In November, Loudoun County hosted the 2015 Wine Tourism Conference, a premier industry networking and marketing event. Virginia is the fifth-largest wine producing state in the U.S. and Loudoun is its first county to host this event.

Loudoun Economic Development was a sponsor for the conference, working closely with Visit Loudoun and other local entities to promote the county’s 43 farm wineries to conference attendees.

Agricultural Development Officer Kellie Hinkle was a speaker at the lunch sponsored by Economic Development at Stone Tower Winery on Nov. 19.

“It is truly amazing for you all to be here in Loudoun, we are so blessed to have you here,” Hinkle said. “I see a lot of familiar faces in the room; a lot of our Loudoun wineries we’re very proud of.

“I tell people all the time: the 43 farm wineries we have in Loudoun County didn’t happen by accident. People come to me all the time and say, ‘How many wineries is enough for Loudoun County?’ And I say, ‘I don’t know, we’re not there yet.’”

Loudoun County has invested decades into becoming Virginia’s premier winery destination, benefitting from cooperative investment from the government and private sectors.

“Our elected officials put money behind it, put staff behind it and to this day, they’re still doing that,” she said. “We are very, very fortunate in Loudoun County that we actually have an entire team within our department that’s dedicated to rural and agricultural businesses.”

Loudoun County has been one of Virginia’s best-kept wine secrets, quietly outpacing other areas in size and scope. A major reason why Loudoun hosted this conference is because it has more grapes being planted and the most wineries of any county in the state. Even as wineries continue to open in Loudoun County, existing businesses show year-over-year growth in visitors and business.

Thanks to a proactive approach by economic development and its partners, Hinkle predicts the best is still yet to come.

“Two and one-half years ago, we put together a cross-section of the private sector from the rural economy and we said, ‘OK, let’s take a step back. Let’s evaluate what we have and let’s see where we need to go to keep this rural economy growing,’” she explained. “We developed a business strategy for our rural economy.

“How do we support our existing businesses? How do we promote and attract businesses that complement and support our existing very robust winery industry?

“Has anybody heard that we also have more craft breweries in Loudoun than anywhere else also? Again, that didn’t happen by accident. We’re planning for agriculture. We consider agriculture as economic development in Loudoun County.”