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Wine region

Virginia

Virginia is a wine region in United States, home to 141 wineries, producing red, rose, white wines, known for Norton.

Virginia at a glance: roughly split red/white; known for Norton.
On this page

Virginia's 141 wineries make roughly equal red and white wine; Cabernet Franc is the most common single-grape bottling; wines carry AVA designation.

About the Virginia region

    Location
    The central and northern Virginia counties, in particular those located just east of the Blue Ridge Mountains, account for the significant majority of the commonwealth's production.
    Climate
    Virginia has hot, humid summers that can be challenging for viticulture.
    Soils
    In USDA NRCS Soil Data Access results for Virginia survey areas, Ultisols have the largest weighted component acreage, approximately 13,530,076 acres.

Region facts sourced from USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service, Soil Data Access query for Virginia (VA survey-area prefix), retrieved 2026-07-11. (U.S. Government work / Public Domain (17 U.S.C. § 105)), Wikipedia contributors, "Virginia wine", Wikipedia, revision 1357443231, retrieved 2026-07-11. (Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International).

Characteristic grapes

Virginia is best known for Norton. The most-bottled single-varietal wines here are Cabernet Franc, Chardonnay, Petit Verdot. Virginia's signature grapes often go into blends, so single-grape bottlings skew toward other varieties.

Most common single-grape wines

When Virginia wines are made from a single grape (rather than a blend), these are the most common:

Wine profile

Virginia is roughly split, making substantial red (47%) and white (44%) wine.

1,161 distinct Virginia wines tracked, spanning the colours and styles below.

  • Red540 · 47%
  • White509 · 44%
  • Rose105 · 9%

Types: Port, Sparkling, Still.

Representative Virginia wines

Selected from stable product-to-region relationships for diversity — not a claim that these are the region's best wines.

  • Bluestone Vineyard — Cadenza
  • Brix & Columns — Cabernet Franc
  • Bogati — The Founder White
  • Kindred Pointe — Run for the Rose
  • DuCard — Tana Chardonnay
  • Slater Run Vineyards — Cabernet Franc
  • Stinson Vineyards — Merlot
  • Star in the Valley — Field Star White

Sub-regions & appellations

Within Virginia, these appellationsA legally-defined smaller growing area within a wine region, often with its own grapes and rules. are smaller growing areas, often with their own character:

  • Monticello
  • Shenandoah Valley
  • Northern Neck George Washington Birthplace
  • Middleburg Virginia
  • Loudoun County

Quality designations

Wines here carry AVA status — a controlled quality designation.

  • AVAAmerican Viticultural Area — a defined US grape-growing region, marking where the grapes were grown.

United States wine designations

AVA
An American viticultural area is a U.S.-government-recognized delimited grape-growing area.
Understanding the wine data
Designation
The protected-origin or administrative category associated with the wine, interpreted using country-aware rules. The same abbreviation can mean different things in different countries, so we only show the meaning approved for that country.
How this ranking is built

Producers are included when WhatDrink has a canonical producer-to-region relationship supported by the catalogue data. Display order may use represented wine count and relationship confidence to provide useful coverage; it is not a ranking of winery quality, prestige, production volume or critical acclaim.

Representative wines are selected from products with a stable relationship to this region, with preference for clear producer identity and a useful spread of producers, wine styles and designations. Inclusion is not an editorial score and does not mean these are the region’s best wines.

Explore Virginia

Ways to browse Virginia — each count is the size of that specific collection (a subset of the 1,161 wines tracked above):

  • White Virginia (350)
  • Red Virginia (348)
  • Rose Virginia (78)

How to choose a good Virginia wine

Look for the AVA designation — it signals a controlled-origin Virginia wine.

FAQs

Where is Virginia?
The central and northern Virginia counties, in particular those located just east of the Blue Ridge Mountains , account for the significant majority of the commonwealth's production.
Which grapes are associated with Virginia?
Virginia is represented in the WhatDrink region dataset by Norton. Grape coverage reflects the products currently linked to the region and is not a complete legal planting register.
What do the designation terms on Virginia wines mean?
AVA: An American viticultural area is a U.S.-government-recognized delimited grape-growing area. These terms describe geographical or regulatory categories; they do not by themselves guarantee that one producer or bottle is better than another.
How are wineries and producers selected for Virginia?
Producers are included when WhatDrink has a canonical producer-to-region relationship supported by the catalogue data. Display order may use represented wine count and relationship confidence to provide useful coverage; it is not a ranking of winery quality, prestige, production volume or critical acclaim.
How are representative Virginia wines selected?
Representative wines are selected from products with a stable relationship to this region, with preference for clear producer identity and a useful spread of producers, wine styles and designations. Inclusion is not an editorial score and does not mean these are the region’s best wines.
How much wine data does WhatDrink have for Virginia?
The current regional catalogue contains 1161 linked wines from 141 linked producers. Counts describe WhatDrink catalogue coverage and may change as source data is refreshed.

Regional data is aggregated from wine directory and product-catalogue sources; grape and style associations reflect characteristic varieties and may vary by producer and vintage.