Top 100 wines of Virginia

Discover the top 100 best wines of Virginia as well as the best winemakers in the region. Explore the varietals of the wines that are popular of Virginia and the best vintages to taste in this region.

Discovering the wine region of Virginia

Virginia is a state on the eastern seaboard of the United States, located immediately South of Maryland and North of the Carolinas. The state covers 42,750 square miles (110,750 km2) of mountains, valleys and the Atlantic coastal Complex that forms its eastern border. From the Cumberland and Blue Ridge Mountains in the west to the coastal creeks and estuaries in the east, Virginia's topography and geology are varied, to say the least. The landscape around the Chesapeake Bay - a vast coastal inlet that separates the main state from its Eastern Shore - could hardly be more different from that below Mt Rogers (1,750m), 480km to the west.

The Shenandoah Valley is the largest AVA in the country. It stretches for 240 km at the foot of the Blue Ridge Mountains, the natural boundary that separates Virginia from West Virginia. The Monticello AVA is the oldest, formed in February 1984 and located around Charlottesville in Central Virginia. It has the honor of being the home of Thomas Jefferson, his extensive French wine collection and the state's first winery.

Discover the grape variety: Sauvignon blanc

Originally from Bordeaux, Sauvignon, or Sauvignon Blanc, is reputed to be one of the best French grape varieties for white wine. It is a white grape variety, not to be confused with Sauvignon Gris and its pale yellow color, or with Cabernet Sauvignon which produces red wines. Particularly famous thanks to Sancerre, Sauvignon Blanc is cultivated as far as New Zealand, where it produces great wines whose reputation is well established.

Food and wine pairing with a wine of Virginia

wines from the region of Virginia go well with generally quite well with dishes of pork, game (deer, venison) or shellfish such as recipes of very simple spaghetti carbonara, venison leg with tomato sauce or paella for dummies (simple and delicious).

Organoleptic analysis of wine of Virginia

On the nose in the region of Virginia often reveals types of flavors of non oak, earth or microbio and sometimes also flavors of vegetal, oak or spices. In the mouth in the region of Virginia is a powerful with a lot of tannins present in the mouth.

News from the vineyard of Virginia

Ancient elites drank wine infused with vanilla, says study

Researchers examining remnants of jars dating back to the kingdom of Judah found evidence that royal elites in Jerusalem may have been drinking wine ‘flavoured with vanilla’. It’s already known that wine has a long history in the region, and some studies suggest wines contained added spices or herbs. Yet researchers said they were surprised to find traces of vanillin in some of the ancient storage jars, which were excavated from debris caused by the Babylonian destruction of Jerusalem in 586 BCE ...

Sale of six-litre DRC wine ‘rescinded’ amid counterfeit concerns

Acker announced in September that it had sold a six-litre bottle of Domaine de la Romanée-Conti’s (DRC) ‘Romanée-Conti’ 2002 at a Hong Kong auction for nearly HK$3.1m (US$398,400). However, it’s understood that the sale of the bottle was subsequently cancelled. Doubts about the wine’s authenticity have been raised by lawyer and wine fraud expert Don Cornwell on the Wine Beserkers website. He also expressed concerns about another wine, a six-litre bottle of DRC Romanée-Conti 2000, which was origi ...

Iconic Italian wineries partner on wine in space project

The project was devised by FIS president Franco Maria Ricci and officially unveiled last week in Rome at the Foundation’s latest annual International Wine Culture Forum. ‘About four months ago I thought we should do some proper experiments to understand what happens to wine and vines in space. Eventually, I decided that this year’s FIS Forum had to be dedicated entirely to this subject,’ Ricci told Decanter. ‘My idea would be to understand if the vine can live and survive in space (and eve ...