When it comes to growing wine in Virginia, “you hope for the best and prepare for the worst,” says vineyard manager Fernando Franco.

 It’s a dark moment indeed when “Virginia wine country” is cursed with a representative like hopped-up, anorexic goofball Michaele Salahi.

“These wines are all fragments of my memory.” Winemaker Riaan Rossouw is sitting with his wife, Rachel O’Neill, and a reporter upstairs at the Ivy Inn just before the dinner hour. The table, draped in white linens, is appointed with two elegant decanters, six wine glasses, three water glasses, and two red wine bottles each […]

There are six American Viticultural Areas in Virginia. If Rachel Martin has her way, there will soon be seven, which will bring the total AVAs in the nation to 198. Martin is the executive vice president of Boxwood Winery in Middleburg. Her parents, Rita and John Kent Cooke (of Washington Redskins fame), started it six […]

When Justin Sarafin talks about being in charge of “dependencies,” he’s not referring to the unfortunate habits of social misfits. Monticello’s assistant curator is talking about the work and storage spaces beneath the great house—many of which have been refurbished and opened to the public for the first time in the past month. Among these, […]

 Sitting in her newly christened tasting room, Penny Martin says “she’s starting to learn to like” wine.