CELEBRATING WINEMAKING IN NORTHERN VIRGINIA
BY DUANE WELLS
Talk to most casual wine connoisseurs about the history of American winemaking prowess and they ’ re likely to regale you with tales of wines produced in states like California , Washington , or perhaps even Oregon . However , more and more wine aficionados are likely to mention Northern Virginia and Loudoun County . Virginia , with more than 300 wineries , is one of the top ten wine producing regions in America . The Old Dominion state , with its historic horse farms , rolling green fields and cliff-edged slopes , is the very birthplace of American winemaking .
With a history dating back to the earliest settlers of Jamestown in 1609 , winemaking in Virginia predates the earliest known instance of wine production in California by nearly two centuries . Moreover , the planting of the first vines in Virginia precedes California statehood by a similar amount of time .
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