Industry Night

Virginia Wine: From Obscurity To National Prominence

Episode Summary

Across the past four decades or so, Virginia wines have gone from obscurity (Wine? Virginia? No way!) to national prominence. The Commonwealth is now tied with Texas (Texas? Wine? Really?!) as the nation’s fifth largest wine producers. Among Virginia’s most prominent wine producers is Tarara, located in Loudoun County. For 30 years this year, Tarara has produced exceptional wines from its own grapes and those of neighboring vineyards. And for the past 12 years, Tarara’s award-winning winemaker has been Canadian Jordan Harris (Canadian? Yup! They make wine there, too!). Jordan is in with us on Industry Night with Foodie and the Beast with tastes and talk of his path from “What am I gonna do with my life?” high school kid to celebrated winemaker; Tarara’s exceptional varietals, and if how, as winemaker, he and his farm are responding to and learning to work around climate change that, for example, brought record-setting amounts of rain to Northern Virginia last year. It’s a fascinating and (for us!) tasty show. Join us!

Episode Notes

Across the past four decades or so, Virginia wines have gone from obscurity (Wine? Virginia? No way!) to national prominence. The Commonwealth is now tied with Texas (Texas? Wine? Really?!) as the nation’s fifth largest wine producers.

Among Virginia’s most prominent wine producers is Tarara, located in Loudoun County. For 30 years this year, Tarara has produced exceptional wines from its own grapes and those of neighboring vineyards. And for the past 12 years, Tarara’s award-winning winemaker has been Canadian Jordan Harris (Canadian? Yup! They make wine there, too!).

Jordan is in with us on Industry Night with Foodie and the Beast with tastes and talk of his path from “What am I gonna do with my life?” high school kid to celebrated winemaker; Tarara’s exceptional varietals, and if how, as winemaker, he and his farm are responding to and learning to work around climate change that, for example, brought record-setting amounts of rain to Northern Virginia last year.

It’s a fascinating and (for us!) tasty show. Join us!