I wrote my first “Year In Review” in 2020, mostly as a way to summarize my favorite articles of the previous year and post the latest winery openings & closings. Over time I added new material to these yearly updates, focusing on events and themes that stood out.

To see my other ‘Years in Review’, check out my 2020, 2021, 2022, and 2023 articles as well.

Five years in, it’s hard to write these annual blurbs without revisiting topics I’d previously mentioned. But that’s ok; topics such as climate change, diversity, and sustainability won’t ever go out of style, and there are always new events to keep things interesting.

Virginia ended 2024 with a total of 278 wineries, 36 cideries, and 12 meaderies, plus 30 wine/cider/mead brands that lack tasting rooms. Here is a link to my winery roster.

This article is entirely my personal opinion and doesn’t reflect the position of the Virginia Wine Marketing Board or any other entity.

2024’s Major Stories and Trends

1. Industry Still Expanding Despite Closings Creeping Up, Including Oldest Winery in Virginia

2024 Winery Openings and Closings:

• 15 New Wine/Cider/Mead Tasting Rooms Opened: Blue Wall Cider and Wine, Domaine Fortier, Eagle Zen, Fallen Tree, Farm De Vine, Hermitage Hill Cider at Stable Craft Brewing, Muddy Paws, Private Label Cellars, Reitano Vineyards, Roslyn Farm and Vineyard (who for now, only sells other VA wine), Squabble State Hard Cider & Spirits, South Paddock Winery, Three Leg Run Brewery, Winery, and Meadery, Loudoun Cider House, and Thistle Rock Meadery.

• 6 New Micro-Labels Started: Cavalier Wine, Delve Wine, Holmes Wine, The Parallax Project, Prelude Wines, and Wound Tight.

• 10 Winery or Meadery Tasting Rooms Closed: AmRhein Wine Cellars, Blacksnake Meadery, Chapelle Charlemagne Vineyards, Forever Farm, Leo Grand Vineyard, Mountain Cove, Plumb Creek, Preston Ridge, and Spring Run (still open for events but not selling their own wine). Aspen Dale advertises itself as ‘mostly closed’ so I count it here, although it’s occasionally open to sell the winery’s remaining inventory. While not yet closed, Stanburn Winery will likely follow suit soon.

In summary; older, more rural wineries suffered the most in 2024, while new businesses generally chose to stay small rather than invest in a high-priced venue. For wineries who did open a tasting room, they nearly always opened in established wine regions.

The closure of Mountain Cove is an especially hard loss, as this was the oldest operating winery in Virginia (having purchased the land in 1973 and opening in 1977). That title now goes to Shenandoah Vineyards.

A total of 9 wineries closed. Notably, all were smaller venues located away from major wine trails. Economics almost certainly played a role in their closings, but other factors did as well.

Several had been open for years, even decades. But wine is a hard business, and eventually owners want to retire. Those who didn’t sell the winery may have simply decided to close shop and move to their next chapter.

Fortunately, new openings (surprisingly?) outnumber closings.

You’d think in a time of declining wine sales I’d be reporting that the number of new winery openings is shrinking. While 15 new venues represent a slower pace than the breakneck over ~20/year openings seen during the 2010s, it’s still comparable to an ‘average’ year in Virginia.

But there’s a catch. While the raw number of new wineries that opened in 2024 is strong, these businesses tended to be smaller in scale (both production capacity and tasting room size) than wineries that opened in previous years. If you measure only wine production, 2024 almost certainly represents a slowdown compared to 2023.

Moreover, some new businesses are forgoing tasting rooms all together. 2024 saw the opening of 6 ‘micro wineries’ (brands that sell their wine via pop-ups instead of a tasting room). This was a new record for this model, which I partially attribute to the success of ‘wine incubators’ (more on that later).

Even larger wineries are not immune to economic trends. Paradise Spring was set to open a new tasting room in Afton but decided to hold off for the time being, while Michael Shaps is selling his “Wineworks Extended” tasting room in downtown Charlottesville (but keeping his main location).

2. The 2024 Vintage & Another Year of Extreme Weather

In the words of one winemaker, “The 2024 vintage was…weird”.

It started off strong. Spring didn’t inflict serious frost damage, and the summer was especially hot and dry. These conditions allow vineyards to produce fruit with high-intensity berries, suitable for making powerful wine.

Alas, the drought was so harsh that winemakers actually wished for a few inches of rain. Yet when it finally came, it was a deluge. What could have been an awesome 2023-like vintage was knocked down a peg or two in many places.

Late-ripening reds such as cabernet sauvignon and petit verdot most likely suffered the most as they either had a hard time drying out or growers were forced to pick them prematurely. Fortunately, many vineyards brought in excellent merlot and cabernet franc earlier in the season, and their white grapes came in well before the rain.

Of course, this is a generalization. There are wineries that were extremely happy with their fruit and others that were less so. While uneven phenolic ripening due to the accelerated growing season may pose a challenge, most winemakers seem satisfied with the quality (but not the quantity) of the 2024 season fruit.

Some may label this as a year of ‘extreme’ weather, given multiple records for early harvesting were broken. But given how the last several years were crazy in their own unique ways, I think this proves that ‘extreme’ weather has become something of the norm.

3. A Good Year For Diversity and Inclusion

2024 was a triple win for diversity and inclusion, with well-deserved callouts to Pride in the Vines, Virginia Women in Wine (VWIW), and The Oenoverse.

Loudoun County’s ‘Pride in the Vines’ hosted its second wine trail this past June for Pride Month. Not part of the trail but thematically connected was Culpepper Pride, hosted by Mountain Run Winery. Pride flags are now flying in towns that didn’t welcome them even a decade ago.

Next up is Nancy Bauer’s VWIW, which launched its inaugural event in August. The necessity of this organization is driven by how two-thirds of the local wine industry workforce are female, yet women are severely underrepresented in industry leadership positions. The VWIW’s mission is to close this gender gap, offering opportunities for networking, leadership development, and highlighting the industry’s female trailblazers.

Blenheim Vineyards’ Oenoverse (Ee-Nuh-Verse) isn’t new, but this wine club/wine community/access & opportunity program has been ‘in the news’ in 2024 as co-founder Reggie Leonard received national recognition for his outreach to historically underrepresented communities.

Oenoverse-related events in 2024 included the Two Up Wine Down wine festival, which highlighted a number of BIPOC winemakers/owners. It also partnered with The Veraison Project, which hosted an immersion program aimed at members of historically underrepresented consumers & industry professionals.

4. Banner Year For Media Recognition

In 2023, Wine Enthusiast selected Monticello as their “Wine Region of the Year”. Since then, there has been a notable uptick in national recognition of the Virginia wine industry.

Major outlets which showered praise on Virginia wine include The Wall Street Journal, Decanter, Vogue, Southern Living, Travel & Leisure, and Men’s Journal (to name just a few). While Virginia wine has been recognized in the press before, it’s fair to say Wine Enthusiast supercharged the press circuit.

Hopefully, this will normalize Virginia as an ‘established’ region known for its quality wine, rather than constantly be identified as an ‘up & coming’ area to watch out for.

5. Small-Batch Wine and Eastwood Farms’ “Virginia Wine Collective” Project

The number of small-batch wine labels has grown significantly over the past decade, with six micro-brands opening in 2024 alone. This has given rise to ‘wine incubators’, which provide a space for these tiny enterprises to grow.

While such spaces aren’t new, Eastwood Farm’s “Virginia Wine Collective” may be the most innovative.

Eastwood plans on renovating the current Michael Shaps Wineworks Extended tasting room in Charlottesville, creating individual spaces that can be licensed separately. This allows the winemakers operating in these spaces start-to-finish control over their wine. This also sets Eastwood apart from other “incubators,” as their lack of separately licensable spaces prevents these entrepreneurs from operating heavy equipment because of insurance liability.

Owner Athena Eastwood hopes this facility will encourage fresh talent to enter the industry by lowering the startup costs encountered by new winemakers. Yet this facility isn’t just for new winemakers; many small-batch operations will operate from here.

Athena explained the goal is to create a joint tasting room for Eastwood’s participating “Wine Collective” members, which include local wine luminaries such as Jake Busching, Joy Ting, and Matthieu Finot.

6. Invasion of the Spotted Lanternfly

If 2023 saw scouting parties, then 2024 saw the full invasion of the spotted lanternfly (SLF).

It’s hard to visit a winery in NOVA without the little buggers flying all around you, and they’re now being spotted in the Shenandoah Valley and Charlottesville.

The SLF sucks the sap out of vines, potentially causing vascular damage. They also excrete a sugary substance that attracts nuisance insects. This ‘honeydew’ also creates a difficult to remove sooty mold that inhibits photosynthesis.

The only good news is Pennsylvania wineries (ground zero for the invasion) are reporting SLF populations have started to collapse, indicating nature is bringing things back into balance. Until then, vineyard managers will have to lean on their spray programs to control the infestation.

7. RdV Vineyards purchased by Château Montros

This June, RdV announced it was purchased by Château Montrose, a “Second Growth” winery in Bordeaux. This is the first time a high-powered French château has established itself in the eastern United States.

This acquisition is a huge vote of confidence in not just RdV, but the future of Virginia wine as a whole. Founder Rutger De Vink has already moved to Oregon, passing the reins to the Bouygues family. RdV will now be led by Charlotte Bouygues, who plans to split her time between NYC, Paris, and Virginia.

Charlotte explained this purchase was motivated by a desire to find a location abroad that stylistically fits with their Bordeaux wines. Locating a business where the existing team was willing to stay on, especially Winemaker Joshua Grainer, also encouraged them to make this move.

At some point in the near-future the winery will be renamed Lost Mountain, after RdV’s flagship wine and hilly location.

8. Norton (and Hybrids) Getting Well Deserved Recognition

Climate change is also causing winemakers to take a fresh look at American and hybrid grapes. Norton especially seemed to get some long-overdue respect this year.

This November a number of wineries joined together to form the “Norton Network”, giving special tastings to highlight this grape. Fred Reno has an entire podcast series on Norton. Even Lucie Morton is getting in on the action, raising funds for her film “Odyssey of Forbidden Wines” and testing if Cynthiana and Norton are the same or different grapes (she suspects the later).

Native and hybrid grapes are surprisingly not increasing as a percentage of total grapes planted, according to recent Virginia grape grower reports. I suspect this will change in the next few years, especially as more vineyards such as Briedé Family Farm plant a next-generation of hybrid grapes.

Honorable Mentions:

• Passing of Paul Armstrong: This August, Virginia lost a huge advocate and amazing person with the passing of Paul Armstrong, half of the Virginia Wine Time team. Virginia Wine Time was Virginia’s first wine blog and an inspiration for my own. We miss you, Archer.

• Low/No Alcoholic Wines Gaining Traction: I wrote an article in January 2024 about Low/No Alcoholic wines in Virginia, and it became my most viewed article of 2024. I can’t help but think there’s a huge, untapped market for Low/No beverages, and wineries had better take note of this consumer trend.

• Frank Morgan Shakes Up the Governor’s Cup: 2024 was the first year that Virginia Wine guru Frank Morgan managed the Governor’s Cup, the state’s most prestigious wine competition. His changes include bringing in a slew of new judges and limiting wineries to 6 entries. Additionally, sweet wines are now excluded from the Case, a previous change that took effect this year.

• New Tasting Spaces for Bluestone, Lost Creek, and Ramulose Ridge. Lost Creek Vineyards closed its Lucketts tasting room and will use its Echelon Wine Bar will serve as its de-facto tasting room until further notice. Ramulose Ridge opened tasting rooms in Staunton and Natural Bridge. Bluestone winemaker Lee Hartman opened the Rootstock wine bar in Harrisonburg in December 2023, which sells an assortment of wine and hosts Virginia wine events.

The European wine industry is steeped in tradition, much of which is codified into law. Bordeaux famously regulates everything from the kind of grapes grown within its borders, the amount of irrigation its wineries can use, and even the level of alcohol.

While the Virginia wine industry isn’t bound by the kind of regulations found in Europe, winemaking traditions derived from the ‘Old World’ still dominate the state. It has taken Virginia wineries decades to appreciate that not everything that works in Europe can be replicated locally.

This gives leeway to innovators to redefine how wine should be made. Whether it be trying out new grape varieties, exploring new blends, or creating new twists on old favorites, local innovators are pushing the industry’s boundaries forward.

Dennis Horton might be Virginia’s foremost innovator. When he founded Horton Vineyards in the early 1990s, Virginia wineries were relying upon either popular but fragile grapes such as cabernet sauvignon, or tougher but less commercially desirable hybrid grapes. Not satisfied with either option, he planted a dizzying array of less famous vinifera including viognier, petit manseng, touriga nacional, and tannat.

Dennis discovered these grapes by researching which wine growing regions have climates similar to Virginia. He reasoned that if a place like Condrieu had hot summers coupled with cool wet winters, then a Condrieu grape such as viognier would work here.

Given the changing landscape of the wine industry, this out-of-the box thinking remains relevant. Many grape varieties are becoming vulnerable to climate change in places they long called home, while others are flourishing in new locations.

At the same time, the clientele the industry caters to is changing. Younger buyers prefer sustainability and affordability over a wine’s fancy classification. Such consumers are open to wines that ‘break the rules.’

For oenophiles who want to try something new, here are four options from wineries that lean into this spirit of innovation.

Artemisia Farm & Vineyard’s Mentha

Artemisia is one of a handful of Virginia farms crafting vermouth, an aromatized, fortified wine. Vermouth may seem an odd choice for wine lovers, but Artemisia is proving doubters wrong with an assortment of uniquely crafted options.

Vermouth is typically thought of as a cocktail mixer, but Artemisia’s bottles are finding an audience as a stand-alone drink with ingredients that emphasize their local nature. Co-owner Kelly Allen explained, “We want to capture Virginia’s terroir as an abstract essence”.

One vermouth that particularly shines is Mentha, a mint-rhubarb aperitif made with traminette. Mentha is aged in apple wood and pecan, bittered with dandelion and wormwood, and infused with Kentucky colonel mint, mojito mint, and spearmint. The last ingredient is especially prevalent, giving it a full, fresh flavor.

Briedé Family Vineyards’ 2023 Arandell Special Reserve

Owners Paul and Loretta Briedé originally farmed their vineyard to organic standards. While harsh weather forced the Briedés to drop their organic certification, they continue to apply many of the same techniques.

One lesson they took to heart is organic farming requires grapes that are naturally disease resistant. That led them to plant a number of hybrid and native grapes, including cayuga, marquette, la crescent, and arandell.

That last variety deserves special mention. Arandell was created by Cornell University, which is developing a new generation of hybrid grapes that are as flavorful as they are hardy.

Arandell’s flavor profile combines earthiness and acidity, with a hint of tobacco. While many oenophiles tend to look down their nose at hybrid grapes, such snobbery is uncalled for. Arandell is a standout in the pantheon of hybrids and is one of the few hybrid wines to earn a Gold medal at the 2024 Shenandoah Wine Cup competition.

Chateau O’Brien 2019 Arinarnoa

The French wine industry is notorious for being a stickler for tradition. This means when arinarnoa was announced as one of a handful of varieties now authorized for planting in Bordeaux, the wine industry took notice.

Arinarnoa is a cross of tannat and cabernet sauvignon, making it suitable to both Virginia’s and Bordeaux’s increasingly warm climate. Chateau O’Brien is the first winery on the east coast to plant this grape.

Owner Howard O’Brien explained, “I got the idea to plant arinarnoa during one of my trips to Uruguay, where they plant it next to their tannat. In the vineyard, it has characteristics from both of its parents. Arinarnoa has a leaf structure like tannat, berries like cab sauv, ripens like cab, and its growing season is very similar to tannat. I only do 1-3 tons an acre, but it crops very well.”

Howard’s arinarnoa showcases a nice balance of earth and mushroom notes on the nose, with soft tannin and some dark fruit on the palate.

The Parallax Project What’s This? and What’s That?

The Parallax Project is a collaboration between winemakers Ben and Tim Jordan and owners Lance Lemon and Reggie Leonard. The Jordan brothers already have a flair for unusual blends, but these wines topped even their wildly creative imagination.

The project’s name was inspired by what’s called “The Parallax Effect”, which is “a difference in the apparent position of an object when viewed along two different lines of sight”. That name was inspired by how these two wines were crafted.

While What’s This? and What’s That? were both made using vidal blanc, chardonel, tannat, petit manseng, traminette, and albariño, they are very different wines. What’s This? is a white wine that leans more heavily on vidal and chardonel, giving it citrus notes and a floral aroma. “What’s That?” is a juicy red made with 83% tannat, yet it’s low on tannin and highly aromatic.

This Saturday I joined Jason Murray of Arterra Wines for a fall wine release/vineyard tour of Seven Oaks, his main satellite vineyard. Joining us was Seven Oaks owners Mark and Madeline Skinner.

For those unfamiliar with Arterra, Jason is a huge proponent of low-intervention winemaking. I’d go so far to call it ‘ultra-low’ intervention, given his focus on using only natural yeast fermentation and basically allowing his wines to decide ‘what they want to be’ rather than force them into a certain direction.

The result is Jason produces wine that, if you tasted them blind in a lineup, you can always tell which are his. During the tour he explained, “I like wine that’s distinctive, that doesn’t taste like every other wine”. All his wines are made to be variety-specific or vineyard-specific.

Arterra’s estate vineyard provides most of their fruit. But since 2005 he’s also partnered with the Skinners to grow wine at their home in the town of Philomont (roughly halfway between Middleburg and Purcellville). Today, Seven Oaks Vineyard has 8.5 acres under vine.

When we got started, Mark and Jason gave us the low-down of the property.

It turns out the farm is historic, going back to colonial times when Lord Fairfax was sub-dividing his land grant into different segments (driving in you pass a sign that says “Seven Oaks Circa 1795”). You wouldn’t know by looking at it, but the main house started as a log cabin and was repeatedly expanded upon over time.

The land was purchased years back by Mark’s father Ben Skinner, a retired Marine Corps aviator who wanted a place away from the city. It’s also really, really pretty and I hope the Skinners host more events here. I especially loved the pond with a sitting area in front of it.

Seven Oaks is what Jason calls a “Piedmont site”, which he defines as relatively lower-elevation site with more energetic soil, as opposed to the thinner soils of a mountain site such as his 950-foot elevation estate vineyard. Seven Oaks’ lower 450-foot elevation drives much of the decision-making on what to plant here.

The vineyard’s original plantings includes Chardonnay, Petit Verdot, and Cabernet Franc. More recently it’s become home to Arterra’s Grüner Veltliner, Blaufränkisch, and Zweigelt. It used to grow Arterra’s Malbec, until it was torn out around 2019.

Planning for cold weather events is actually why Jason chose the last three varieties. All three are indigenous to Austria, which only grows grapes suitable for cooler climates.

At first I was confused why someone would plant cool-climate varieties in warm-climate Virginia. But Jason explained “It’s all about the right grape in the right site”.

While Virginia’s summers are characterized as ‘hot and humid’, its winters can occasionally be very cold (as the polar vortex of 2014 demonstrated). Low-elevation sites are especially vulnerable to cold weather, which is why Jason decided to keep his most tender vinifera at his estate vineyard while focusing on early ripening, cold-hardy varieties here.

Jason and Mark walked us through their various plantings and we sampled grapes from the vine while tasting wine made from those plots. It was my first time tasting the Zweigelt and Blau, and only second time tasting the Grüner.

I felt the Blau was very fresh and juicy; a summer/fall wine that can be enjoyed a little chilled. The Zweigelt was more of a fall/winter or food wine; it was too warm for me to enjoy on our walk but I’d enjoy it with hearty meal. It was also a favorite of the local wildlife, apparently.

I loved the Grüner as well. This was different from the lean, austere wines of Austria. It was ‘bigger’ in volume and richer in texture than the typical Grüners you find. Some of that may be its location, but I think most of the credit is because of Jason’s focus on ‘clean’ wine and use of natural yeast.

All three varieties were recent additions, with 2022 being their first vintages. Sandy and Jason Murray were really excited to see how the vine’s growing maturity would influence the wine.

We also tried the no-sulfite PV, Cab Franc, and his rosé. While Jason makes a more ‘traditional’ PV, this one only uses fruit from the Seven Oaks Vineyard. This PV was softer than his regular PV, while the Cab Franc might have been my favorite wine of the day.

We finished the day with a big charcuterie plate and other light bites, which we paired with his Seven Oaks red blend.