Feelings can get hurt, so let’s start with a few caveats:

1. This is our list of the top vineyards for the wine. The most entertaining, romantic or beautiful vineyards might be a different list.

2. The list changes every year. Wineries change staff and management.  New wineries open. Virginia’s wine industry is still maturing, so this list is dynamic. There are vineyards we would have vouched for 15 years ago that ranked near the bottom.

3. The list is a subset from the last five years of gold and silver winners from the annual Governor’s Cup Awards. We analyzed the wineries that repeatedly won medals. To qualify as the best, a winery had to win the gold medal at least five times. To qualify as the very good, a winery had to be in the top 20% of silver medal repeat winners. That leaves many vineyards out of our top picks, but we wanted to be selective to steer people toward consistently strong wineries. If you’re interested in the full list of gold and silver winners, please visit the Governor’s Cup Awards.

4. The list does not distinguish between vineyards that grow and cellar their own wine, vineyards that buy wine from elsewhere and cellar it themselves and wineries that outsource the growing and cellaring of the wine to a consultant. Neither does the list discriminate between purists who use a light hand in the cellar and interventionists who add acids, tannins, and in-state grape juice concentrate to manipulate the wine’s flavor.

5. Being a blind tasting, the Governor’s Cup is a reliable judge of quality, except for one problem: Some of the best vineyards in the state don’t enter the contest. (A common reason we’ve heard: They would have to make wines designed to win contests, versus making wines designed to express terroir.) So, strictly speaking, our list of the best vineyards is incomplete. We will attempt to fill it by recommending vineyards we either know well, or were recommended by winemakers we respect. They will be listed as a separate category.