The Williamsburg Winery is a winery

Winery

A winery is a building or property that produces wine, or a business involved in the production of wine, such as a wine company. Some wine companies own many wineries. Besides wine making equipment, larger wineries may also feature warehouses, bottling lines, laboratories, and large expanses of...

 located in Williamsburg, Virginia

Williamsburg, Virginia

Williamsburg is an independent city located on the Virginia Peninsula in the Hampton Roads metropolitan area of Virginia, USA. As of the 2010 Census, the city had an estimated population of 14,068. It is bordered by James City County and York County, and is an independent city...

. It is the state's largest winery, accounting for one quarter of all wine

Wine

Wine is an alcoholic beverage, made of fermented fruit juice, usually from grapes. The natural chemical balance of grapes lets them ferment without the addition of sugars, acids, enzymes, or other nutrients. Grape wine is produced by fermenting crushed grapes using various types of yeast. Yeast...

 produced in Virginia

Virginia

The Commonwealth of Virginia , is a U.S. state on the Atlantic Coast of the Southern United States. Virginia is nicknamed the "Old Dominion" and sometimes the "Mother of Presidents" after the eight U.S. presidents born there...

.

Beginnings

The Williamsburg Winery took its present form for the first time in 1985, when Patrick and Margaret Duffeler bought a 320 acres (1.3 km²) parcel of land which they called "Wessex Hundred". They began planting vines immediately, and the first harvest was taken in 1987. The first wine was released in 1988, and was called "Governor's White". This wine remains the winery's most popular. The Williamsburg Winerey produces approximately 65,000 cases of wine annually.

The Winery's Land

The Williamsburg winery is located on a 320 acre plot of land known as the Wessex Hundred. Of the 320 acres of land owned by the winery, 275 acres are dedicated to the Williamsburg Conservancy and are intended to remain permanently undeveloped. In keeping with the conservation theme, Patrick Duffeler and the Virginia Forestry Service planted 50,000 lob lolly pine trees along the James River to replace wood originally used when building the winery. As of 2010, the vineyard contains nearly 50 acres of cultivated land. An additional 2 acres of land have been developed into a sustainable garden which is used to provide produce to the Winery's on-site dining establishments.

Grapes harvested

The list of grapes harvested includes:

• Cayuga White
  Cayuga White
  Cayuga White is a wine grape was developed from crosses of the hybrids Schuyler and Seyval Blanc done at Cornell University's New York State Agricultural Experiment Station in Geneva, New York. It is a hardy vine with some bunch-rot disease resistance. It should be picked at low sugars to avoid...
  
  
• Petit Verdot
  Petit verdot
  Petit Verdot is a variety of red wine grape, principally used in classic Bordeaux blends. It ripens much later than the other varieties in Bordeaux, often too late, so it fell out of favour in its home region. When it does ripen, it is added in small amounts to add tannin, colour and flavour to the...
  
  
• Traminette
  Traminette
  Traminette is a cross of the French American hybrid Joannes Seyve 23.416 and the German Vitis vinifera cultivar Gewürztraminer made by Herb C. Barrett ca. 1965 at the University of Illinois, Urbana/Champaign. His intention was to produce a large clustered table grape with the flavor of...
  
  
• Merlot
  Merlot
  Merlot is a darkly blue-coloured wine grape, that is used as both a blending grape and for varietal wines. The name Merlot is thought to derive from the Old French word for young blackbird, merlot, a diminutive of merle, the blackbird , probably from the color of the grape. Merlot-based wines...
  
  
• Vidal Blanc
  Vidal Blanc
  Vidal Blanc is an inter-specific hybrid variety of white wine grape, a cross of Ugni Blanc and Rayon d'Or . It manages to produce high sugar levels in cold climates while maintaining good acid levels....
  
  
• Cabernet Franc
  Cabernet Franc
  Cabernet Franc is one of the major black grape varieties worldwide. It is principally grown for blending with Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot in the Bordeaux style, but can also be vinified alone - as in the Loire's Chinon...