There is a quality revolution happening in the mid-Atlantic and that was the theme this year at USBevX, a conference and trade show dedicated to helping drive the quality reputation for eastern and midwest wine and beverage producers, when they hosted the second annual conference in Washington, D.C. in February.

Winemaker Gabriele Rausse, who has been called “The Father of the Modern Virginia Wine Industry,” was one of the first to plant vinifera in Virginia. He came to Virginia from Italy and was quoted in the feature documentary “Vintage: The Winemaker’s Year” as saying that when he arrived in 1976, it was a dark landscape, a somewhat primitive situation and he did not have much hope. But, “Everybody was against it so what can be better than the challenge of what they say you cannot do.”

Today, there are 250 wineries in Virginia; there are 50 producers on Long Island; there are 75 wines in Maryland. There is wine in Ohio, North Carolina, Michigan, Pennsylvania and beyond.

It is a challenge to make wine in these places as compared to the West Coast. Weather plays a large part in the production of wine. The weather can be extremely hot; there can be hurricanes, snow storms, deer and insects. As David Pollak of Pollak Vineyard said in a tone of serious humor, “It is no more challenging to make wine here than anywhere else, except for the frost, humidity and hurricanes.”

But, as many of the winemakers I listened to at the conference said, you can be one of many in California or Europe but in these regions, you can be one in an area that has an open future.

Four winemakers from different states shared their insight into the evolution of quality wine at the conference:

— David Collins, winemaker and co-owner, Big Cork Vineyards, Maryland

After studying horticulture at Virginia Tech, David Collins began his career at Loudoun County Virginia’s first winery, Willowcroft Vineyards, in 1987, followed by being winemaker at Breaux Vineyards in 1997. In 2011, Collins partnered with Randy and Jennifer Thompson to open Big Cork Vineyards in Washington County, Maryland. Today they have 30 acres planted primarily to vinifera, with plans to plant more.

In the beginning, everyone made wine on the East Coast modeled after California but there was very little to guide them. Collins notes some pivotal points that shifted winemaking in the mid-Atlantic.

One was the Virginia Farm Winery Bill in 2006 that enabled more wineries to open. Another significant moment was the publication of the book “Sunlight into Wine” by Dr. Richard Smart.

It revolutionized winemaking by advocating for canopy management. At this time, wineries shifted to a cordon system with catch wire and with the vines vertical, the fruit started to get sun. No longer were they picking unripe fruit at 19 brix.

“We understood clones and rootstock and the vineyards got better,” Collins said. Then came agritourism, which drove the market and interest in wine. And finally, the “anything-but-chardonnay” movement opened door to new white wines, such as viognier, sauvignon blanc and reisling.

— Joyce Rigby, vineyard and winery consultant at Rigby Viticulture, North Carolina and instructor of enology and viticulture at Harrisburg Area Community College, Pennsylvania

Involved in eastern viticulture for more than 35 years, Rigby has worked with vineyards and wineries in North Carolina, Virginia, Pennsylvania, Tennessee and Maryland.

Rigby, an industrial engineer, married a winemaker in 1982 and moved to Virginia.

There were 12 wineries at the time, and now there are 200. After two decades, Rigby and her husband moved to North Carolina. In 2002, there were only 12 wineries in North Carolina and they were going through the same growing pains as Virginia had the previous decades. But, the knowledge and insight she gained in Virginia was applied to North Carolina. Rigby moved to Pennsylvania in 2011 but is back in North Carolina consulting on-site evaluation, viticulture, winery design and business planning, as well as teaching viticulture.

When Rigby started, she said, “pruning, time and harvesting were our plan. We did the best we could but we did not know anything.” Over three decades, the regions have evolved and now they do much more than “tying vines up for canopy management.” And because of the better management in the vineyard, they have been able to eliminate pyrazines (green pepper, herbaceous notes) from the wines.

— Richard Olsen-Harbich, winemaker, Bedell Cellars, Long Island, N.Y.

A pioneer in Long Island winemaking, Olsen-Harbich started in 1981. After graduating from Cornell with a degree in plant science, Olsen-Harbich went to work in the Finger Lakes at Hermann J. Wiemer before moving to the east end of Long Island and helping to establish that region. He wrote the petition for the North Fork of Long Island appellation in 1986. Long Island currently has 2,400 acres of vinifera planted.

In the beginning, many thought Long Island was not a suitable region for vinifera. There was a flurry of planting vines in the late 1970s and 1980s, but they did not have a great understanding of plant material and root stock.