October is good time

Hilde G. Lee Daily Progress correspondent
Published: October 14, 2008

October is traditionally Virginia Wine Month, and with this lovely fall weather there is no better time to get out and visit the state’s wineries. Even the recent issue of Southern Living magazine had a feature article on the Virginia wine trails.

Allan and I have always enjoyed our visitations to Virginia wineries by taking a picnic lunch and sitting at one of the many outdoor tables and tasting wine along with our food. The type of food we took was usually the same. It became sort of a tradition when we visited California wineries while living in that state. Homemade potato salad and oven-fried chicken were a must on the food list.

Although Virginia now has more than 130 wineries, one does not have to go far from Charlottesville to visit many of them in a matter of minutes. For a list of wineries in our region check the Internet at http://www.monticellowine

trail.com.

What’s in a name?

Monticello is also the name of the wine appellation and designates the wine grape growing region around Charlottesville. Felicia Rogan was instrumental in procuring the regional designation when wine grape growing started here.

The name Monticello and the region as a wine-grape growing area go back further than present times. There is no record that Thomas Jefferson ever produced palatable wine at Monticello, although he experimented with wine grape growing for more than 30 years. He was, however, this nation’s first wine connoisseur and made the country aware of wine as an accompaniment to food. He created the White House’s first wine cellar and advised more than one president on which European wines to serve.

Williamsburg roots

Jefferson planted grapes at Monticello soon after moving there in 1770. The vine cuttings were obtained from George Wythe in Williamsburg. During the following 55 years, he continued to experiment with grape growing and firmly believed that growing wine-grapes was one means by which farmers could diversify from their over dependence on tobacco farming.

However, wine grape growing in Virginia goes back even further than Jefferson’s time. When the first colonists landed in Virginia, winemaking was a high priority. They considered wine a staple of the household, a carryover from their native England. The English loved wine and it was the subject of trade controversies and treaties between England and several countries of Europe in the 16th and 17th centuries.

One of the objectives of the early colonists, therefore, was to establish a wine trade with England, which would thereby reduce its dependency on European wines, particularly Spanish and Portuguese.

Upon landing at Jamestown, the settlers found grapes growing wild in the new land and their expectations of producing wine were high. However, they quickly found that wine from these native grapes was unpleasant to their European-trained palates. Since the wild grapes were growing in profusion, the settlers took it for granted that the European grapes also would grow equally well.

Years of experimentation, however, proved that conditions were not suitable for European grape varieties in Virginia. The attempt to grow European-style wine grapes proved a failure, but attempts to do so went on for several hundred years.

In 1619 the Virginia House of Burgesses passed an Act, called Acte 12, requiring every householder to plant and maintain 10 vines each year. In 1623, the Burgesses required each freeman to set aside a quarter-acre for the planting of vines, herbs and roots. The following year this was made more specific requiring 20 vines be planted. In 1631 the General Assembly passed an act blaming the French vignerons for failure to produce commercial quantities of quality wine from European rootstock.

In 1773 Philip Mazzie, an Italian land owner and farmer, arrived in America for the purpose of forming a joint venture of plantation owners (including Washington, Jefferson and Madison) to raise grapes, olives and lemons. This effort also failed.

Before the Civil War there was an attempt in the Shenandoah Valley to raise wine grapes. This too failed and the vines were destroyed during the war.

In the 1830s Dr. D.N. Norton of Richmond domesticated an American hybrid grape, which was eventually called Norton. Virginia Claret made from Norton by the Monticello Wine Company of Charlottesville in the 1870s became famous and won gold in Vienna and silver in Paris.

In 1914 Virginia voters passed a referendum outlawing the sale of alcoholic beverages and Congress made Prohibition nationwide in 1919. Following the repeal of Prohibition in the 1930s, there were few attempts to rebuild a wine industry in Virginia. Until the 1970s the only grapes grown in Virginia were a few hundred acres of table grapes.

In the late 1970s a few pioneering grape growers developed the viticultural technology that permitted Virginians to grow the European wine grape varieties successfully. From these developments the modern Virginia wine industry was established. Today there are more than 130 wineries in Virginia growing vinifera grapes and making European-style wines.

In recognition of this pioneering effort, I hope you will take the opportunity this month to visit at least a few of the local well-class Monticello appellation wineries.