Monticello is an American Viticultural Area (AVA) located in the central Piedmont region of the Commonwealth of Virginia.
[4] In 2019, the Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB) granted a petition to expand the AVA by approximately 106,240 acres (166 sq mi) into Fluvanna County.
Jefferson gave Mazzei significant acreage less than 1 mile (1.6 km) south of Monticello for the purpose of growing grapes.
[8] As was the practice at that time, Mazzei rented his home, in this instance to the Hessian cavalry officer Friedrich Adolf Riedesel, a prisoner of war who had been captured at Saratoga and was imprisoned in the Charlottesville barracks.
[4] To maximize vine protection, vignerons selected sites with sunny, south-easterly exposure at 800 feet (244 m) and above between the mountain slopes.