Jefferson Vineyards
- Jefferson Vineyards is right where you would expect it to be, practically next door to Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello, outside of Charlottesville. The winery was sold in January 2023 to the “Thomas Jefferson Foundation,” for over $11 million. The Vineyard had been a family affair, and we don’t mean Jeffersons: the Woodward family, three generations now, had been at the helm of the vineyard since its replanting in 1981, and were owners of the property from back in the 1930s. Even if the wine itself doesn’t date back two centuries, 1981 still marks Jefferson as one of the oldest wineries in Virginia. We do not expect the sale to the Foundation to affect the winery’s continuity.
- Wine: Among the Top 10 wineries in the state. Jefferson has been in the top echelon of Virginia wine producers for decades, and this continues into 2023. At the 2023 Virginia Governor’s Cup state-wide wine tasting competition, four Jefferson wines were awarded gold medals: their 2021 Petit Manseng, and 2019 Meritage, Petit Verdot Reserve, and Petit Verdot Reserve Upper Vineyard. The Petit Manseng and Meritage were also both named to the “Governor’s Case,” the top 12 wines in Virginia for 2023. The 2019 vintage Meritage and Merlot Reserve were awarded gold medals at the 2022 Governor’s Cup competition, while another ten Jefferson entries received silver medals. The 2019 vintage Jefferson’s Own Viognier was awarded a gold medal at the 2023 prestigious San Francisco Chronicle nation-wide wine competition, while their 2021 vintage Viognier and Petit Manseng were awarded silver medals. While impressive, it was a bit of a step down from Jefferson’s huge success at the 2022 San Francisco Chronicle event, where both their 2014 vintage Meritage and 2020 Viognier were awarded double gold medals, and their 2019 Viognier and 2016 Meritage also were awarded gold medals. The 2019 Merlot Reserve and Chardonnay Reserve were awarded gold medals at the 2022 Monticello Cup wine competition. Back in the 1990s, you came here for the Chardonnay, and took your chances with anything else – the winery has come a long way, like the Virginia wine industry.
- Setting: Nice scenery. The tasting room itself is pretty ordinary, but there are good views outside. Highly popular in the area so can get very crowded on in-season weekends. Lots of picnic space, and cheese and crackers available. But you are SO CLOSE to Monticello…
- Stories: The Founding Fathers — Thomas Jefferson. (1) The most famous wine in Virginia history? Let’s just take the story from the vineyard’s website: “Convinced by Benjamin Franklin and under the sponsorship of Thomas Jefferson’s merchant friend John Adams, on September 2nd, 1773 an Italian viticulturist from Tuscany named Filippo Mazzei (or Philip Mazzei) set off to Virginia with European vines. Mazzei was headed to Augusta County, where the Virginia Legislature had promised him land. En route, Mazzei and Adams stopped at Monticello, where Thomas Jefferson convinced Mazzei to become his neighbor and gave Mazzei 193 acres south of Monticello – part of our present day land. The following year Mazzei purchased an additional 281 acre tract of land from Edward Carter. Mazzei built himself a house which he called Colle, and put his men to work clearing the land and planting vines.” Skip forward to the Revolutionary War, when Mazzei is in Europe looking to get help for the Revolutionaries, and Colle is let to… a Hessian officer. Whose troops’ horses trample all the vineyards… Dang those Germans! No wine for the thirsty Jefferson in the end, but still a great story, and a lasting inspiration for Virginia winemakers even today. The Upper Vineyard sits on land planted for Jefferson by Philip Mazzei in 1774, and some of the estate’s best Petit Verdot and Viognier are grown there. (2) The Man. Impossible to talk about Jefferson Vineyards without speaking of Jefferson. George Washington would be the only competitor for “The Most Famous Virginian Ever”, and Jefferson easily had a bigger impact on the state. An abbreviated list of his accolades would include Author of the Declaration of Independence, Third President of the United States, responsible for the Louisiana Purchase (which doubled the size of the United States), Founder of the University of Virginia, creator and owner of the amazing Monticello. Sure he had plenty of faults – he was clearly two-faced on slavery, he got into needless and ridiculous fights with other founding fathers, etc… But he was an incredible Renaissance man – politician, author, agriculturist, horticulturalist, architect, inventor — and there’s never been another like him. Package a tour of Monticello and a visit to Jefferson Vineyards, and you should ace all your history exams.