July 2021- Introduction to Monticello AVA Trip

 

In early July, 2021, Kim and I took a wine trip into the Monticello American Viticultural Area (AVA).  We planned our route with several criteria: (1) we would avoid going to wineries we have visited before; (2) we would use the Monticello Wine Trail as geographic organizing tool; and (3) we would select wineries that won a Gold Medal in the 2020 Virginia Governor’s Cup competition.  Putting these criteria together we made an initial list of five wineries.  Unfortunately, our visits also had to conform to when wineries were actually open and so the list had to be revised.  Many wineries are not open Monday, Tuesday, or Wednesday.  Traveling the AVA from North to South and East to West took longer than we anticipated. That and the 95+ degrees and humidity led us to alter our plans again on the fly.  We finally visited nine wineries on this trip, six of which we had never visited before.  The nine wineries are (in order of our visit):  Prince Michel Vineyard, Moss Vineyards, Stone Mountain Vineyard, Horton Vineyards, Barboursville Vineyards and Winery, Cardinal Point Vineyard and Winery, Grace Estate Winery, White Hall Vineyards, and Reynard Florence Vineyard.

With the exception of Prince Michel, all of these vineyards and wineries are within the 1,586 square miles of the Monticello AVA, established in 1984 and expanded in 2018.  (See, the Bureaucracy Page).  The soils are silty loams characterized by moderate levels of nutritious organic content and good drainage. Average rainfall is listed in the original notice as 42.4 inches with a range between 39.5 inches and 44.0 inches.  The Shenandoah AVA has more average rain; the North Fork of Roanoke AVA has less.  Gaps in the Blue Ridge Mountains cause “rivers of cold air” to flow through corridors to the east of the Monticello AVA.  The result is that temperatures in the AVA are 4 -5 degrees warmer than the climate in the surrounding areas.  Anyone who has spent time in the Charlottesville area over the summer knows how heat can be trapped in that sweltering bowl surrounded by the Blue Ridge and Southwestern Mountains.  The warmer climate results in a longer growing season of around 211 days, compared to only 150 days in the surrounding areas.  (A growing season may be defined as the time between the last frost of the Spring and the first frost of Autumn.)  The warmer climate also affords more protection from frosts.  (See, 83 Fed Reg 64273 (December 14, 2018)).  When it was established in 1984, the Monticello AVA had 26 vineyards scattered throughout.  Today there are well over 40 vineyards and wineries.  ‘Nuff said about the AVA for now.

Over the next weeks and months, we will feature posts about our experiences at each of the nine wineries we visited. Stay tuned!

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