On a recent sky-blue spring day Monticello hosted a gaggle of reporters atop Montalto, the mountain across from Monticello that the Thomas Jefferson Foundation snatched from the poised paws of hovering developers last year when the property came up for sale. The occasion for mountaintop sunning? On May 1, twice-daily tours of the property began, continuing whenever the weather is fine through October.
Peter Hatch, who has been Monticello’s director of gardens and grounds for 28 years, suggested the tours as a way to expand the context of the Monticello house tours. On top of Montalto (when it’s not covered with snow), TJ fanatics can now look down on Monticello and see how it’s situated in relation to the City of Charlottesville and neighboring farms. The changing landscape is apparent from this vantage point: Condos creep up on Monticello from Charlottesville in the west, but to the east the landscape remains pastoral.
“Before Jefferson, during Jefferson and after Jefferson is at the heart of the Montalto tour,” says Hatch.
The tour will also discuss in more detail Jefferson’s interest in westward expansion (Montalto was purchased for $15 million, the same dollar amount Jefferson paid for the entire Louisiana Purchase) and the Virginia wine industry, which was started by Jefferson crony Phillip Mazzei on the property of what’s now Jefferson Vineyards.
According to Keith Johnstone, vice president for business and administration for the Thomas Jefferson Foundation, experts have said that the southeastern face of Montalto is the best soil for grape-growing in the entire state. While the Montalto buildings (houses, mostly) that are in Monticello’s viewshed will likely be torn down, Monticello is considering turning the southeastern face of the mountain into a winery, among other possibilities.—Nell Boeschenstein