About

I’m Richard Leahy, a single telecommuting wine professional living in Charlottesville, Virginia. My home is within site of Monticello Mountain, home of Thomas Jefferson. My professional wine life takes me on the road. In March I run the seminar program at the Wineries Unlimited trade show in Pennsylvania. In May I run the International Eastern Wine Competition in New York’s Finger Lakes. 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. It seems the last place that glamor wine writers want to spend time, effort, and money covering are the “unfashionable” wineries of the East. I believe being on the frontier has its own unique rewards. 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.