In Charlottesville, history, innovation and collaboration are reflected in the high-quality wines produced.
Often referred to as the birthplace of American wine, Charlottesville’s wine history dates to the days of Thomas Jefferson, who called the area home.
“Jefferson had a vision that the Charlottesville area could be a region teeming with grapevines, and he even tried his hand at growing grapes to make his dream a reality,” says Brantley Ussery, director of marketing and public relations at Charlottesville Albemarle Convention and Visitors Bureau, who notes that the founding father’s goal was to position Virginia as a winemaking region that could rival the best Old World wines in quality. Unfortunately, Jefferson’s grape-growing experiments failed, and he never saw this vision come to life.
But in 1970s, a new generation of winemakers worked to find which vines thrive best in the cool-climate region and may have finally fulfilled Jefferson’s vision. The Jeffersonian Wine Grape Grower’s Society (JWGGS) was established in the ’80s, a group that combines the knowledge and resources of the local industry.
Today, the Monticello Wine Trail connects over 40 wineries in and around Charlottesville. Those wineries produce a broad range of lauded wines—from classic Bordeaux varieties to carbonic Chenin Blancs and even the oft-overlooked Petite Menseng—and have made the region a destination for all wine lovers.
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Sustainable viticulture is especially important to Charlottesville. Collectively, the wineries have not only been
This Article was originally published on Wine Enthusiast
