Va. producer gets great news, times two, in what has been a rewarding 2026
Valley Road Vineyards won the state's Governor's Cup in March, and its streak continued in a blind tasting in Paris earlier this week.
It has been a (half)-year to remember for the owners of Valley Road Vineyards in Afton, Virginia.
On March 12, its 2023 Cabernet Franc Reserve won its first-ever Virginia Governor’s Cup, highlighting the ceremony at Richmond’s Main Street Station.
The varietal was deemed the best of the record-breaking 670 entries, with 224 gold medals awarded to 113 wineries and cideries located across Virginia. Winemaker Corry Craighill made the wine from 100 percent Cabernet Franc grown at the winery’s Grayson Vineyard in the Monticello AVA.
That kind of recognition is nothing new for Valley Road, which previously was selected for the Virginia Governor’s Cup Case, the competition’s 12 best wines, in 2017 for its 2014 Petit Verdot and again in 2025 for its 2023 Petit Manseng.
More good news greeted the owners of the winery, including CEO and co-founder Stan Joynes, on Wednesday, when that same Cabernet Franc beat out two French entrants in an event in Paris called “Old World, New Roots” — a blind tasting celebrating the successful evolution of Virginia wine alongside outstanding wines from France.
Frank Morgan, who organized the blind tasting with Thomas McCune, a retired doctor who now studies at Le Cordon Blue, called Joynes with the news around the time he was posting the results on his Facebook page. The international jury, per Morgan, was chaired by Xavier Thuizat, Best Sommelier of France and Meilleur Ouvrier de France, and included four flights — Chardonnay, Petit Manseng, Cab Franc, and red blends. Each flight included three wines from Virginia and three from France, Morgan wrote in his post.
Morgan also now runs the judging for the Virginia Governor’s Cup, a formidable annual task, and was mentioned in the video that accompanies this story.
Here are the results from the Cab Franc tasting in Paris.
CABERNET FRANC:
1. - Valley Road Vineyard Cabernet Franc Estate Reserve 2023
2. - PIOU 2023 Daugay AOP St Emilion Ceci n’est pas que Equilibre
3. - 2022 Château de Minière AOP Bourgueil
More on the tasting in several stories to come.
The results came out around the time Joynes was talking to The Wine Classroom about a number of topics related to the creation of the winery in 2015, a passion project for a group of friends who merged talents from successful careers in law, advertising, insurance, real estate development, and writing, among others, into what has been a challenging but gratifying venture.
Stan Joynes recalls the night of the 2026 Virginia Governor’s Cup ceremony.
Asked how they manage to keep the bar raised so high at Valley Road, around 20 minutes west of Charlottesville, Joynes responded this way:
“As [King Family Vineyards winemaker] Matthieu Finot taught me from Day One, great wine is made in the vineyard, and ‘not even a magician can make great wine from poor fruit.’ So, I started by bringing on perhaps the best (certainly, the most humble and unsung) vineyard man in Virginia, Grayson Poats. Grayson designed and oversaw the planting of our two Afton vineyards, and he refurbished and reinvigorated our leased vineyard near Lovingston. He then did the rare, wonderful, and difficult thing of finding and training his successor, Walter Pugh. We have always had an understanding of the essential importance of good fruit from healthy vineyards, so we strived to get to the point quickly where our wine is made from our own fruit, hence, we control our own fate. And, as you know, starting in 2023, we have worked with an remarkably talented and accomplished winemaker in Corry Craighill, who is the resident winemaker at nearby Septenary Vineyards, owned by our dear friends, Sarah and Todd Zimmerman.”
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Tom McCune gave me a heads up about these results ! Fantastic news for Virginia Cabernet Franc. I hope to get a chance to taste this and more soon!
I’m drinking that Cab Franc as I’m reading this!