08/21/2024
🥂”Charlottesville Wine Country, Virginia” featured in Vogue magazine! Thanks to and for the original share! Charlottesville is quickly picking up steam as one of the world’s top wine regions after it received Wine Enthusiast’s prestigious 2023 Wine Star award! ✨
“Virginia wine has come a long way in the past few decades. Since its humble beginnings, the local viticulture—which specializes in Petit Manseng and Petit Verdot—claims over 250 vineyards throughout the state. It’s not just the locals who have taken notice; last year Wine Enthusiast named the area the top wine region in the world to visit. You can sample some of the local juice near Middleburg, but further into the state, the area around Charlottesville is where it shines the brightest, with vineyards like , , and offering languid afternoon tastings.
While many of the area’s wineries have on-site places to stay, nothing compares with an overnight in the heart of wine country at , about a fifteen-minute drive from downtown Charlottesville. Built in 1912 as a private residence and later acquired by the widower of designer and ‘90s icon Laura Ashley, it was converted into a hotel flush with Ashley chintz, and then saw several subsequent chapters before undergoing a Covid-era top-to-bottom renovation. In 2021, it reopened under the banner Keswick Hall and ushered in the excellent Jean-Georges Vongerichten restaurant, Marigold. There’s also a swimming pool, spa, and sprawling golf course; the tennis and pickleball courts could easily keep you busy for a day or two alone.
In addition to its winery neighbors, Keswick Hall is a stone’s throw from the historic homes of Thomas Jefferson (Monticello) and James Madison (Montpelier). The Jefferson-designed central quad and rotunda of the University of Virginia, which today retains the dorm where Edgar Allan Poe once lived while briefly a student, is also an architectural marvel to behold.”
