A few places to start when you want to dig into the details of Virginia wine.
Immensely helpful report produced annually. Data on vineyard acreage, grape prices and yields, and more.
Blogger Matt Fitzsimmons maintains this spreadsheet of all wineries, cideries and meaderies. He tracks recent openings and notes the AVA for each winery. He notes which wineries also produce cider and/or mead, and he also follows Virginia's private label wine brands.
Surprisingly, there was no record of all of the grapes being grown in Virginia until blogger Matt Fitzsimmons put this spreadsheet together. He notes all of the unusual grapes grown in the state, including its country of origin and the names of the wineries growing it. (This does not include the more common Virginia grapes, such as Chardonnay and Cabernet Franc.) Matt painstakingly gleans his information from multiple sources and checking in with individual wineries. As of now, Matt's identified nearly ninety "rare" grapes varieties in the state. Garanoir, anyone? Go Matt!
Not all wineries enter wine competitions. But one quick way to find a wine to impress friends and family is to check who's taking home the golds in any given year. Of course, these aren't the only good wines, and there are many good wines that for whatever reason were exiled to the silver rankings for that year. But as a general guide, the winner list is a safe bet.
*For information on how the competition is conducted, go here.
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