https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyl ... 7921c2d6df
Virginia’s wine community gathered Tuesday in Richmond for an annual celebration that turned emotional when Gov. Ralph Northam awarded the Governor’s Cup, the industry’s highest accolade, to Horton Vineyards for its 2016 petit manseng.
Horton Vineyards’s win was a fitting and perhaps even defiant exclamation point to a very difficult 2018, which saw the Old Dominion’s rainiest and most difficult growing season in memory and the death, in June, of Dennis Horton, the iconoclastic pioneer vintner who demonstrated Virginia’s winemaking potential with his 1993 viognier.
The Horton petit manseng triumphed over more than 500 wines entered by more than 100 wineries and evaluated by several panels of judges. Gold medals were awarded to 68 wines, demonstrating the rise in quality statewide. The top 12 scoring wines become the Governor’s Case, serving as ambassadors of Virginia to media and trade around the world, while the top scorer wins the Governor’s Cup.