Doug Flemer succeeded where Thomas Jefferson failed.

Flemer is proprietor of Ingleside Vineyards, one of a handful of wineries whose opening in the 1970s signaled the rebirth of the state's wine industry. Three decades later, Flemer and scores of other winemakers across the state are making wines good enough to make TJ -- a noted connoisseur of the fermented grape but a failure as a grapes-grower -- smile and, no doubt, raise a glass.

October is Virginia Wine Month, once a way to boost the state's fledgling wine business and now a showcase event to promote a full-blown industry.

Virginia wine was nonexistent in the early 1970s, but last year, more than 130 wineries produced 350,000 cases, or $70 million worth. An estimated eight to 10 new wineries come online each year, according to the Virginia Wine Board.

Grapes ranked 15th in the state among all crops last year in terms of harvested acreage. Nationally, Virginia is the seventh-largest producer of wine, and its reputation is gaining. More than 50 Virginia wineries regularly compete and win their share of awards in national competitions, such as the American Wine Society, where James River Cellars Winery of Glen Allen took home three prizes in 2007.

"There are a lot of wine states out there, and Virginia's better than most of them," said Bruce Schoenfeld, the wine and spirits editor at Travel + Leisure, for which he wrote a piece last year that included Virginia as the only U.S. entry among five up-and-coming wine destinations worldwide.

Schoenfeld ranks California, Oregon and Washington as the top producers of American wines. The second tier of wine-producing states includes New York and Virginia, he said.

Virginia wines are sold around the nation, in states such as New York, Florida, Texas and California, and a few are distributed in England. Exact figures aren't available as to what percentage of Virginia wines are sold outside the state, but the Virginia Wine Board said more by far are sold in Virginia.

"What Virginia offers, which I find so compelling, is a combination of a few real good wines and a lot of wineries with perfectly good wines, and a tourism infrastructure which makes time spent there really pleasurable," Schoenfeld said.

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Despite its status as a relative newcomer on the national stage, Virginia has a long history of winemaking.

In the 1600s at Jamestown, all male heads of households, under threat of punishment, were ordered to cultivate 20 grapevines each, although disease and pests torpedoed the effort.

Jefferson famously -- and unsuccessfully, without the benefit of modern pesticides and growing techniques -- spent decades trying to grow numerous varieties of imported grapes in hopes of stocking his extensive wine cellar at Monticello.

Eventually, winemaking did succeed in Virginia, which for a time was the biggest wine producer in the United States until it was left in ruins by the Civil War.

Grape-growing rebounded, but it was wiped out again by Prohibition. It wasn't until the 1970s that it got going again when people such as Carl Flemer, Doug's father, decided to give wine-making a try.

Carl Flemer, a longtime dairy farmer on the family's 3,000-acre estate in Westmoreland County on the highest piece of land on the Northern Neck, became enchanted with wines on his annual trips to Europe. For fun, he came home and planted grapes in the 1970s and made small batches of wine for his own enjoyment. The wine was so good, however, that friends were always asking for bottles for special occasions.

He gave away so much of it, recalled Doug Flemer, that he figured he might as well start selling it.

Doug Flemer spent a month in Europe learning what he could about winemaking and then came home to get to work. By sheer good fortune, while Doug Flemer was away, his father had made the acquaintance of an actual winemaker, Jacques Recht, who was visiting from Europe and agreed to stay for three weeks to help.

Recht wound up staying 13 years as Ingleside's winemaker and saved the Flemers, who now produce 15,000 cases of wine a year, a lot of trial-and-error experimentation.

Just the same, there was a lot of trial and error at Ingleside and other wineries around Virginia anyway, mostly in terms of figuring out which variety of grapes would thrive in the state's climate. People such as Gabriele Rausse, an Italian winemaker who shepherded the young industry through its early days, helped launch Barboursville Vineyards and later revived Jefferson's dream of growing grapes and producing wine at Monticello.

Virginia's humidity, rain and occasional temperature extremes still cause grape-growers heartburn, but overall the state is fortunate in its location, said Tony Wolf, the state viticulturist. It's south enough to usually avoid grape-damaging cold and north enough to usually avoid bacteria that thrive in warmer areas.

The state also has benefited from a political climate that has supported grape-growing and winemaking with a statewide marketing operation and research through Virginia Tech, he said.

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Vineyards and wineries can be found from the Eastern Shore to the farthest reaches of Southwest Virginia, including the immediate Richmond area (Woodland Vineyard in Chesterfield County and James River Cellars). But the largest numbers are clustered north and west of Richmond, along the eastern slope of the Blue Ridge Mountains.

Favorable climate is one reason for the clustering in those areas, but demographics is just as important, Wolf said.

Those areas are rich in beauty and history and are not far from major highways and population centers. Some wineries have become destinations in themselves: Barboursville offers suites and a world-class restaurant, Palladio, while Williamsburg Winery offers a boutique hotel, Wedmore Place.

Virginia ranks eighth nationally for wine tourism, according to the Travel Industry of America. Three percent of all trips to Virginia include a winery or wine festival, making it comparable to camping, boating and golf, according to Virginia Tourism Corp., which also notes that visitors who include a Virginia winery on their trip spend more than twice as much per person as the average traveler -- $299 per person compared with $129.

The state wine industry is responsible for 2,750 jobs, which includes positions in wine production as well as related restaurant and tourism jobs. The total annual economic impact of the industry is $347 million, according to the Virginia Vineyards Association.

Wine festivals, at individual wineries or in wider communities, are big draws. February's Virginia Wine Expo at the Greater Richmond Convention Center drew more than 5,600 people.

There's a romance associated with growing grapes and making wine, but those in the business are at the mercy of weather, much like farmers of any other crops.

Harvest this year has been a challenge because of the late summer and early fall rains, which can dilute the flavor of ripening grapes. Some wineries picked their grapes a little earlier or later than they might have liked, but most "feel very good about harvest," said Annette Ringwood Boyd, director of the Virginia Wine Board Marketing Office.

Once the harvest is in, growers have to worry about the fermentation process. It takes a vineyard two or three years after first planting to produce grapes for making wine and perhaps several more years to determine precisely what varieties of grapes grow best in the location.

"It's not an easy life," Wolf said from his office at the Agricultural Research and Extension Center in Winchester. "There are constant challenges . . . a lot of different worries."

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Early on, many wineries started like Ingleside as mom-and-pop operations, as Doug Flemer called them. These days, some newer wineries open with a bigger splash. New Kent Winery, a 12,000-square-foot structure built with historic materials, opened this year, a focal point of the $1.5 billion New Kent Vineyards planned community.

Woodland Vineyard, on Genito Road in Chesterfield, represents a different approach to winemaking. Billed as the smallest farm winery in the state, it features a half-acre of different varieties of grapes in what amounts to the side yard of the home belonging to Melissa Jeltema and her husband, Eric Gretenhart. By comparison, Kluge Estate Vineyard in Charlottesville, believed to be the state's largest, has 250 acres planted in grapes.

The couple took classes in grape-growing and planted vines in 1997 with the idea of developing a hobby for their retirement. They opened for business in 2004.

"Obviously, it's got way beyond that," Gretenhart said with a smile, surveying his vineyard and thinking about the work ahead of crushing and bottling wine.

Jeltema is a food chemist who still works her day job, and Gretenhart is a former attorney who now works more than full-time as the vineyard manager. He says he likes winemaking a lot more than lawyering.

They make 200 cases of wine each year in their backyard winery, a glorified shed filled with wooden barrels, steel tanks and cardboard boxes. The tasting room, open to the public on weekends and by appointment on weekdays, is on the side of their home and used to be their living room and dining room.

They recently planted an additional acre of grapes on a piece of land in Amelia County, with the idea of expanding.

"We said to each other the other night, 'Do we really want to do this on a larger scale?'" Gretenhart said.

This time of year -- with harvesting and winemaking in full swing -- tests the nerves and patience of everyone in the business and has them questioning whether this is such a good idea. But there are moments when those doubts fade.

"At the end of the day, I'll sit on the back deck and grab a glass of wine and sit there and watch the sunset," Gretenhart said. "You know you're drinking your own wine, and it's something you created through your own efforts, and there is that feeling of satisfaction."
Contact Bill Lohmann at (804) 649-6639 or wlohmann@timesdispatch.com.

Staff researcher Wendy Addison contributed to this report.