Winery Challenge 2025 - The Answers

January 11, 2026.  Welcome to 2026.  For the curious readers who may have wondered over the answers to the 2025 Winery Challenge, here are the clues and their answers:

1.  Vidal Blanc Heaven.  Caihailian Vineyards makes nothing but Vidal Blanc wine.  November 2025

2.  “Chicken N Dumplins.”  The loud music duo at Reitano Vineyards.  August 2025

3.  Cuckoo, Va.  Everleigh Vineyards is near the town of Cuckoo, Va.  June 2025

4.  Vineyards where “the earth and the sky meet.”  Ankida Ridge Vineyards  - “Ankida” means “where the earth and sky meet” in Sumerian April 2025

5.  Roger’s “worst wine, ever.”  Stella Rosa L’Originale Black.  Roger’s fateful trip to a convenience store in Miami Beach. April 2025

6.  Tasting Room in a greenhouse.  Domaine Fortier.  May 2025

7.  Notable official who began career teaching at the Duke Ellington School for the Arts.  That would be AJ Greeley, winemaker at Hark Vineyards and President of the Virgina Vineyards Association.  April 2025

8.  Winery dedicated to highwaymen.  Terra Nebulo means “Land of the Rascal.”  The winery is near a road noted for thieves in Colonial times.  November 2025

9.  Winery abutting “Temperance Landing.”  Hardware Hills Vineyard is next to Temperance Landing and Temperance Bridge outside of Scottsville.  November 2025

10. Formerly “Monitoring Station No. 1” – a Cold War listening post.  Vint Hill Craft Winery occupies a World War II and Cold War signal intelligence site and is across the parking lot from the Cold War Museum in Vint Hill, VA.  February 2025

 

 

 

 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Morais Vineyards and Winery

Image
February 1, 2025.   Morais Vineyards and Winery is a surprising outpost of Portugal off Route 17 in Bealton, Fauquier County.   José Morais opened the winery and wedding venue in 2011 promoting traditional Portuguese wines and winemaking.   His daughter, Linda, is now CEO.   Their winemaker, Vitor Guimarãis, is from Portugal - born and educated - and has been with them since the beginning.   Drive through the newer part of the vineyard adjacent to the road, and for the moment, drive straight ahead past the round tasting room into the courtyard a typically stark-white Portuguese villa which serves as a large wedding venue.   The main building, – ballroom, bar- and smaller outbuildings buildings host over 100 weddings a year.   It’s like a little village.     Our focus, however, is on the wine and we came back to the tasting room, a round stand-alone building with a cone-shaped roof, reminiscent of the roofs in Algarve.     ...
Read more

A Conversation with Annette Boyd

Image
January 3, 2025.  Hello Gentle Readers and Welcome to 2025!   We are beginning the year with our fourth annual interview with Annette Ring Boyd, Director of the Virginia Wine Marketing Office in Richmond.   Our discussion took place on December 23, 2024.   Annette has been involved with marketing Virginia wine since June 1987 when she became the wine marketing specialist for the Virginia Department of Agriculture.   She was instrumental in creating October as “Virginia Wine Month,” establishing the Virginia Governor’s Cup wine competition and recently the Governor’s Cup Wine Trail.   In 2007, was awarded the contract to manage the Virginia Wine Marketing Office as its Director. As with last year, this post paraphrases our discussion and does not directly quote Annette.   I hope that I have captured the discussion accurately. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Looking back on 2024, what are some events or news that you and the Marketing Office are especially p...
Read more

Walsh Family Wine

Image
February 28, 2025.   Nate Walsh is devoted to the production side of winemaking.   Nate is the owner of Walsh Family Wine near Hillsboro in western Loudoun County and more than many winery owners, has applied his experience, starting as a cellar rat up to being a full-fledged winemaker, to improve winemaking in the region.   With Nate approaching business from the production end and wife Sarah applying her background in wine wholesale, they founded their winery in 2014, a year after they married.     According to Nate, back then, there were few places in Loudoun where new owners could get started without making huge investments in land and equipment.   The Walsh’s started with equipment loaned by a vineyard in Waterford.   Remembering this beginning, Walsh Family Wine has established a winemaker’s incubator program to encourage three or four new winemakers every year to use Walsh equipment and guidance to produce their own brands.   Nate loves...
Read more