Lohr in his presentation remarks. Tremain Hatch comments on being awarded 2024 Virginia Vineyards Associa ..read more

As the largest industry event east of the Pacific states, EWE provides Eastern U.S. and Canadian wineries, vineyards and suppliers with an affordable and professional meeting place, trade show and Eastern-focused conference. EWE Workshops & Conference. The 2024 program features 49 Speakers presenting 49 workshop & conference sessions. It kicks off March 12 with three full-day Workshops featuring deep dives on Money & Management; Sustainable & Organic Viticulture & Winemaking; and Bottling & Canning. The two-day Conference includes sessions in Enology and Viticulture pl ..read more

My Favorite Wines of 2023 Virginia Wines ****Pippin Hill Wild Acre Reserve ’17: This debut high-end reserve red blend for Pippin Hill is something special. Made of 60% estate-grown Tannat and 40% Cabernet Franc, the nose is of ripe black fruits and clean earth with dried cherries. The palate is all about texture, like drinking dark purple velvet! Tannins are very smooth and the fruit is ripe, but it still needs a few years for the fruit to flesh out to match the structure. Winner of the Monticello Cup Wine Competition in 2023. ****Arterra Tannat ‘19 (Delaplane, VA) When you think about ..read more

CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA – The Charlottesville Albemarle Convention and Visitors Bureau (CACVB) announces that the Charlottesville area and the Monticello American Viticultural Area (AVA) have won Wine Region of the Year in Wine Enthusiast’s 2023 Wine Star Awards. The Charlottesville area was just one of five wine regions nominated around the world for this prestigious award and was the only nominee located in North America. Wine Enthusiast’s executive media team made its winning selections based on many factors, including impact on c ..read more

I’ve been pleased to meet Jimmy Rosen and his wife Robin at the Wine Guild, who moved to Charlottesville from South Carolina almost a year ago and have been delighted to discover so many wineries with such fine wines in the Old Dominion. Here in a guest column, Jimmy shares his tasting notes and other impressions from his visit to Linden Vineyards in August. Linden Vineyards— to use corporate speak — clearly exceeded our expectations–no simple feat since we expected a lot except for the gravel roads which a city guy like me never anticipates. Linden is not the place for people who relish Manha ..read more

A growing season without major frost damage, mostly dry with cool nights through mid-September makes it look like 2023 will be a banner vintage for Virginia. Reports so far indicate that the whites were harvested in nice, ripe numbers almost without exception. Early-ripening reds in some parts of the state were hit with heavy rains, but this was site-based and not a general problem. Look for a more detailed harvest assessment from me in the fall/winter edition of Wine & Country Life ..read more

This week, Wine Enthusiast magazine named its four picks for Wine Region of the Year. Charlottesville, VA and its Monticello AVA were in first place, followed by Lambrusco, Italy; Provence, France; and Swartland, South Africa. The magazine noted that, despite the irony of Thomas Jefferson’s failed ambitions to create an American fine wine region, starting with his own vineyard at Monticello, two centuries later, “a thriving wine industry has grown along the Monticello Wine Trail, through the heart of the eponymous AVA near the city of Charlottesville.” They pointed out that earlier this year ..read more

I’m honored to share that Lois Lindstrom, non-fiction author and host of the television show “The Bookman’s Corner” on Loislindstrom.com and Comcast Channel 69, has interviewed me about the third edition of my book Beyond Jefferson’s Vines: the Evolution of Quality Wine in Virginia. This interview will be aired starting this Thursday 8/9 through 9/8 on  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dPguX_JB8Tw . For those interested, Beyond Jefferson’s Vines may be purchased from Amazon by visiting https://www.amazon.com/dp/0578701146 ..read more

The seventh annual East Coast Wineries Summit, organized by Paul Vigna, editor at Penn Live, took place on July 31st at Crossvines, an incubator winery in Poolesville, MD. The facility is part of a county and state agriculture district aiming to foster the development of Maryland agriculture, which happily includes a vineyard and winery. Summit organizer Paul Vigna opens the event John Levenberg is the winemaker at Crossvines, and explained that the “incubator” model allows those considering starting a winery to begin on a very small scale at the facility, and gradually move on to their own pr ..read more

People keep asking me if this is all I do for a living, as if I got paid for driving around the Finger Lakes on the rainiest week of the summer (so far). It’s hard work, driving through the back roads between Seneca and Keuka Lakes in the pouring rain, tasting (and spitting) dozens of wines throughout a long week, but SOMEONE’s got to do it, (even if they’re not being paid for it). I suppose I could just email everyone and ask them to send me their best wines to give 90 point-plus scores to, (cough-cough, suck-up wine writers)… But that’s not what I’m about. I only review wines east of the Roc ..read more