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The Daily Progress did a big writeup on how big wine is getting and why Albemarle will be Virginia’s wine epicenter. We all know that warring factions are already beginning to form. I think the non-elitists will come out on top because they use guerrilla tactics.
As for the article, it explains that over 20% of Virginia wine is produced in Albemarle County or a total of just over 1,100 tons of grapes.
Importantly,
“It was the quality of wines now coming out after the first series of pioneers had gone through it,†Pollak said of his decision in a phone interview. Pollak built and owned vineyards in the late 1970s and early 1980s in California, but after a while didn’t want to give up a promising business career and get mired in the time-exhaustive wine business, he said. He sees retirement as a chance to get back to wine.
There ain’t nothing wrong with a little wine country around Charlottesville. Let’s just hope we are allowed to look at it without paying (yes that’s a stab at the Wine Guild). Do read the article; it’s a good one.
Related posts:
- Virginia, Charlottesville and Albemarle County Voter Registration Up 7%, 10% and 7%, respectively.
- Plane Crash in Albemarle County
- Albemarle County Will Help You Out If You Face Eviction
What Virginia is selling is a nice wine experience as opposed to really good wines. Beautiful countryside, maybe a little history thrown in. There are few Virginia wines that are both tasty and priced competitively to sell in the global wine marketplace. From what I’ve been told by people who know more than me (which is practically everybody), the small bucolic wineries just don’t have the scale to produce enough wine to lower the average bottle price. The dirty little secret that everyone who goes to Virginia wineries knows is that for every $25 Virginia meritage, you can go to your local wine shop and and get something else of comparable quality for about 50% less.
Not that there is anything wrong with the above. People pay thousands of bucks to go to places like Branson, MO, so dropping some bucks on half-way decent VA hooch supports the local economy and gets you that tasty mid afternoon weekend buzz that will loosen your wallet even more.
C-VILLE had this story three months ago. http://tinyurl.com/2caev8
We’ve covered wine well, too. Just one of several things– I wrote about the New Yorker writing about Jefferson’s wines in September. But we keep the content fresh around here.
KCB is right and puts it well, although I don’t know that it’s a secret to anyone.
Bobbye – you guys do have a good story. Sorry we missed it!
Bobbye, when was that published in the C-VILLE? I can’t tell in the archives, just the year. I don’t think we missed it! In fact, I think it was one of the commenters who brought it up.
Sept 25, 2007
I just spent a while trying to find it. Dagnabbit!
Oh wait in the spirit of another local publisher, I should delete and ban your comments Bobbye.. sorry