A Taste of Prince William County, Virginia Wine History

This electronic version is of a previously published 98-page soft cover book that presents the history of wine making in Prince William County, Virginia.  The author takes you on a ‘Who Knew?  Tour’ that includes many little known facts about a winery that once operated on property that is now a part of the Manassas Battlefield and was where Virginia’s first Wine Festival took place.  Nearby in the City of Manassas, Norton grapes grown on the Annaburg Manor estate produced a prize winning port wine, "Pride of Virginia," that was featured at the 1900 World’s Fair in Paris, France.  Travel on to nearby Haymarket where in the late 1800s/1900s the area was once a thriving wine making and viticulture center of activity.  After one hundred years of dormancy, wine making came alive again when The Winery at La Grange opened in 2006 as the County’s first “farm” winery.  La Grange continues to be a popular place where wine enthusiasts enjoy tasting eclectic wines made from grapes grown on the historical property.  As they taste the wines they also get a taste of the property’s deep and interesting history that reaches back to over two-hundred years.  Two local notables, Chris Pearmund (Pearmund Cellars) and Don Wilson (Prince William County Library (RELIC)) endorsed the previously published work saying the information in it was factual and accurate and referred to it as the first authoritative reference of wine making in Prince William County.  The rendering is written at the time by Ray Olszewski, a 40-year resident of Prince William County.