By Aila Boyd
Virginia Mountain Vineyards’ 2018 Dry Rosé was awarded a gold medal at the 5th annual Drink Pink Vino International Rosé Competition in Colorado on June 6.
Virginia Mountain Vineyards, located in Fincastle, was established in 1998. It is owned and operated by Jacqui Sobieski and Brian Weber, who assumed ownership of the vineyard in the fall of last year.
As Sobieski considered what the quality of her wine would be like due to the “horrible harvest” that Virginia’s grape growers had to contend with as the result of the persistent wet weather over the last year, she found herself happily surprised when she taste tested it. She said she was intrigued by the “long sophisticated finish,” adding that it was as though the grapes were talking to her.
“There’s something magical about those vines,” she said.
After finding out that her anxiety over the quality was ill-founded, she decided that she wanted to see what the greater wine community’s impression of her rosé was, so she entered it into several different competitions.
She first heard back from the 28th annual Indy International Wine Competition, which informed her that her 2018 Dry Rosé had been awarded a bronze medal.
After being awarded the bronze medal, she received even better news—the Drink Pink Vino International Rosé had decided to award her wine a gold medal.
Sobieski said that the two honors are especially meaningful considering that she and her husband haven’t even been in the wine business for a full year yet. It was also gratifying, she said, because the two competitions featured wines from various other countries.
As the couple continues to get settled in, they have plans to expand the vineyard. In the near future, they would like to increase their wine output, plant more vines, and possibly even build several cabins on the property in order to make the vineyard more of a destination venue.
The Drink Pink Vino International Rosé competition is hosted by Wine Country Network, Inc., which produces Wine Country International Magazine, in Broomfield, Colorado.
