Virginia Governor's Cup

The Virginia Governor's Cup®, one of the most stringent competitions in the US, is hosted by the Virginia Wineries Association, in partnership with the Virginia Wine Board and the Virginia Vineyards Association.

See the Winners

The Competition

In 2023, world-class judges sampled 614 of the best Virginia wines from across the Commonwealth. With 66 wineries receiving 142 Gold Medals, the highest 12 ranking red and white wines make up the Governor's Cup® Case, with one bottle taking home the coveted Governor's Cup®.  

Preliminary Round

Over the course of 10 days, each wine is tasted by 7 judges. This is a single-blind tasting, meaning that judges only know the grape or category of a wine, but the vintage, winery and name are hidden behind coded-glasses.

Finally, individual judges' scores of a wine are averaged into one score after the lowest score is dropped.

Final Round

Over the course of 3 days, 12 judges assess the highest ranking wines from the preliminary round. Unlike the preliminary round, each judge samples all of the Final Round wines.

Each wine in the Final Round receives a final average score after lowest is dropped. The 12 wines with the highest average score are identified as the "Governor's Cup Case."

The wine with the highest overall score is the Governor's Cup Winner.

Judging Criteria

Judges will use the 100 point scale, as used by Wine Spectator, Wine Advocate, Wine Enthusiast, Wine & Spirits, and many others, to rate the most outstanding wines Virginia has to offer.

Tasting Notes

Our esteemed judges assemble tasting notes for each wine commenting on:

  • Appearance Clear or dull, color, intensity, any other visual observations
  • Aroma Descriptors as to clean or faulty aromatics, fruit, floral, vegetal, spice, oak, chemical, animal, and intensity
  • Flavor Character of the alcohol, acidity, body, tannin, oak, fruit, floral, vegetal, spice, oak, chemical, animal, and intensity
  • Overall Quality
  • Commercial Suitability

Rating Scale

The numerical rating will be used to determine medal winners and advancement to subsequent round.

100-95
Classic Among The Best Wines In The World
94-90
Outstanding Superior Character And Style
89-85
Very Good A Wine With Special Qualities
84-80
Good A Well Made Wine Of Good Quality
79-75
Average A Drinkable Wine That May Have Minor Flaws
74>
Not recommended(NR)/ No Score(NS)

The Awards

Once the judging is complete, the average wine score will be used to determine if it qualifies for a medal, and the highest 12 ranking red and white wines will become the Governor's Cup Case.

Best in Show Cider

Beginning in 2021, Virginia cider is judged in its own category. Judges are selected based on their passion, experience, and understanding of the cider category. Each cider is scored using a 100 point scale. After tasting through all the entries, the top six scoring ciders were identified. The judges then retasted (blind) and ranked their favorites from 1-6. The highest-rated cider will win the Best in Show Cider award.

The Judges

Meet this year's judges; a world-class panel with decades of experience.

Judge Categories

Bartholomew Broadbent

Bartholomew Broadbent is the owner of Broadbent Selections, which was nominated by Wine Enthusiast for Importer of the Year in 2019. In June 1997, Decanter magazine named Bartholomew one of the “fifty most influential in the wine world…the faces to watch in the new millennium." Bartholomew moved to America in 1986 to start a Port importing company, Premium Port Wines, for leading the Symington family, spending the next ten years educating Americans on Port and Madeira. In 1988, Bartholomew was responsible for reintroducing Madeira to the US, where it had faced extinction during and since prohibition. He has “expanded from his pivotal role in the breathtaking growth of Port and Madeira to exert a profound influence on the US wine market,” says Decanter. Profiled by Wine Spectator [1986], Market Watch “The Pioneer of Port” [2008], American Fine Wine Magazine [2008] and Forbes.com [2009], son of Michael Broadbent MW, Bartholomew was also named by Wine & Spirits [2008] as one often in the world to be “driving the most revolutionary changes in wine."

Bartholomew founded Broadbent Selections in 1996 and today, among the 39 wineries he represents, Broadbent is especially known for importing the finest of the finest wines from South Africa, Lebanon, New Zealand and Portugal. Bartholomew has been a wine speaker for most of the major cruise lines and wine festivals. He lives in Richmond, Virginia and has a very strong passion for Virginia's wineries.

Matthew Brown

Since graduating from the University of Virginia in 2010, Matthew has spent his entire career in the hospitality and wine trade. His diverse experience includes restaurant service and management, off-premise wine retail work, as well as winery marketing, branding, and administrative management. In 2017 he earned a Diploma in Wines & Spirits from the Wine & Spirit EducationTrust and enrolled the following year as a student of the
Institute of Masters of Wine which, like the WSET, is based in London. Matthew’s passion for food, wine, and unforgettable experiences has taken him around the world, adding the benefit of a global perspective to his work as a business and marketing consultant in the wine trade.

Claudia Chamberlain

Claudia Chamberlain is a Regional Manager covering the Mid-Atlantic for Jackson FamilyWines based in the Washington DC area. Claudia started her career in wine by spending 4years in the E&J Gallo sales program, working in both on and off premise winedistributionsales in North Carolina and DC. She then switched gears to work for the large spirits supplier Heaven Hill, covering Virginia. In addition to working for Jackson Family, she is a WSETCertified Educator and can be found teaching wine & spirits courses for Capital Wine School in DC. She holds the WSET Diploma in Wines, WSET Level 3 in Spirits, CWE and CSE from the Society of Wine Educators, and Certified Sommelier titles. Claudia is currently a student in the Master of Wine program.

Emmanuel Dabney

Emmanuel Dabney is a historian, resident of southside Virginia, and an avid consumer of wine and cider and Virginia made spirits. Emmanuel graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Historic Preservation from the University of Mary Washington in Fredericksburg, Virginia and completed a Master’s degree in Public History at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. He’s a member of several Virginia beverage makers’ clubs and has given a presentation on the relationship between enslaved people and fruit orchards in antebellum Virginia among a host of other topics related to slavery, freedom, emancipation, and the Civil War and Reconstruction eras. The 2020 Virginia Governor’s Cup is Emmanuel’s first time participating.

Maria Denton

Maria E. Denton, CSS CSW CWE, is the Beverage Director for the two highest-grossing restaurants in Washington, DC--Old Ebbitt Grill and The Hamilton. She brings over 25 years of experience to this role, having started her wines and spirits career in the restaurant industry, working her way from server to General Manager along the way. Maria has also worked in the beverage wholesale business, as a wines and spirits instructor, and as a lead sommelier for several international wine events. Always an advocate of wines and spirits education, Maria is a mentor to several DC-area sommeliers, and she served on the Society of Wine Educators Board of Directors from 2008 to 2014.

David Denton

David is the only American faculty member of the Wine Academy of Spain in Madrid and is a sommelier at Charlie Palmer Steak in Washington, DC. He holds all three certifications from the Society of Wine Educators–the Certified Specialist of Wine (CSW), the Certified Specialist of Spirits (CSS), and the Certified Wine Educator (CWE), and holds the Official Sherry Educator title from the Consejo Regulador of Sherry. In addition, David has passed the Advanced Sommelier exam held by the Court of Master Sommeliers and is a Certified Bordeaux Educator through the L'Ecole du Vin Bordeaux. He is the head sommelier for many prestigious events including Robert Parker's master tasting in Logrono, Spain; Staglin Family Vineyards' annual Music Festival in Napa Valley; the Society of Wine Educators' annual conferences in Monterey, CA, Washington, DC, New Orleans, LA, and Sacramento, CA; and the Vinoble Fortified and Dessert Wine Festival in Jerez, Spain; among others. He resides in Arlington, VA, with his wife Maria.

Amie Fields

Amie is a co-founder and partner at Botanist and Barrel Winery & Cidery in central North Carolina. After a lifelong career in wine, sourcing, importing and distributing, Amie realized that the winemakers have all the fun. She wanted to make the type of wild and raw ciders that she and her husband enjoyed drinking and couldn't find in the US, so she teamed up with her husband Lyndon Smith and sister-in-law Kether Smith in 2017 and Botanist and Barrel Cidery and Winery was born. 
 
Amie is one of a select few people awarded the Pommelier certification from the American Cider Association. She is also certified through the Court of Master Sommeliers, has judged at the Great Lakes International Wine and Perry competition and has been a panelist speaker at Cidercon. Amie’s expertise in tasting, evaluating and finding balance is invaluable in creating new and exciting ciders and wines. At Botanist and Barrel, she loves focusing on minimal intervention winemaking in order to showcase a living product’s terroir. These days you can find her in Asheville's new Botanist and Barrel tasting bar and bottle shop tirelessly working on changing the way people think about natural cider and wine.

Greg Frankena

Born and raised in Alexandria, and recently relocated to Central Virginia, Greg is a proud Virginian through and through. 
 
His first exposure to cider came as a teenager thanks to an exchange program to Normandy, with hosts and new friends introducing him to the famed local ciders and calvados. Later as a student at the College of Charleston, Greg became a devotee of the Lowcountry local food scene and establishing a personal connection to where his food and drink comes from. Upon returning to the DC area, Greg spent the next few years working in the burgeoning craft beer industry, where the opportunity to work as the beer buyer at a local bottle shop in turn meant that he became the cider buyer as well. Eventually, after working his way up to become general manager of the shop, Greg created a dedicated on and off premise cider program consisting of a rotating selection of over 100 different ciders and perries with a special emphasis on Virginia producers. 
 
Though now working in the wine industry, Greg has been taking full advantage of his new locale to continue exploring and promoting ciders from the Commonwealth. 

Michael Franz

Michael Franz, Ph.D., is a wine writer, editor, educator, and restaurant consultant, and competition judge.  He is editor of Wine Review Online, Lead Wine Reviewer for The Tasting Panel Magazine, wine consultant for 12 restaurants in the Washington, D.C. area, and instructor for Capital Wine School.  Franz has written for many national and international wine magazines and worked for 11 years as Wine Columnist for The Washington Post.  He has judged wine competitions on six continents, is currently Chief Judge for two competitions based in California, and has conducted more than 1,600 site visits at wineries across all of the world’s significant wine producing countries.  Franz has appeared on numerous television shows, served as an expert witness in several cases regarding the wine trade in Federal District Court, and has been interviewed on public radio more than 30 times.

Jerry Gibson

Jerry Gibson has been involved with wine since the mid-80s when he became a member of the American Wine Society. He branched out from there working with various Virginia Wineries helping in their tasting rooms, at festivals, and during harvests. In 2019, he became a certified wine judge through the American Wine Society Certified Wine Judge Program, a three-year endeavor. He has judged for the Indy International Wine Competition, Atlantic Seaboard Competition, the American Wine Society both in the Amateur and Commercial competitions, and the Virginia Governor’s Cup competition.

Tara Hardiman

Tara Hardiman seeks to promote excellence in wine and spirits education, production, judging, and consumer enjoyment through her formal wine and spirits educational achievements and over 25 years of expert consumer patronage. Her decades-long pursuit of wine and spirits expertise and appreciation took her on a path to complete the UK Wine and Spirits Education TrustDiploma in 2014, becoming an Associate of the Institute of the Wine and Spirits. Furthering that education, she became a Certified Specialist of Spirits and Certified Specialist of Wines in 2015 through the U.S.-based Society of Wine Educators. In 2018, she became an American Wine Society Wine judge. While working for the U.S. Government by day, Tara continues her avid exploration of new and emerging wine trends, regions, and techniques through continuing education and travel.

Erica Jeter

Erica Jeter is a cidermaker and cider enthusiast, who finds great joy in fine cider’s current revival. She is a member of the American Cider Association, a Cider Convolunteer, and has studied cidermaking, sensory analysis, and orcharding through workshops at Blue Bee Cider, Albemarle CiderWorks, Penn State Extension, the American Cider Association, and the CiderInstitute of North America. She is one of the organizers of The Cider Exchange (TCE) community on Facebook, and loves sharing and exchanging orchard-based ciders and perries with friends across many cider regions. As a cidermaker, her quest for rare and exceptional apples has led her to orchards throughout central and southwest Virginia, including the highly revered Foggy Ridge Cider orchard. As an avid fan of nature and the outdoors, she enjoys traveling in her microcamper to orchard-based cideries to experience what she refers to as “full terroir immersion”: sleeping under the stars in orchards, cooking and dining al fresco with the farm and cidery families, and tasting ciders among the trees and land that produced them. Erica lives in Richmond, Virginia with her husband and teenage son, who wonder how long it will take for her cider making equipment to take over every floor of their home.

Richard Leahy

Richard Leahy is a wine professional based in Charlottesville, Virginia and coordinates the conference program for the Eastern Winery Exposition, the largest wine industry trade show east of the Rockies. He has been writing about wines of Virginia and the East since 1986, and in May 2012 his book Beyond Jefferson’s Vines, the Evolution of Quality Wine in Virginia was published to high praise from reviewers. It is now available on Amazon.com in a revised third edition. Richard is a member of the American Wine Society and the Circle of Wine Writers, and also has a website and blog focused on wines of the East at www.richardleahy.com/blog. In 2022 he launched Adventure Wine Tours, a boutique Virginia winery touring service targeted to curious, passionate wine lovers who want to experience today’s world-class Virginia wines. 

Jay Youmans, MW

Judging Director
Jay Youmans has been tasting wine professionally for nearly 30 years. He is the Educational Director and owner of the Capital Wine School, and the owner of Rock Creek Wine Merchants, a sales and marketing consultancy. Jay has served as a wine judge for numerous wine competitions, and has contributed to several books and magazines on wine. Over the years, he has conducted hundreds of public, private, and corporate wine tasting events. Jay is an Advanced Level Sommelier, a Certified Wine Educator (CWE), and Washington, DC's first Master of Wine (MW).

Caroline Hermann, MW

Caroline Hermann is a highly respected wine lecturer, having taught wine industry professionals since 2010 at the Capital Wine School in Washington DC. She has worked in many aspects of the industry, including wineries and retail sales, as well as wine law and regulations. She has studied viticulture, winemaking, and tasting analysis at the University of Bordeaux and Plumpton College, and is a recipient of the AXA Millesimes Scholarship. Caroline holds a Diploma from the Wine and Spirit Education Trust, and is DC's 2nd Master of Wine.

Kryss Speegle, MW

Kryss Speegle MW has held winemaking, business development and educational roles in the wine industry for 20 years. She holds an MS in Food Science/Enology from UC Davis and a WSET Diploma; she was named a Master of Wine in 2021. 
 
Her practical training included harvests in Germany and New Zealand, and she has worked extensively in California’s coastal and interior regions. Since 2011 Kryss has worked with O’Neill Vintners & Distillers, one of California’s largest and fastest-growing wine and spirits producers. Formerly the Director of Winemaking, she is currently the Senior Director for Business-to-Business and is involved in strategic planning, contract production, brand development and education, and new business generation.
 
Kryss also writes, teaches and develops educational content for the WSET curriculum and custom-designed wine courses. She lives in the Washington, DC area with her husband and daughter. 

Lisa Granik, MW

Lisa Granik, MW entered the wine trade following an earlier career as a lawyer and law professor.  In 2010 she established Tastingworks, which offers tailored go-to-market strategies for wine regions and family-run wineries seeking to develop brands, to enter and/or improve their penetration in the American market.  Her career in wine has included work in wine production, retail, import and distribution channels, working with both small and large wholesalers and importers around the United States.  She was a Professor of Wine, Beer and Spirits at the New York Institute of Technology from 2013-2015.  Her multiple speaking engagements include the Smithsonian Institution, the Cité du Vin et Civilization in Bordeaux, and numerous conferences.  Lisa frequently judges in wine competitions worldwide.  Her writings on wine have appeared in publications such as Somm Journal, The World of Fine Wine, and The New York Times.
 
Lisa became a Master of Wine in 2006.  She has a BS and MS in Foreign Service from Georgetown University, a JD from Georgetown, an LL.M and doctorate from Yale Law School.  Widely published both in wine and in the law, she is the recipient of numerous awards and fellowships, among them two distinct Fulbright Scholarships (in 1990-91 and in 2017-18), the Villa Maria Award, a Waitrose Fellowship, and the Thomas Jefferson Award from the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts.  She currently serves on the Board of the Women in Wine Leadership Symposium.  She serves as a Board Member of the Institute of Masters of Wine (North America) since 2007, and served as a member of the governing Council of the Institute of Masters of Wine, for which she co-chairs the Committee on Diversity, Inclusion and Transformation.  SommJournal declared her a “Leading Woman in Wine.”  Lisa’s book, The Wines of Georgia, was published in 2020 and is regarded as the definitive book on the subject.  The second, 2023 edition of her “Granik’s Guide to Georgian Wine” has just been released.

Frank Morgan

Frank Morgan is the author of the DrinkWhatYouLike.com wine blog, started ten years ago to chronicle his wine travel experiences and to share stories of the wines, wineries, and winegrowers of Virginia. Morgan is the wine columnist for The Virginian-Pilot newspaper and contributor for Piedmont VirginianMagazine, Savor Virginia Magazine, Dine, Wine & Stein Magazine, edibleDC magazine, the wine site Snooth, and the founder of the monthly virtual wine tasting series Virginia Wine Chat (started in 2013).

Ray O'Mara

A graduate of the Culinary Institute of America and a hospitality professional, Ray is a long-standing member and supporter of the Society of Wine Educators and the Wine Scholar Guild. Ray holds the accreditations of Certified Wine Educator, French Wine Scholar, Italian Wine Scholar, Spanish Wine Scholar, and WSET Diploma in Wines & Spirits. He has judged international and regional wine competitions including the Dallas Morning News International Wine Competition, the Sonoma County Fair, and the Virginia Governors Cup®. Ray has a passion for expanding and sharing his wine knowledge and has participated in many other study programs, leading to the additional accreditations of Certified Sommelier, Certified Specialist of Spirits, Certified Specialist of Sherry, Certified Burgundy Educator, Certified Bordeaux Educator, and Napa Wine Educator. Currently, Ray works as a wine educator, conducting individual classes, specialized courses, private events and wine promotions.

Lindsey Parris

Business economist, author, and retired AF colonel, distinguished graduate of the USAF Academy with advanced degrees from and teaching experience at FSU and Harvard and a long-time love of wines during careers in the private and public sectors. He has judged and worked with the Virginia Governor's wine competition the past eleven years, judged for Virginia’s Monticello Trail wine competition, has moderated panels for the Eastern Winery Exposition, and is a senior wine and spirits instructor at the Capital Wine School and Adventure Wine. He holds the Diploma in Wine and Spirits (DWS) from the Wine and Spirits Education Trust and is an Associate Member of the Institute of Wines & Spirits (AIWS).  In addition to the WSET Diploma, he has teaching certifications in wine and spirits from the Society of Wine Educators, Italian Wine Central (Italian Wine Professional), Burgundy and Provence; is a certified instructor for the French, Spanish, and Italian Wine Scholar programs of the Wine Scholar Guild;  and a BNIC-Accredited Cognac Educator who represents the BNIC on Cognac Day for Cognac's US sister city and conducts Master-level Cognac seminars at institutions such as the Miami Culinary Institute. He is a co-founder of Spanish-American Wine Merchants; served on the board of Spirits Acquisitions, an incubator company for developing emerging wine and spirits brands, including Clyde May's whiskey; and is now a board member for vodka and tequila start-ups Monkey in Paradise and Blue Nectar. He works with marketing and strategic business issues in the wine and spirits industry, and he instructs and lectures on wine topics in a variety of venues.

Matt Perrella

Matt Perrella is a wine professional based in Washington, DC . He works with importer and distributor Dionysos Imports as sales rep and portfolio manager. In addition, Matt is a WSET (Wine and Spirits EducationTrust) Certified Instructor at the Capital Wine School in Washington, DC and teaches classes to both consumers and trade professionals.

Matt has experience in multiple aspects of the industry, including fine wine retail and working at wineries in Oregon and Washington State.

Winn Roberton

Winn Roberton began his restaurant career in 2000 bussing tables full of tacos while studying music at Penn State University. With years of passion for food & cooking already under his belt, it was no surprise he caught the wine bug with relative ease. Life then took Winn to Las Vegas where he cut his teeth on many different restaurant positions in restaurants such as Nobhill, Craftsteak, and Carnevino.

After a stint of wine study in California, Winn returned to his native Washington, DC to open Michael Mina’s Bourbon Steak DC in 2008. There he works with a world-wide wine list featuring affordable finds up to aged first-growth Bordeaux. With a passion for teaching, Winn looks forward to staff training at Bourbon Steak as well as outside engagements.

Lyndon Smith

Farming and winemaking run in Lyndon’s blood. He grew up foraging for family meals and drinks at his Grandparents' farm and it quickly evolved into a lifelong love of agriculture and fermentation.  He founded a natural wine distribution company, Sour Grapes, in 2009 but left the business to start a small apple orchard and blueberry farm in Leicester, NC.  He joined his family running Cedar Grove Blueberry Farm in central North Carolina where Botanist and Barrel’s farmhouse Cidery & Winery was launched in 2017.  He is the President of the North Carolina Cider Association and is a certified cider professional through the ACA.  Lyndon loves supporting local farms, using native fruits, and pushing boundaries with wild and spontaneous yeasts.   Lyndon is a founder and the COO of Botanist and Barrel cider and winery and is also a winemaker at DeFi Wines.  Find him on Instagram @botanistandbarrel and @spontaneousfarmer. 

Greg Trevarthen

Greg is a native of Virginia and a long-time enthusiast and aficionado of Virginia wine, cider, beer, mead and distilled spirits. A program manager in the Department of Defense with two degrees from Hampden-Sydney and an advanced degree from Boston University, Greg began a life-long interest and education in fermented and distilled beverages across the United States, Asia, the Pacific Rim and Europe during his career in the Marine Corps.  

Greg has a tasting background in the many styles of ciders across the Iberian Peninsula, France, England and North America, and actively seeks unique offerings and operations.  His current projects include a cider-focused webpage focused on Virginia. 

He holds a Level 3 in Wine & Sprit Education Trust (WSET), the Wine Scholar Guild’s French Wine Scholar (FWS) Certification and has completed The Wines of Northern Italy portion of the Italian Wine Scholar course and certification. After a break for career, Greg looks forward to completing his last unit for the WSET Diploma in the next several months. 

Neal Wavra

Neal Wavra is the Chef Owner/Sommelier of Field & Main Restaurant in Marshall, VA.  He also provides consulting services, creates customized wine and food events and presents about hospitality, wine and food through his company FABLE Hospitality.  Wavra was the host and sommelier at The Riverstead, a sixteen-seat restaurant located in Chilhowie, Virginia run by Michelin starred chefs John Shields and Karen Urie.  Wavra was the former General Manager and Sommelier for The Ashby Inn & Restaurant in Paris, VA.  In addition, Wavra is the present director for the Loudoun County Wine Competition.  
 
Prior to working in Virginia, Wavra was the Dining Room Manager at Charlie Trotters in Chicago and the Dining Room and Farmstead Manager at Blackberry Farm in Walland, TN.  He holds degrees from Whitman College in Walla Walla, Washington; the Monterey Institute of International Studies in Monterey, California; and the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, NY.  Wavra is the recipient of the Commanderie de Bordeaux Wine Scholarship and the Kopf Foundation Wine Excellence Scholarship.

Eric West

Eric is the director of the Great Lakes International Cider & Perry Competition, the world's largest cider judging. He has judged cider at the Royal Bath & West Show in England, the Australian Cider Awards, and other prestigious competitions. Eric is a past recipient of a Significant Contribution to the Cider Industry award from the American Cider Association, and is a current member of ACA's Data Quality Initiative. He served as Interim Director of the Certified Cider Professional program and has written a number of educational features for the print version of Cidercraft Magazine.
 
In addition to his cider credentials, Eric is a Certified Cicerone and a recognized judge in the Beer Judge Certification Program. He holds a master's degree in Geography from Virginia Tech and develops self-driving technology for an autonomous trucking company in Blacksburg.

Kasia White

Kasia has loved wine since she studied abroad in France, at which point she was exposed to the “best wines in the world” according to her host family–French wine! Luckily, she already had some experience in the restaurant world, and upon her return to the states, she continued to grow and develop as a wine enthusiast and wine professional. In the more recent years, she managed a winery in the developing wine region of Virginia, worked as a Sommelier of a luxury resort, and continued to spend her free time learning about (and teaching about) wine through the WSET (Wine and Spirit Education Trust) at the Capital Wine School. She is a WSET Certified Educator and a Diploma (Level 4) Graduate.

Kathy Wiedemann

Kathy Wiedemann considers herself an enthusiastic advocate for Virginia wine both in the real and social media worlds. She has actively participated in many online wine tastings for #vawinechat, #winestudio, and others. She has spent the last ten years studying wine from the ground up and, in those pursuits, has earned great respect for Virginia’s place in the wine world. She has 7 years of experience working weekends in VA tasting rooms educating customers across the tasting bar and through wine classes that she designed and taught. In 2018, she was awarded the Loudoun County Wine Ambassador of the Year by the Loudoun Wine Awards.
 
For the past 3 years, Kathy has served as a board member of the Atlantic Seaboard Wine Association assisting with expansion of the association’s social media presence in promoting east coast wine. In addition, during the same 3 years, she has written a weekly wine blog for wine shop City Vino located in Fredericksburg, VA. 
 
Kathy is returning to the WSET diploma program in 2022 after a two-year hiatus due to the demands of her IT “day job”. She holds the WSET advanced certification (WSET III), Certified Sherry Wine Specialist, and Wines of Portugal ‘Academia do Vinho’ Level 3 Advanced Certification. She is active in a local American Wine Society chapter, attends many educational wine conferences, and continues her wine studies through tastings and classes at Capital Wine School and Guild Somm among others. She hopes to teach in the future.

Doug Zerbst

Doug Zerbst has been in the wine business for a long while now… When he first started, the job of wine steward was granted to him not because of his keen wine knowledge or discerning palate, but rather his breathtakingly authentic pronunciation of French wine labels.  In his years in and around wine, he has worked as a chef, sommelier, hotel manager, and as a wine wholesaler.  In his current role as VP of Fine Wine for Republic National Distributing Co of Virginia in Richmond, Doug works with a highly wine-educated sales team that feels there is nothing more fun than stumping the boss with arcane wine questions and obscure blind tastings.

Doug has close involvement with hundreds of domestic and international suppliers and wineries.  He also has a passion for supporting the Virginia wine industry, and has been serving on the board of the Virginia Wine Distribution Co for several years.  Each winter, he enjoys the interaction with the other judges on the Governor’s Cup panel, which he has proudly served on for over 10 years.
 
When he is not working, he loves spending time with his wife Petra and his English Shepherd poring over his collection of capsules de Champagne.  His love of food, wine, restaurants, and European travel has him achingly close to the milestone of accumulating 100 Michelin stars.

2023

The Governor's Cup Case Winners

View Winners