Feast of Reason features food historian Deb Freeman leading a conversation paired with Virginia wine and fine Southern cooking at Eastwood Farm and Winery on June 27. Supplied photo
This year’s Monticello Wine Week (June 22 to 28) includes a new event that deserves further conversation. On June 27, Eastwood Farm and Winery will host the Feast of Reason dinner at the Virginia Wine Collective, with chef Leah Branch in the kitchen and food historian Deb Freeman at the table.
Branch, a Virginia native and executive chef at The Roosevelt in Richmond, cooks Southern food with a careful eye toward the region’s foodways and the people who shaped them. Her work has been featured in Garden & Gun, Eater, and on the Cooking Channel and she is a 2026 James Beard Foundation semifinalist for Best Chef: Mid-Atlantic.
Freeman is a Virginia-based writer and Emmy-winning documentarian whose PBS film Finding Edna Lewis and award-winning podcast “Setting the Table” have made her a respected voice on Black culinary history in the South.
The event name comes from English poet Alexander Pope, who called intimate dinner conversation “the feast of reason and the flow of soul.” Thomas Jefferson’s tables at Monticello and the President’s House (now the White House) were known for that kind of conversation, and Monticello has built an ongoing program from the concept.
The wine week dinner was developed in partnership with Justin Reid, one of Monticello’s two inaugural Civic Partnerships Fellows. Reid is a public historian from Farmville, where members of his family were litigants in the 1964 Griffin desegregation case, and he coordinates a slate of Feast of Reason events around Charlottesville. Monticello’s Getting Word African American History Department, which documents descendants of the enslaved at Monticello, is also a co-sponsor.
Wine sits at the center of the evening. For Virginia wine, the event feels timely because the region has largely moved beyond simply proving that it can make serious wine; it is beginning to ask how those wines can carry a fuller story of place, history, and community.
Jefferson famously envisioned Virginia as a world-class winegrowing region, and the wines at the table embody both the roots and the present-day energy of the Monticello AVA. Tracey Love, executive director of the Monticello Wine Trail, sees the lineup as central to the event because it reflects the breadth of Virginia wine through multiple voices, styles, and perspectives.
Jefferson Vineyards anchors the historic thread, with wines coming from land Jefferson gifted to Tuscan winemaker Philip Mazzei in 1773 to launch Virginia’s first vineyard. The Thomas Jefferson Foundation acquired the land and winery in 2023, bringing the story full circle. Eastwood Farm and Winery represents a newer chapter in Virginia wine, both through its own wines and as owner of the Virginia Wine Collective, which has become an incubator for small and first-time Virginia producers since opening last summer.
ZC Wine, the newly launched label from Tasha Durrett, founder of Black Women Who Wine, reflects the kind of small-batch producer the Collective was built to support. Corry Craighill, winemaker at Septenary and maker of Valley Road’s 2023 Cabernet Franc Reserve, the 2026 Governor’s Cup winner, contributes Wound Tight, her small-lot, exploratory label.
Expect an evening at a long table, with thoughtful dishes, slow pours, and unhurried talk. The family-style dinner invites guests to reflect, through food, wine, and conversation, on where Virginia’s been and where it’s going.
Feast of Reason features food historian Deb Freeman leading a conversation paired with Virginia wine and fine Southern cooking at Eastwood Farm and Winery on June 27.
Monticello Wine Week 2026
monticellowinetrail.com
Monday 6/22
Winemakers’ Golf Tournament. Hit the links with Monticello Trail winemakers and wine poured between holes. Spring Creek Golf Club.
Thursday 6/25
Winemakers’ Dinners (two options).Two simultaneous dinners, each course poured by the winemakers themselves. Choose a rooftop setting downtown or visit the elegant and newly restored Birdwood Mansion. Up on the Roof and Birdwood Mansion.
Friday 6/26
Gold Medal Celebration.The signature evening of the week: Wineries pouring on the tented green, plus cookout fare and live music, culminating with the announcement of the Monticello Cup winner. Boar’s Head Resort.
Saturday 6/27
Monticello Rosé Festival. An afternoon of rosé and picnic fare set against Hark’s vineyard views. Hark Vineyards.
Feast of Reason Dinner (see above, below, left, right?)
Sunday 6/28
Sparkling Brunch Showcase.A festive end to the week featuring sparkling wines, chef-driven brunch stations, and beautiful mountain views. Hazy Mountain Vineyards.
