About 12 Ridges Vineyard
At 3,300 feet in Raphine, Virginia, 12 Ridges Vineyard is one of the highest vineyard sites on the entire East Coast. Craig and Ann Colberg bought the mountaintop in 2010 - it was a Christmas tree lot at the time - and worked with licensed professional soil scientist Alex Blackburn to identify the specific pockets of ground worth planting.
The first wines premiered in 2021: Chardonnay, Riesling, Pinot Gris, and Pinot Noir, made in a deliberately hands-off, Burgundian-leaning style. There are no sweet wines, no hybrids, and no big extracted styles here - the house profile is lean, built on the moderate temperatures, relentless drainage, and frost-free aspect the elevation provides. Early consulting came from respected Virginia wine figures Joy Ting and Jake Busching.
The site trades yield for character - torrential rains and high winds are the price of the altitude - and rewards visitors with what the Colbergs call their two products: a great wine and a great view of the Blue Ridge Mountains.
