Birthplace of the Virginia Wine Industry

Fauquier Magazine was started in 1988 by Lawrence E. Emerson (known as “Lou”) and his wife Ellen Fox. They also founded the Fauquier Citizen a weekly newspa er which was published for years until sold about 2005 to the Arundel Newspapers. One of the early issues of Fauquier Magazine featured the efforts of my father to establish Virginia vineyards and wineries producing premium wine grape. This issue carried not only the story but also a front page photograph of Dad in his experimental  vineyard with Highbury in the background. When Dad died in 2007 (he was 73 when the photograph was taken), John Toler, managing editor for the Fauquier Times-Democrat, the Arundel newspaper in Warrenton, ran an editorial declaring that Dad was the father of the Virginia wine industry, which to some is true. When Dad started his vineyard in 1969 there were only two other vineyards of consequence in the area and neither produced premium wines. Today there are many. For example, in today’s news there is a writeup about billionaire Donald Trump’s purchase for $6,000,000 of the Kluge vineyard and winery near Charlottesville. Trump intends to continue producing 30,000 cases of wine a year.