October is officially Virginia Wine Month. What better time for wine lovers to discover their favorite crush than when the harvest is ripe, festivals are in full swing and historic sites await, all set against the brilliant backdrop of fall foliage in its prime? With an estimated 275 wineries, a dedicated month, and even a state grape (Viognier), Virginia’s wine industry has emerged as one of the top five wine producers in the nation. Wineries and vineyards add roughly $750 million to the state’s economy. In addition, in 2012, there were a total of 2,975 acres in Virginia dedicated to growing grapes. That same year, Wine Enthusiast magazine named Virginia one of the 10 best wine travel destinations in the country.
The Chesapeake Bay wine region encompasses the historic Tidewater areas of the Northern Neck and Middle Peninsula and falls between the Potomac and York rivers, bounded by the Chesapeake Bay to the east. The region boasts a winemaking history dating back 400 years. The Virginia Company colonists, who had sailed down the Thames in England, across the Atlantic Ocean, through the Chesapeake Bay, settled in Jamestown in 1606, experimented with European and native varieties of grapes for wine. Despite repeated efforts to cultivate grapevines, they failed consistently and soon found themselves preoccupied with staying alive in a harsh new land. Later, George Washington tested grapes for a homegrown Virginia wine and collected cuttings from friends. In 1755, he planted 55 cuts of Madeira, but never produced a significant product. Further west, Thomas Jefferson, dubbed the “first father of American wine,” planted European grape varietals at Monticello. Though he tried for years, Jefferson never harvested enough fruit to produce a bottle of wine.
Of all the cash crops historically grown in the Chesapeake Bay region, grapes took the longest time to bear economic “fruit.” The first successful commercial vines in the region were planted only about 20 years ago. Today, thanks to improved techniques in viniculture and more specialized varietals, the area is peppered with fields of green and purple grapes. A dozen or more vineyards and wineries have popped up where fields of soybeans and corn once grew. The verdant land among the peninsulas provides sandy loam soil and a temperate climate suited to such varietals as cabernet franc, cabernet sauvignon, chambourcin, merlot, petit verdot, syrah, chardonnay, pinot grigio, seyval blanc and vidal blanc.
Chasing the Vine: A History of Wine in Virginia
When it comes to wine, Virginia has a long history of failure. So respect is owed to the centuries of hard-headed growers who steadfastly believed in grapes as a commercially viable crop for the state. After the colonists settled in Jamestown, the local government decreed in 1619 that every man had to plant vines and ship wine back to mother England. But the vines bore little fruit. Thus the chronicle of Virginia viticulture begins at Jamestown, the scene of many failures and blasted hopes. Captain John Smith, who made the four-month trip to the colony with the original 105 settlers, wrote that at Jamestown there were vines “in great abundance in many parts that climbe the toppes of the highest trees.” Smith went on to write that from local grapes, “We made neare 20 gallons of wine, which was neare as good as your French British.” But in the end, what little wine came of early Virginia efforts was bitter and traveled badly.
Despite many incentives passed by the Virginia General Assembly, wine production statewide was mostly a series of disappointments and outright failures. However in 1762, Lancaster native Charles Carter successfully bottled wine using locally grown grapes from 1,800 vines on his property. He was awarded a gold medal by the Royal Society of Arts in London for being the first to accomplish significant wine production in America. By 1768, Virginia exported approximately 13 tons of wine to England.
Thomas Jefferson’s fondness for French culture and his natural curiosity led him to plant thousands of acres of vineyards at Monticello. His winemaking attempts failed, perhaps because of the advent of the American Revolution, or because lice infested the roots and leaves of the vines. Elected president in 1801, Jefferson spent $10,000, a small fortune, for wines during his administration, famously proclaiming in a letter that, ”Wine’s a necessary of life with me.” He stored his wine collection in a 16-foot-deep cellar adjacent to the White House. The pit was shaped like a flower pot and built of absorbent clay bricks. A wooden superstructure protected the wine against the weather, and bottles were racked on a platform floor above a bed of ice, replenished monthly and packed in sawdust.
In 1821, Dr. Daniel Norton of Richmond was widely credited with discovering the Norton grape in Virginia. He selected it from among what he believed were seedlings of a long forgotten grape variety called Bland, though there is some doubt as to whether it was the actual source of the seed which yielded Norton. By 1873, a Norton wine bottled in Virginia received an international award for the best red wine at the Vienna World’s Fair. Other international awards followed. Virginia was producing 461,000 gallons of wine by the late nineteenth century, making it the fifth-largest wine producer among the states.
Later in the century, the concept of prohibition gained wide support in Virginia and stifled the success of the wine industry at the time. By WWI, the state had gone dry. In 1919, the federal Eighteenth Amendment nationally banned the import, export, manufacture, sale or transportation of intoxicating liquors. After the repeal of the Eighteenth Amendment in 1933, Williamsburg became the first city in Virginia to end Prohibition. It was not until the mid-1970s that the Commonwealth began to compete again in the national wine market, using French hybrids, vinifera varietals and new fertilizing techniques that helped counteract disease and mildew.
Horton Vineyards in Gordonsville was the first to plant the Viognier grape in Virginia in 1989. At this time, there were only about 200 acres of the vine planted in the world. The first vintage of Viognier was produced in 1992. From then on, the grape began to grow in popularity and was later named the State Grape of Virginia.
Today, Virginia’s wine industry is thriving, gaining national attention for both product quantity and quality. Local wineries have become tourist attractions, as well as destinations for weddings, festivals and community events. There were six Virginia wineries in 1976, about 70 by 2002, and an estimated 275 today —more than four centuries after the sailing of the first Jamestown fleet.