6 Virginia Winemakers To Keep Your Eye On

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1. Jeremy Ligon, Philip Carter Winery

Philip

4366 Stillhouse Road, Hume, VA 22639
Website | Facebook | Twitter | Photo: Philip Carter Winery Facebook

Jeremy is a Virginia native, born in South Boston, VA, where he was first introduced to grapevines and viticulture on his family’s vineyard at a young age. He is a graduate of California State University, Fresno, where he earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Oenology, with concentrations in both chemistry and viticulture.

After gaining knowledge and experience at vineyards and wineries across California, Jeremy returned to Virginia with a desire to bring his wine knowledge and passion for winemaking excellence to his home state. He has been with Philip Carter Winery since March of 2012, and when he is not at the winery, he enjoys skiing, golfing, trap shooting, fishing and sharing a bottle of wine with family and friends.

2. Doug Flemer, Ingleside Vineyards

ingle

1960 St. Helena Highway, Rutherford, CA 94573
Website | Facebook | Twitter | Photo: Ingleside Vineyards Facebook

Doug is a leader in the Virginia wine industry. He served as a past president of the Virginia Wineries Association and as founding member of the Virginia Winegrower’s Advisory Board where he served as chairman. Doug has previously served on the board of directors and as treasurer of Wine America (formerly the American Vintners Association) as well as serving as a member of the American Society of Enology & Viticulture (ASEV) and the American Wine Alliance of Research and Education (AWARE).

3. Lee Hartman, Bluestone Vineyard

bluestone

4828 Spring Creek Road, Bridgewater, VA 22812
Website | Facebook | Twitter | Photo: Bluestone Vineyard Facebook

Lee started in the vineyard as a break after finishing college and discovered he liked it here. On top of being our winemaker, Lee does it all, vineyard work, winery work, pouring wine, even setting up our facebook page.

4. Skip Causey, Potomac Point Vineyard and Winery

potomac

275 Decatur Road, Stafford, VA 22554
Website | Facebook | Twitter | Photo: Potomac Point Facebook

The owners of Potomac Point, Skip and Cindi Causey, are Widewater residents who had a dream of opening up their own winery. Dream talk, their daughter called it. The Causeys trace their interest back to the early 1990s when they started visiting wineries in the Napa Valley and Sonoma regions of California. They based Potomac Point Vineyard and Winery on multiple Mediterranean cultures, Italian, French, Spanish as well as American – specifically Napa and New Orleans.

5. Jordan Harris, Tarara Winery

tarara

13648 Tarara Lane, Leesburg, VA 20176
Website | Facebook | Twitter | Photo: Tarara Winery Facebook

The winemaking team of Jordan Harris and Tim Kish (as well as Kevin Goolsby when he isn’t on a tractor in the vineyard) is all about a hands-off approach to winemaking and doing as little as possible to interfere with what the grape offers. We aim to create wines using indigenous yeast fermentations without the need of enologic enzymes, tannins, etc. All that stuff is already in the grape and we just want to coerce it out as naturally as possible. At times we will use some enzymes or commercial yeast with new vineyards as we get an understanding of the past management of the site and what the vineyard has to offer.

6. Lawrence Penn, Preston Ridge Winery

PrestonRidge

4105 Preston Road, Martinsville, Virginia 24112
Website | Facebook | Twitter | Photo: Preston Ridge Winery Facebook

In 2003, Lawrence Penn began as a home winemaker, and over the next few years realized that a career was about to take shape when friends and family repeatedly called upon him for more and more of the wines that he produced. He was given room to experiment, and created quite an eclectic menu of wines. Lawrence and Lois knew that in order to achieve their long standing dream of sharing great wine with the community, they would have to establish their own wine bar.

Lawrence and Lois opened the doors of Preston Ridge Winery to the world for walk-in guests on Wednesday March 17, 2010. Preston Ridge Winery is destined to be Martinsville’s best wine bar and one of Virginia’s finest destination experiences.

If you liked this post, you might also enjoy 7 Talented VA Winemakers and 8 Great Mid-Atlantic Wines To Try

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