Feb 3, 2025

Virginia wine and grape grower honored

Emily Hodson has won the ninth annual Rich Smith Award of Excellence for outstanding contributions to the American grape and wine industry.

Hodson, the winemaker at Veritas Vineyards and Winery, a co-owner of Flying Fox Vineyards and Winery, and an active leader in the Virginia wine industry, was presented the award Jan. 29 in Sacramento, California.

The prestigious award annually reflects the spirit and accomplishments of the late Richard (Rich) Smith, founder of Valley Farm Management and Smith Family Wines in California’s Santa Lucia Highlands wine region in Monterey County. Smith was a family man, but also a successful grape grower and winery owner, and a highly respected colleague known for the combination of passion, commitment and collaboration which helped advance the American grape and wine industry, according to a news release.

Ever since Smith died in 2015, three organizations — WineAmerica, National Grape Research Alliance (NGRA) and Winegrape Growers of America (WGA) —have collaborated with Smith’s family to present this annual award since Smith had been a loyal member of all three groups. The 2025 award was presented at WGA’s annual Leadership Luncheon during the Unified Wine & Grape Symposium in Sacramento.

“We are honored to have Emily receive the 2025 Rich Smith Award,” Jason Smith, on behalf of Rich’s wife Claudia and daughter Kacy, said in the release. “Her love of science, her drive and passion for the Virginia wine industry are at the core of what Rich did throughout his career. Emily is the perfect addition to the growing list of accomplished winners of the award. Congrats, Emily!”

Hodson learned the art of winemaking from her father and the science from Virginia Tech, where she earned a degree in enology under the guidance of Dr. Bruce Zoecklein. She learned about the importance of vineyards in the equation from her uncle. In addition to her winemaking duties at Veritas and Flying Fox, she produces wine for several other wineries under custom crush arrangements. Her wines have won numerous awards in major competitions, helping to put Virginia on the map as a serious wine region, according to the release.

When Dr. Zoecklein retired as the state enologist, Hodson was part of the creation of the Virginia Winemakers Research Exchange, which gives local winemakers access to regional production-scale research facilities. They conduct hundreds of educational sessions and winemaker research projects under the guidance of a research enologist, giving scientific discipline to the process. It has resulted in Charlottesville, Virginia, and the Monticello AVA receiving the 2023 Wine Region of the Year at Wine Enthusiast Magazine’s Annual Wine Star Awards.

Hodson also led the charge, starting in 2021 (with her colleague Ben Jordan), to execute the Virginia Wine Board’s (VWB’s) vision to develop winegrape varieties that are resistant to downy mildew. Grape pathologists commonly refer to Virginia as Ground Zero for downy mildew, as it has the ideal moist, temperate environment for it to spread. The VWB set aside $1 million for the first phase of the project, and Emily figured out who to talk to get it off the ground, according to the release.

Virginia recently signed a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) with the USDA’s Agricultural Research Service and brought on grape breeder Dr. Surya Sapkota, an alum of the NGRA-initiated VitisGen project focused on powdery mildew resistance, to begin this work and take Virginia into a more sustainable future. Emily remains a key industry advisor on the program, according to the release.

Due to her many contributions, Hodson was honored as the Virginia Wine Person of the Year in 2017. She also represents the Southeast region of the U.S. on the NGRA board of directors, and is the organization’s vice chair.

“Emily’s commitment to her family and the broader wine community reflect qualities which make Rich Smith’s legacy so powerful,” Jim Trezise, president of WineAmerica, said in the release. “While always attentive to their own businesses, Rich and Emily are natural-born collaborators working to make the common good even better.”

“Emily is a rare leader who leverages science as a means to advance the industry,” Donnell Brown, president of NGRA, said in the release. “Her brainchild, the Winemakers Research Exchange, has given her fellow Virginia winemakers a launchpad for experimentation and innovation. With it, they’ve lifted the state to the status of wine region to watch — and invest in — even by vintners in Bordeaux, as we saw this past summer. And the grapevine breeding work she spearheaded will help sustain the state’s wine industry long into the future. Emily’s legacy is already taking shape, right before our eyes.”

Representing WGA, Colleen Frei added, “Emily’s engagement with others to foster relationships across the industry in support of advancement through research and collaborative problem solving is tremendous. Her steadfast efforts to further the grape and wine community align with Rich Smith’s amazing legacy.”

The  Rich Smith Award is a solid bronze medallion depicting Rich holding a glass of wine in a vineyard mounted on a large wooden back, emblazoned with the words, “Rich Smith Award of Excellence,” plus “Passion, Commitment, Collaboration” and the name of the recipient.