56 winners announced at Taste of Monticello Wine Trail Festival’s Monticello Cup Awards

The Monticello Cup Awards was held on Monday at Vault Virginia and celebrated the winning wines of the 28th Annual Monticello Cup Wine Competition.

Twenty wineries from the Monticello Wine Trail (MWT) competed in the 2019 Monticello Cup Wine Competition, a friendly competition among wineries in the Monticello American Viticultural Area (AVA). This year’s competition was coordinated by the Virginia Wine & Spirits Academy, and all entered wines contained a minimum of 85 percent fruit from the Monticello AVA and were produced by a member of the MWT.

There were 12 Gold (including the Top 3 Red, Top 3 White, and Monticello Cup winner), 32 Silver and 11 Bronze medals awarded. The Monticello Cup, for highest scoring wine overall, was presented to King Family Vineyards for their 2016 Mountain Plains.

“I’m proud to be a winemaker in the Monticello AVA and to have the opportunity to work among some of the most talented and passionate in the industry. Being able to accept the Monticello Cup for King Family Vineyards is an honor and I would like to give the credit to David and Ellen King who started the vineyard 20 years ago and made all of this possible,” Matthieu Finot, Winemaker King Family Vineyards.

The other two reds in the Top 3 Red category were Keswick Vineyards’ 2016 Signature Series Cabernet Franc and Veritas Vineyard and Winery’s 2016 Vintners Reserve. The Top 3 Whites were King Family Vineyards’ Small Batch Series Viognier, Stinson Vineyards’ Petit Manseng, and Trump Winery’s 2010 Brut Reserve.

“As wines from the Monticello American Viticultural Area (AVA) are receiving acclaim worldwide, the Monticello Cup is a fun way to bring stellar wines from this area together and recognize the quality and consistency that can be found in our AVA,” noted MWT President George Hodson.

The MCA also officially marks the start of the Taste of Monticello Wine Trail Festival, which celebrates all the Monticello AVA has to offer.  Additional information on the rest of the week’s events is available at www.monticellowinetrailfestival.com.

The MWT, a subsidiary of the Jeffersonian Wine Grape Growers Society (JWGGS), is an association of 33 wineries surrounding Charlottesville, VA in the counties of Albemarle, Greene, Madison, Nelson and Orange. The mission of the JWGGS is to support their members and promote quality grapes and wine produced in the Monticello AVA.

2019 Monticello Cup Wine Competition Results

**Monticello Cup Winner – Highest Overall Ranking Wine, Top 6

*Top 6