Frank Morgan moderates with winemakers as attendees tastes gold medal winners of the 2026 VA Governor’s Case wines
From March 24-26th, the 14th Eastern Winery Exposition brought the industry’s largest trade show and conference for the production grape and wine industries east of the Pacific states to Richmond, VA for the first time, drawing over 1,000 total attendees.
The conference program incorporated both the annual meeting of the Virginia Wineries Association and the National Wine Marketing “License to Steal” program. Tuesday featured the VWA meeting and two full-day workshops on two concurrent topics: Winery Lab Topics, and New Hybrids and Vineyard Technology.
That evening the annual Welcome Wine Reception featured donated wines from the VWA and other eastern winery associations.
Wednesday and Thursday featured 20 conference sessions in enology and viticulture, the License to Steal Wine Marketing conference, and 200 booths in the trade show.
At the annual Industry Celebration Dinner on Wednesday, blogger and manager of the Virginia Governor’s Cup Competition, Frank Morgan, was honored with the the VWA Wine Person of the Year award, Doug Fabbioli was given the Gordon Murchie Lifetime Achievement Award for his work with sustainability and wine quality, and Jim Law of Linden Vineyards was awarded the EWE Lifetime Achievement Award. The Atlantic Seaboard Wine Association presented its annual Monteith Trophy to Wine Business President Eric Jorgensen.
For a detailed look at all the aspects of the Eastern Winery Exposition 2026, visit Wine & Country Life online’s excellent article: https://wineandcountrylife.com/the-2026-eastern-winery-exposition/.