Top 100 sparkling wines of Virginia

Discover the top 100 best sparkling wines of Virginia as well as the best winemakers in the region. Explore the varietals of the sparkling 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.

News from the vineyard of Virginia

Decanter Editor-in-Chief’s New York Fine Wine Encounter top tips

There are going to be some utterly splendid wines to taste at our New York Fine Wine Encounter – many of the world’s grandest winemakers have brought some of their very best bottles to our event, knowing their hard work and talent will be appreciated by a discerning audience.  My team of experts have picked out a great selection of their personal favourites from the wines on offer, and for their superbly detailed analysis and opinion, you should read the pieces and the picks from Georgie Hindle, ...

Buying wine en primeur: How to approach it

Colin Hay, a professor of political economy with a special interest in the Place de Bordeaux, considers the different ways of approaching en primeur purchasing, ahead of this year’s 2021 campaign. Buying en primeur wines is a rather strange and, arguably, arcane system of buying and selling in which the consumer purchases the wine typically in the early summer following the vintage even though it will not be bottled and delivered for a further 12-18 months. It is, in effect, a futures mark ...

British Duo Charged with Duping US Wine Investors in $99m Ponzi Scheme

Stephen Burton, 57, and Andrew Fuller, 55, face up to 20 years behind bars if they are convicted of duping the collectors. They set up a company called Bordeaux Cellars to conduct the alleged scam. It offered investors the chance to earn high returns by making collateralised loans secured against rare bottles of the world’s finest wines, including Domaine de la Romanée-Conti and Screaming Eagle. However, the returns were ‘too good to be true’, according to court papers filed in New York by US di ...