Let’s all raise a glass to the Monticello American Viticultural Area, where the award-winning wines are why Charlottesville and its surrounding counties are bubbling over with oenophiles and oenotourism.
June 5 kicks off Monticello Wine Week, a celebration of the wines and wine producers of the five-county Monticello AVA. The program is sponsored by the Monticello Wine Trail, a cooperative marketing effort of 44 wineries within the region.
“We’ve been putting on special events for several years,” says Tracey Love, the Wine Trail’s marketing coordinator, “but last year was the first time we called it Wine Week.” The Monticello AVA was named 2023 Wine Region of the Year—one of only five wine regions nominated, and the only North American nominee—as part of the prestigious Wine Enthusiast magazine’s annual Wine Star Awards. “Now they’ve started designating one American and one international area, but at that time only one area of the world won,” says Love. “So we wanted to make a big splash.”…