About
I’m Richard Leahy, an accomplished, passionate and personable wine professional with an impressively diverse experience in wine promotion and education.
I live in Charlottesville, Virginia. My home is within site of Monticello Mountain, home of Thomas Jefferson. Sometimes I’m helping run wine events, at other times I am the intrepid wine writer on the road getting new stories (see Adventures on the Wine Road) or judging at regional or state fair wine competitions across the country. For me, wine is both a a vocation and an avocation.
My area of expertise is the wines of Virginia and eastern North America. I have been telling the stories of pioneering wineries as they put their businesses and regions on the map for fine wine quality from Ontario to North Carolina and from Long Island to Colorado.
Even the Wine Spectator is beginning to sit up and take notice, but not often enough. Reportedly, the fashion-conscious connoisseurs of Manhattan are even beginning to drink the wines of Long Island and the Finger Lakes in public. As with every wine region, there is mediocrity, but the hard work of the research faculty, winemakers, and growers has brought a revolution in quality. It is rewarding to see wines from Virginia and New York winning Best White Wine in national wine competitions. It has been rewarding to see all of this hard work finally being acknowledged.
I also perform consulting services for wineries, wine regions and others from writing to event management. Richard is pleased to offer “Virginia Wine Expert” tours of select wineries in the Monticello Wine Trail around Charlottesville, through an exclusive arrangement with Blue Ridge Wine Tours, as mentioned in Piedmont Virginian’s blog (http://www.piedmontvirginian.com/blog/2010/10/14/drink-toast-and-travel-luxuriously/). More information is available at http://albemarlevintagelimousine.com/wine-tours/
I hope you enjoy learning about the wines of Virginia and other Eastern wine regions on this site!
Cheers,
Richard Leahy
434-293-6230
vawineman@gmail.com