3 Best in Show · 22 Gold Medals · 16 wineries · 2026
Loudoun County, Virginia is Northern Virginia's wine tourism heartland, home to more wineries than any other county in the state. At the 2026 Virginia Governor's Cup Competition, Loudoun wineries earned three Best in Show awards — Good Spirit Farm's 2024 Albariño, Walsh Family Wine's 2021 Bethany Ridge Tannat, and WildKind Estate's 2024 WildKind White — along with twenty-two Gold Medals. Below is a complete list of every Loudoun County wine earning a Gold Medal or higher in the 2026 competition, organized by grape varietal.
Most of the wineries featured here sit just outside the federally-designated Middleburg Virginia AVA boundary but operate with the same ambition and rigor. Loudoun County Gold-medal producers in 2026 include 868 Estate Vineyards, Breaux Vineyards, The Barns at Hamilton Station, Good Spirit Farm, Sunset Hills Vineyard, Walsh Family Wine, Williams Gap Vineyard, and nine more.
Now in its 44th year, the Virginia Governor's Cup is widely regarded as one of the nation's most rigorous state wine competitions. All entries are made from 100 percent Virginia-grown fruit and evaluated blind over preliminary and final rounds using a 100-point scoring system. Panels include Masters of Wine, Master Sommeliers, and leading wine writers. Wines scoring 90 points or higher earn Gold Medals; the twelve highest-scoring wines form the Governor's Cup Case; the single top-scoring wine wins the Governor's Cup itself. Best in Show (introduced in 2025) recognizes the top wine in each varietal category with at least five entries.
The 2026 competition received a record 677 entries from 156 producers across Virginia, with 224 Gold Medals awarded to 113 wineries and cideries. This page shows only the Gold-and-above results from Loudoun County portion of the competition.
