First published in Paste Magazine, February 26,2020

Not long ago I got to sample a diverse array of Virginia wines. The marketing literature that accompanied the bottles said “Unpredictability is a gift.” And amen to that. Winemaking in Virginia predates the United States-in the 1770s, colonists were required by law to plant grapes and George Washington and Thomas Jefferson had prominent vineyard lands. But Virginia wines have been slow to reach the kind of prominence enjoyed by Napa, or Bordeaux. Luckily for all of us, Virginia winemakers seem to see this (wisely) as an advantage. Yes, there’s good Cabernet and Chardonnay coming out of Virginia. There’s also a lot more: a less out-of-whack bucks-per-ton market means they have room to privilege interesting grapes that get short shrift in costlier regions-reds like Petite Verdot and Tannat; whites like Viognier and Manseng. The region has excellent diversity of soil types, altitudes, microclimates. Since they fly lower on the radar, Virginia winemakers (all 300 of them) get to leverage this diversity to create something artful, mindful, and uniquely expressive. Here are some bottles to track down.

Read the full story from Paste Magazine.