If world-renowned winemaker Robert Mondavi was right when he said that “making good wine is a skill; making fine wine is an art,” then there must be a lot of artists in Virginia.

Northern Virginia was named America’s next great wine region by The Wall Street Journal’s wine columnist Lettie Teague.

“What’s special is that it’s here,” said wine expert Dave McIntyre. “We don’t say ‘I’m going to wine country’ and get on a plane and fly to San Francisco like we did 20 or 30 years ago when I got started into wine.”

The wine columnist for The Washington Post told WTOP that a trip to wine country used to mean heading out to Sonoma or Napa in California.

“Now it means Loudoun, Charlottesville or Front Royal,” said McIntyre. “It’s really a great experience to be able to take a day and go visit two or three wineries. You might meet the actual winemaker, you’ll learn something, taste something that you’ve never tried before and you’ll probably have a great time.”

The reason Virginia wines are getting better, according to McIntyre, comes from the fact the winemakers now have more experience.

“They’re finding a site to grow wine, rather than having land and (saying) ‘What should we do with it? Let’s grow grapes,’” explained McIntyre. “So they’re growing them in better places.”

McIntyre also believes the area’s winemakers now have a better idea of which grapes perform better and ripen better in Virginia’s climate.

Two other factors that add to why area wine is getting better, McIntyre said, is the support it’s received from the state of Virginia and marketing.

“It’s gotten notoriety around in food magazines and wine magazines. Some very influential writers from London have come and visited Virginia and written about the wines,” said McIntyre. “I think all of that has helped.”

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