The Winery Williams Gap Vineyard of Virginia

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.