More Virginia Wine news:

The first wine from grapes grown at the Winery at La Grange won't be ready for tasting until the fall of 2007 but Chris Pearmund will open Prince William County's first winery in August.

The historic La Grange farm in the foothills of the Bull Run Mountains, just west of Haymarket on Antioch Road, will be the site of the 20-acre vineyard.

The 1790s federalist manor house at the old farm will serve as the winery's retail shop once Pearmund has it cleaned and renovated.

Yes, that Chris Pearmund.

The article has a lot of interesting information about the Virginia Wine industry:

The art was lost in the Old Dominion until the early 1970s when the General Assembly passed the Virginia Farm Wineries Act that allowed people to grow grapes for wine once again.

"Virginia's been making wine for 400 years," Pearmund said.

Although Virginia wines have made great progress in the last 20 years, winemaking in Virginia costs more compared to other areas of the world, Pearmund said.

and...

Virginia is the 10th largest commercial grape producer in the country. In 2004, retail wine sales in the Old Dominion came in at about $45 million, Rideout said.

"We have a half a million people visiting Virginia wine country annually. Seventy-five percent of those people are local," Rideout said.

Last year, 3,700 tons of grapes were harvested in Virginia, Rideout said.

"The crop value was $4.8 million and there were 762,000 gallons of wine produced," Rideout said.

I am a fan of Pearmund wines and wish Chris success in his new venture.