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,