Loudoun County

Loudoun County is Northern Virginia's wine tourism heartland, home to more wineries than any other Virginia county. The wineries shown here sit outside the federal Middleburg Virginia AVA — clustered instead around Purcellville, Hillsboro, Lovettsville, Hamilton, Leesburg, and Waterford, in the northern and central parts of the county. It's an hour's drive west of Washington DC, so expect plenty of company on weekends; these are among the most visited wineries in the state. The terrain is classic Catoctin piedmont rolling into the Blue Ridge foothills, and while the federal AVA boundary doesn't extend this far north, the growing conditions are comparable to the AVA's southern portion. A number of these wineries could credibly petition for AVA inclusion someday — for now, Loudoun County stands on its own as an unofficial but unmistakable wine destination.