When you envision the world’s greatest vineyards, what do you see? Provence? Napa Valley? Tuscany? How about northern Virginia?
Centuries after Thomas Jefferson first gave thousands of acres to Italian viticulturist Filippo Mazzei, in an attempt to grow European-quality wine grapes in the southern United States, some experts believe Virginia is finally becoming a epicenter for the production of some of the most exciting American wines.
John Kent Cooke, the son of former Washington football team owner Jack Kent Cooke, first built his Boxwood Estate Winery in Middleburg Virginia, in the early 2000s. His goal was to “to emulate the Bordeaux style, but retain the distinct expression of Virginia’s terroir,” according to the vineyard’s website.
Today Cooke has achieved just that – Boxwood sells red wines in the $29-to-$55 range and routinely hosts visitors for wine tours.
“He felt there was great potential here,” Sean Martin, the winery’s vice president and Cooke’s stepson, told the Wall Street Journal. “He saw the opportunity to become a player in the Virginia wine market.”
Cooke is not alone in his ambitions to bring wine-lovers to Virginia – and to export Virginia wines across the country. Delaplane Cellars, located an hour west of Washington, D.C., sells red and white wine ranging in price from $28 to $72. The vineyard’s winemaker Rick Tagg explained that due to Virginia’s environment he sees hybrid grapes as the future of Virginia’s wine.
“We have a lot more humidity, a lot more rain, and insects that didn’t used to be here,” Tagg told the Wall Street Journal.
Like many winemakers in Virginia, Tagg also made a point to praise Jim Law of Linden Vineyards – a man sometimes nicknamed “the Hermit of Linden.” Tagg says that he and his peers are “disciples” of Law, who first came to the state in 1981 and planted his own vineyard in 1985.
Law told the Wall Street Journal that he finds Virginia’s wine-growing environment to be more comparable to France, rather than American wine-growing regions like California. Law’s wines are modestly priced compared to their European counterparts, but he prizes the unique geographic characteristics of his Virginia vineyards.
“I fell in love with Virginia,” he told the outlet. “It was just cool enough to do what I wanted to do.”
