While I'm certain many of you did know about Virginia's wine country, I did not; at least not until during WBC10, when the location for the 2011 Wine Bloggers' Conference (WBC11) was announced.
Charlottesville, Virginia won. And I'm going.
Charlottesville is nearly in the middle of the Monticello AVA (American Viticultural Area), which is on the edge of the Central Virginia wine region.
Here is www.VirginiaWine.org's description of the Monticello AVA:
The Monticello AVA is in the central Piedmont area. The area is nestled along the eastern slopes of the Blue Ridge Mountains and encompasses the small ridge known as Southwest Mountain. It is historic in that it is home to Thomas Jefferson's Monticello, where Jefferson spent years trying to grow European grape varieties.
Thomas Jefferson's home, Monticello, in Charlottesville, Virginia
Photographer: Matt Kozlowski
Virginia has a relatively long and hopeful history in the wine-making game; in fact, there was such hope that area settlers could create a vibrant enough wine industry to become a major supplier to the British Empire that a law requiring each male settler to plant and tend at least 10 grape vines was put in place in 1619.
How's that for the power of positive thinking? I mean, it finally worked, sort of. Not the part about supplying the entire British Empire, just the part about creating a vibrant wine industry.
And I'm looking forward to taking in one small part of it during WBC11, July 22-24, thanks to a scholarship made possible by some very generous corporate and individual donors and hard-working scholarship committee members.
I'm excited to be able to learn about this wine region and its wines in just a short couple of weeks. Thank you dear scholarship-fund donors:
- Vin | 65
- Melissa Dobson
- Enobytes.com
- Cornerstone Cellars
- Cartograph Wines
- Amy Corron Power
- Debbie Lessner-Gioquindo
- Vintank
- Hahn Family Wines
- Layercake Wines
- Soirée
- Melanie Ofenloch
- Joe Herrig
- Scott Wadlow
- Doug Levy
- Megan Kenney
- Amanda Maynard
- Liza Swift
If you are interested in keeping tabs on hundreds of wine bloggers during the 2011 Wine Bloggers' Conference, then follow this hash tag on Twitter: #WBC11. You won't be disappointed.
Cheers to you!
Copyright © 2011 Kathleen Rake. All rights reserved.
