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 2025. At the 2025 Virginia Governor’s Cup state-wide wine tasting competition, for the second year in a row three Jefferson wines were awarded gold medals: the 2021 vintage Meritage, 2022 vintage Petit Verdot, and 2023 Viognier. Their 2021 Viognier and Cabernet Franc Reserve, as well as their 2022 Chardonnay Reserve, were gold medalists at the 2024 Governor’s Cup. At the prestigious San Francisco International Wine Competition of 2024, Jefferson’s 2023 was awarded an impressive double gold medal; at the 2023 San Francisco International event, their 2021 Cabernet Franc and 2022 Petit Manseng also came away with double gold medals. Jefferson’s Petit Manseng and Meritage were also both named to the “Governor’s Case,” the top 12 wines in Virginia for 2023. 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.