The Shenandoah Valley Wine Trail, comprised of wineries in the Shenandoah Valley American Viticultural Area (AVA), the oldest and largest in the state, presented the Seventh Shenandoah Cup trophy to the top-rated wine submitted in its competition at a Celebration held on November 14 at The Yellow Barn at Shenandoah Caverns in Shenandoah County. CrossKeys Vineyards’ 2024 Chardonnay won the Cup with the highest point score.
Members submitted 60 wines for judging by a panel organized by Frank Morgan, a Virginia wine writer for various publications and the author of the “Drink What You Like” blog. Wines were judged in flights and scored on the 100-point Wine Spectator scale. The judging panel consisted of wine experts Paul Ting, Cassandra Kessman, Rachel Gendreau, Anna Keitzerow, Matthew Brown, Hailey Barkley, Kristen Thomas, Megan Hereford, Doug Zerbst, Erin Scala, Kenny Bumbaco and Kathy Wiedemann.
Twenty-six wines won gold medals, 29 earned silver medals, and five earned a bronze medal. All wines must be made with 85% Shenandoah Valley grapes and produced by a member of the Shenandoah Valley Wine Trail. The top six wines were CrossKeys 2024 Chardonnay, The Winery at Kindred Pointe 2023 Petit Verdot, Shenandoah Vineyards 2021 Cabernet Sauvignon, Brix & Columns 2024 Cabernet Franc, Muse Vineyards 2021 Daughter of the Stars, and Cave Ridge 2019 Cabernet Franc.
The goal of the Shenandoah Cup competition is to draw more attention to the Shenandoah Valley AVA by highlighting the superior growing conditions for wine grapes and the resulting wines that are being made from them.
Matt Lohr, Virginia Secretary of Agriculture, presented the trophy to CrossKeys Vineyards owner Nikoo Bakhtiar and winemaker Andrew Bilenkij.