For 30 years, Thomas Jefferson grew grapes in his Monticello vineyards in hopes of producing fine wine --but to no avail. Today that has completely changed. Virginia wine now has a reputation as some of the best in America, with increasing sales and more wineries (nearly 200) welcoming an ever-larger number of visitors. Richard Leahy, a former editor for Vineyard & Winery Managementmagazine, has written the essential book on Virginia wine, covering its history, interviews with the state's top winemakers, and updates on the latest industry developments.

Richard Leahy began writing about wine with a regular column in the Connection Newspaper Group in 1986, and In 1993 he began contributing to the Charlottesville Business Journal on the emerging Virginia wine business, as well as to Vineyard & Winery Management, where he was made East Coast Editor, a position he held for a decade. Under Bruce Cass and Jancis Robinson MW he was Mid-Atlantic and Southern Editor for the groundbreaking Oxford Companion to the Wines of North America (2000) and a regional editor for Kevin Zraly's American Wine Guide (Sterling, 2008-09). He wrote the foreword to Virginia Wine From Grapes to Glass by Walker Elliott Rowe (2009, The History Press) and was featured by Todd Kliman in his book The Wild Vine (2010, Crown Publishing/Random House). He is a member of the Society of Wine Educators and the Circle of Wine Writers and was enrolled in the Master of Wine program for four years. He presented a seminar at the annual conference of the Society of Wine Educators in July 2010 on “Top Virginia Wines Today” and is a member of the Board of Directors of “Drink Local Wine.”