In September of 2020 I had the opportunity to interview Jay Youmans MW.  Jay owns the Capital Wine School in Washington, DC. and is responsible for overseeing and conducting the Virginia Governor's Cup wine Competition.  He shares how he originally got involved in the competition and describes the inter-workings and criteria that is required to participate.  Jay got started in the wine business while he was going to school at Wake Forest in North Carolina when he went to work at a friends restaurant called the Salem Cotton Company in the early 1980's.  After working for a small distribution house he was impressed by a wine he had from the Montdomaine winery in Virginia and went on to work for the in the mid 80's before moving out of the industry for a short period of time and then jumping back in by starting a small import company with a friend of his.  He still owns that company Rock Creek Wine Merchants today. Shortly after our interview I contacted Jay to give me a more in depth overview of his opinion on the future of Hybrid grapes in Virginia which I share at the end of the Podcastl

HIGHLIGHTS OF THE INTERVIEW

a). describes how he fell in love with wine and the circumstances surrounding how it happened.
b). explains the origins of the Master of Wine organization and the reason why it was first established by the British Wine Trade.
c). He gives more detail of how rigorous the process is to obtain the MW credential.  He is currently one of only 40 MW'S in the U.S. and Canada today.
d). talks about how he got back into the Virginia wine business and why.
e). believes that Hybrid grapes are important to the future of Virginia winegrowing and why he feels they should be treated better than the second class citizens that they sometimes are.
f). shares his Epiphany wine; which was a 1969 La Tache
g). talks about the formation of the Capital Wine School and what their mission is.


Jay is your classic Wine Professional and is highly regarded.

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