Wine in Early America
How North American Wine Got Its Start.
Beginnings
Ask any wine-loving resident of North America how the wine industry got started here and most respondents will say something about the California missions or the widespread importation of foreign grapes to California in the middle of the 19th century. But, truth be told, wine was one of the most important factors leading to the founding of the United States.
Wine in the Thirteen Colonies
In the original charter of every one of the thirteen colonies from Maine to Georgia was a royal commission to pursue three luxury items that England was unable to provide for itself: wine, silk, and olive oil. King James I was a passionate wine lover! Every colony made repeated attempts to satisfy the requirements of its charter. We don't hear much about the existence of a colonial silk trade or the successful manufacture of east coast olive oil. We do, however, know quite a lot of early efforts to cultivate vineyards.
Early Efforts
The first attempts to plant a vineyard in the New World were actually made by Spanish conquistadors coming north from Florida. A vineyard was planted on an island off the coast of what is now South Carolina. We don't know many details, but the effort obviously failed, as did all other early efforts.
Native American Grapes
The Jamestown vineyard, like all early efforts, was planted to these native varietals. The varietals at hand, however, had little in common with their European counterparts, which were all varieties of tis vinifera. The American species at hand were tis labrusca (of which the Concord grape is a variety), tis rotundifolia, vitis aestivalis, vitus rupestris, and around a half dozen others.
All of these native American grapes were cold tolerant and disease and pest resistant, having evolved in their localities over many millenia. In contrast, the European tis vinifera was not at all cold tolerant and was a relative latecomer to the viticultural scene. It may have developed resistance to European diseases and pests, but not to those of the New World. Calamity would follow the first importation of American native grapes to France.
Early Failure
Every seventeenth century vineyard planted to native American grapes failed to produce acceptable wine. These grapes were all thick skinned and possessed a bitter seed, leading to thick, monodimensional, tannic wines that no one wanted to drink. The colonists turned to imported Madeira.
A Stroke of Luck
Despite a century of unrelentless failure to produce good wine from native grapes, the early Americans persisted in their efforts. They planted several different native varietals in the same vineyard and over time some natural mutations occurred. The results from some of these American Hybrids were far better than any of the unadulterated natives. The newly discovered American hybrids were named after their region of origin or took the name of their discoverer. Some of these hybrids survive to the present day and are used mostly for grape juice: Isabella, Niagara, Catawba, Jefferson, White Concord, and many others.
But surprises were in store for nineteenth century winemakers that would lead to catastrophic devastation in European vineyards and a new direction in American wine. That will be the subject of our next article.
Virginia Vineyard
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