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 definitive book on Virginia wine, was published to high praise from reviewers and is now available on Amazon.com in a revised second edition. In August 2016 Richard launched the Drink Outside the Grape competition for fruit wine, mead, cider and eaux-de-vie, and February 2017 he launched the Best of New England Wine Competition. He judges for the Virginia Governor’s Cup competition, and 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.