RdV Vineyards

Winemaker Joshua Grainer from RdV Vineyards joined founder of A Life Well Drunk John Sporing for a virtual tasting on November 12th, 2020.

Did you miss the live tasting? No worries, watch it here:

In this tasting we sipped and discussed three wines:

2018 Friends and Family

2017 Rendezvous

2014 Rendezvous

MEET THE MAKER

Winemaker Joshua Grainer has been at RdV since the inaugural vintage in 2008. His prior experience included apprenticeships at vineyards in Virginia, Bordeaux, and Australia, where he learned to appreciate the marriage of tradition and innovation. He directs the vineyard and winemaking operations at RdV and ensures the sustainability of the farm.

From the moment the first settlers landed in the New World on the shores of the James River in 1607, they endeavored to produce wine. Years later, our Founding Fathers dedicated themselves to the challenge. Thomas Jefferson—scholar, statesman, third President of the United States, and native Virginian—was perhaps the most ardent believer in the potential of a Virginia wine to rival the best in the world. His first ambitious foray into viticulture began in 1773. Though his efforts were stymied by the same challenges facing earlier colonists, he spent the rest of his life devoted to the production and appreciation of fine wine, setting the stage for generations of American vignerons. From the trials of that first Virginia outpost, to Jefferson’s ambitious dream, to the efforts at RdV, the deep legacy of winemaking in our state lives on with us as we pursue the bold vision of our forebears: a world-class wine from Virginia soil.

Years of searching brought RdV to a plot in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains. Detailed soil and site analysis told them that this was a special place, but the proof came later, in the wine. A vast expanse of granite beneath the surface, a steep and craggy slope—the elements meet here in just the right amounts. Though the prevailing wisdom was that Virginia was no place to make wine, they believed, as our predecessors did before us, that this untapped land could produce the very best. As is often the case, the most daunting challenges yield the greatest rewards.