The Virginia Wine Board selects 2025 grant recipients
Written By Jennifer Reichart, Edited By David Eiserman The Virginia Wine Board(VWB) has recently met and selected a new round of research, education, and marketing grants at its March 18-19 meeting in Charlottesville. These applications will be confirmed at the next VWB meeting scheduled to occur on on May 7 [...]
Is your PPE ready for the upcoming season?
Now, before the start of the growing season, is a great time to inventory and stock up on necessary PPE supplies for the upcoming years activities. Here are a couple of reminders ahead of the coming season: Inspect respirators and replace old respirator cartridges. Respirator cartridges have a usable life [...]
Optimizing Yields; Navigating the Future: A Recap of the 2025 VVA Winter Technical Meeting
Written By Jess Trapeni The annual Virginia Vineyards Association (VVA) Winter Technical Meeting took place February 25-26, 2025. This year marked an exciting change in venue to The Madison Hotel in Harrisonburg, Virginia, a move that was well received by attendees. Harrisonburg proved to be a fantastic host city, offering [...]
Spring 2025 Presidents Corner
The VVA INTRODUCES A NEW 5 YEAR STRATEGIC PLAN AT WTM: CREATING A MORE SUSTAINABLE FUTURE FOR VIRGINIA’S VINEYARDS Written By AJ Greely, Hark Vineyards, VVA President Last year, the Board of the Virginia Vineyards Association met several times in person as we planned and eventually implemented a new 5 [...]
VA Grape Breeding Program Cuts
The Virginia Wine Industry Needs Your Support! Dear Members and Industry Colleagues, As you may know, the Virginia grape breeding project is under threat from federal funding cuts. One vital position has already been eliminated. Please contact your United States Congressional Representative and ask him/her to prevent further cuts [...]
2024 Grapevine Disease Summary
Written By Dr. Nita, Edited by Jess Trapeni The 2024 season began similarly to 2023, with a relatively warm winter. As a result, the vines grew faster than usual, leading to bud breaks occurring 2-3 weeks earlier than in recent years. For example, in Northern Virginia, bud break happened in [...]
Fall 2024 Vintage Report
The regional reports for fall of the 2024 vintage follow, these reports were compiled and edited by Jason Burrus. Merlot Grapes Sunset Hills Vineyard Northern Regional Report Jason Burrus, Sunset Hills Vineyard 2024, for the second year in a row, saw above-average Brix across all varieties. In fact, 2024 Brix [...]
VVA Seeking Board Nominations
We are seeking nominations for Officers: President and Treasurer and one At-Large Board of Director position. All three positions have a two-year term, 2025 and 2026. Our current officers, AJ Greely (president) and Connie Reynolds-Shine-Hurt (treasurer), who were both elected in last year for a special one-year term are [...]
Spring 2024 Presidents Corner
With the heat of summer coming on full force for many of us, we’ll hopefully see the vigor start to abate and dry weather continue. I wanted to take this opportunity to thank everyone who made it out to the 2024 Summer Technical Meeting at Bluestone Vineyards in the Shenandoah [...]
Spring 2024 Vintage Report
Compiled and edited by Jason Burrus EASTERN VIRGINIA (Gonzalo Ortiz, Rustic Vintage, LLC, eastvagrowers@gmail.com) Here in the beautiful Northern Neck of Virginia, rain has been sporadic, daily high temperatures have been moderate, and nighttime temperatures have been cool. On our farm Chardonnay, which is our first to bud, bud break [...]