Here's really all you need to know. If you're going to buy one book on Virginia wine, this is the only one you need. - C. DeVito, editor, East Coast Wineries
In 2012 I had the immense pleasure of publishing Richard Leahy's Beyond Jefferson's Vines. It was a work that garnered a large number of reviews and tremendous praise. It was a seminal work on Virginia wine. And in it's newest form, it remains so. The new book is 25% bigger and has up-to-date tasting notes.
Beyond Jefferson's Vines is the complete story of wine in Virginia, from the Jamestown Settlement, to Thomas Jefferson and his vineyard at Monticello, to the thriving world-class wine industry of today. It focuses on the last decade and explains how vintners today have achieved the success Jefferson only dreamed of. Richard Leahy's complete, indispensable book is a new, expanded second edition, and blends history with travelogue and basic viticulture, along with personal interviews with key industry members, to help you gain a full understanding of the subject. You'll have a new appreciation for the quality Virginia wine has achieved today, and the risk these dedicated people take in their dogged pursuit to realize Jefferson's dream of a fine wine industry in Virginia.
It's a thorough and comprehensive update, with a full 300 pages, expanded resources incl. vintage chart and grape glossary, adding lots of new wineries in No.VA and Central VA, tasting notes on current wines, a new chapter on "the expansion of craft beverages in VA" and more.
Leahy’s complete, indispensable book is a new, expanded second edition, and blends history with travelogue and basic viticulture, along with personal interviews with key industry members, to help you gain a full understanding of the subject.
The second edition has expanded by more than 60 pages or an extra 25%, explains Leahy. “There are many new wineries included in this edition, especially in Northern Virginia and Central Virginia, as well as current tasting notes including samples of the new 2014 vintage,” says Leahy. Now in paperback format, Beyond Jefferson’s Vines has both expanded in size and dropped in price by $5.00 (full retail $14.99).
“There are now 255 Virginia wineries, with 30 new one having opened just in the three years between the first and second editions of this book,” he says. “I’ve also added a new chapter on the craft beverage industry encompassing local cideries, breweries, distilleries and meaderies, and in “Additional Resources” I’ve added a glossary on leading winegrape varieties in Virginia along with a vintage guide dating back (highlights) to 1993.”
Richard Leahy is a wine professional based in Charlottesville, VA and coordinates the conference program for the Eastern Winery Exposition, a leading wine industry trade show. He has been writing about wines of Virginia and the East since 1986, and in May 2012 his book Beyond Jefferson’s Vines was published to high praise from reviewers. Due to the many changes on the Virginia wine scene, he wrote a second, expanded edition in 2014. In 2007 he organized the Virginia Wine Experience in London which brought the top 64 Virginia wines there for leading British wine media and trade to taste. He was a regional editor for Kevin Zraly’s American Wine Guide, and was Mid-Atlantic and Southern Editor for the Oxford Companion to the Wines of North America. He is a member of the American Wine Society and the Circle of Wine Writers, and a Board member of Drink Local Wine, and also has a website and blog focused on wines of the East at www.richardleahy.com. Richard consults in several wine-related areas and can be reached at www.richardleahy.com.
Go out and buy it now!