The 2025 Monticello Cup Awards
The winners of the 2025 Monticello Cup Awards are here! The Monticello Wine Trail, which traces its roots to Thomas Jefferson’s vision of cultivating European-style vineyards, includes more than 40 wineries across the scenic foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains. Known for its rich soils, temperate climate and innovative winemakers, the region produces award-winning wines that reflect both Old World tradition and New World spirit. The trail offers visitors a chance to explore the birthplace of American wine through tastings, vineyard tours and sweeping mountain views. Every year, the area’s foremost wine experts come together to celebrate the Monticello Wine Trail. At the heart of the celebration is the prestigious Monticello Cup, awarded to the region’s top wine. The 2025 event marked the 33rd annual celebration of excellence in Monticello wine.
The Monticello Wine Awards Ceremony
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In recent years, the Monticello Cup Awards have been part of a larger week-long festival that includes various tastings, ceremonies and events. The 2025 Monticello Cup Awards ceremony was held at The Bradbury in Charlottesville and featured the gold-medal wines of 22 wineries around the Monticello AVA. Winning wineries included Veritas Winery & Vineyards (pictured below at top right), Southwest Mountains Vineyards (below, bottom right) and many more.
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Guests mingled while sampling the top 12 wines in this year’s Monticello Cup Case, paired with creative cuisine, leading up to the official announcement of the 2025 Monticello Cup Winner.
Celebrating Virginia Wine Industry Experts
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Before the ceremony, we took a moment to chat with and photograph some of the winemakers and wine experts in attendance. Among the familiar faces were winemaker Michael Shaps of Michael Shaps Wineworks (below, top left), Luca Paschina of Barboursville Vineyards and Chestnut Oak (below, bottom right.) We also enjoyed catching up with Virginia wine experts Drs. Paul and Joy Ting, seen below at top right.
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The number of women winemakers winning gold awards this year across various awards ceremonies was notable this year. Recently we had the chance to cover the 2025 Virginia Women in Wine awards, an event that celebrated the lifetime achievements of Virginia women in the wine industry. It’s inspiring to see some of the most talented women in Virginia wine recognized for their ongoing contributions.
Afton Mountain Vineyards Wins the 2025 Monticello Cup
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Frank Morgan (below at top right and bottom left at left) — a leading expert in the Virginia Wine Industry and Head Judge for the competition — coordinated the event and acted as the night’s emcee, calling the 12 Cup Case winners up for applause. After some remarks from George Hodson of Veritas Winery, another venerated Virginia Wine Industry leader, the baton passed to the Secretary of Agriculture and Forestry in Virginia Matthew Lohr (below, top left at right and bottom left at right) to announce the winner.
The 2025 Monticello Cup Award went to Afton Mountain Vineyards for their 2024 Albariño, a bright, crisp medium-bodied white wine. Winemaker Damien Blanchon (below, top left at left and bottom left at center) accepted the award on behalf of the winery team with a wide smile and gracious compliments to many in the industry for making experience of winemaking in Virginia such a rewarding endeavor.
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“I’m very proud to be part of this industry in the Monticello area,” Blanchon said as he accepted the award. “I’ve been here for 18 years and the support that we have, with all the winemakers, the winegrowers, is really exceptional compared to lots of other wine regions and I think this is our strength…I hope we can continue to grow and have fun together.”
This win marks a potentially interesting trend in Virginia wine awards, which have previously been dominated by red wines. The 2025 Virginia Governor’s Cup earlier in the year also went to a white wine, a Vermentino from Barboursville Vineyards. This is the first Monticello Cup awarded to a white wine in over 10 years. The Governor’s Cup also tends towards red wines, with only three whites (including this year) among the past 10 years’ Cup winners. Even those winners are the exceptions to their year, with an average of over 50% of Governor’s Cup gold medals going to red blends alone. We’re excited to see if Virginia whites continue to gain popularity in the coming years! ~
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R. L. JOHNSON is our co-publisher and creative director, Robin Johnson Bethke, who began her career as a professional photographer in Los Angeles before moving into graphic design and art direction when she relocated to Charlottesville in 1994. As our company’s co-founder and visionary, she enjoys all aspects of the publishing process from story conception to graphic design to photography. Her work is often seen in many of our publications.
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