History of American wine
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The history of American wine began when the first Europeans explored parts of
North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...
, which they called
Vinland Vinland, Vineland, or Winland ( non, Vínland ᚠᛁᚾᛚᛅᚾᛏ) was an area of coastal North America explored by Vikings. Leif Erikson landed there around 1000 AD, nearly five centuries before the voyages of Christopher Columbus and John ...
because of the profusion of grape vines found there. However, European settlers, namely the Spanish, would later discover that the wine made from the various native grapes, had flavors which were unfamiliar and which they did not like. This led to repeated efforts to grow familiar ''
Vitis vinifera ''Vitis vinifera'', the common grape vine, is a species of flowering plant, native to the Mediterranean region, Central Europe, and southwestern Asia, from Morocco and Portugal north to southern Germany and east to northern Iran. There are curre ...
'' varieties. The first vines of ''Vitis vinifera'' origin came up through
New Spain New Spain, officially the Viceroyalty of New Spain ( es, Virreinato de Nueva España, ), or Kingdom of New Spain, was an integral territorial entity of the Spanish Empire, established by Habsburg Spain during the Spanish colonization of the Am ...
(Mexico) and were planted in Senecu in 1629, which is near the present day town of
San Antonio, New Mexico San Antonio is a census-designated place in Socorro County, New Mexico, United States, roughly in the center of the state, on the Rio Grande. The entire population of the county is approximately 18,000. Description San Antonio is partly agricu ...
. However, the discovery in 1802 of the native Catawba grape led to very successful wine-making in
Ohio Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...
. By 1842 Nicholas Longworth was growing of Catawba grapes and making the country's first Sparkling wine. In 1858, ''The Illustrated London News'' described Catawba as "a finer wine of the
hock Hock may refer to: Common meanings: * Hock (wine), a type of wine * Hock (anatomy), part of an animal's leg * To leave an item with a pawnbroker People: * Hock (surname) * Richard "Hock" Walsh (1948-1999), Canadian blues singer Other uses: * A t ...
species and flavor than any hock that comes from the
Rhine ), Surselva, Graubünden, Switzerland , source1_coordinates= , source1_elevation = , source2 = Rein Posteriur/Hinterrhein , source2_location = Paradies Glacier, Graubünden, Switzerland , source2_coordinates= , so ...
" and wrote that sparkling Catawba "transcends the Champagne of
France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...
." But the successful operations in Ohio ceased when fungus disease destroyed the vineyards. Some growers responded by moving north to the shores of
Lake Erie Lake Erie ( "eerie") is the fourth largest lake by surface area of the five Great Lakes in North America and the eleventh-largest globally. It is the southernmost, shallowest, and smallest by volume of the Great Lakes and therefore also has t ...
and its islands, where mildew was not a problem. The Finger Lakes region of
New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...
State developed a successful wine-making industry beginning in the early 1860s when the
Pleasant Valley Wine Company Pleasant Valley Wine Company, also known as Great Western Winery, is a historic winery complex located in the Hamlet of Rheims in the Town of Urbana in Steuben County, New York. The complex consists of nine historic buildings constructed of fields ...
began using carefully selected derivatives of native grapes to produce wine. In 1865 the Urbana Wine Company (which marketed its wine under the Gold Seal label) was established. In 1872, O-Neh-Da Vineyard was established by the late Bishop Bernard McQuaid, on the shores of Hemlock Lake, to make pure grape wine for his churches. 1880 saw the establishment of the Taylor Wine Company. By the late 19th century, wines from the Finger Lakes were winning prizes at wine tastings in Europe.


California wine

In
California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...
, the first vineyard and winery was established by Spanish Catholic missionaries in 1769. California has two native grape varieties, but they make very poor quality wine. Therefore, the missionaries used the
Mission grape Mission grapes are a variety of ''Vitis vinifera'' introduced from Spain to the western coasts of North and South America by Catholic New World missionaries for use in making sacramental, table, and fortified wines. It is grown in South America, ...
, which is called Criolla or "colonialized European" in
South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the southe ...
. Although a ''Vitis vinifera'', it is a grape of "very modest" quality. The first secular vineyard was established in
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by an immigrant from
Bordeaux Bordeaux ( , ; Gascon oc, Bordèu ; eu, Bordele; it, Bordò; es, Burdeos) is a port city on the river Garonne in the Gironde department, Southwestern France. It is the capital of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region, as well as the prefectur ...
,
Jean-Louis Vignes Jean-Louis Vignes (April 9, 1780 - January 17, 1862), also known as Don Luis del Aliso, was a French-born Californian vintner and ranchero. He was the one of the first commercial wine makers in California and one of the first men to import and pla ...
. Dissatisfied with the Mission grape, he imported vines from France. By 1851 he had 40,000 vines under cultivation and was producing of wine per year. Major wine production shifted to the Sonoma Valley in northern California largely because of its excellent climate for growing grapes. General Mariano Vallejo, former commander of the presidio of Sonoma, became the first large-scale winegrower in the valley. In 1857, Agoston Haraszthy bought near Vallejo's vineyards. In contrast to Vallejo and most others, Haraszthy planted his vines on dry slopes and did not irrigate them. Today, the value of dry farming to creating superior wine is generally recognized. Haraszthy has been called the "Father of Modern Viticulture in California." He wrote ''Report on Grapes and Wines in California,'' a manual on
vineyard A vineyard (; also ) is a plantation of grape-bearing vines, grown mainly for winemaking, but also raisins, table grapes and non-alcoholic grape juice. The science, practice and study of vineyard production is known as viticulture. Vineyards ...
management and wine making procedures in which he urged experimentation with different grape varieties in different soils and different parts of the state. He also urged the government to collect cuttings from Europe and distribute them to growers in California. In 1861, the State Legislature commissioned Haraszthy to travel to Europe and purchase a diversity of grapevines. He did so, and obtained 100,000 vines of 300 different varieties. In 1852, Charles LeFranc established what became the very successful
Almaden Vineyards Almaden Vineyards, historically written as Almadén Vineyards, is a Californian winery. Founded in 1852, it is the oldest commercial winery in California. Originally located and established in Almaden Valley, San Jose, the winery has since mov ...
, where he planted
Cabernet Sauvignon Cabernet Sauvignon () is one of the world's most widely recognized red wine grape varieties. It is grown in nearly every major wine producing country among a diverse spectrum of climates from Australia and British Columbia, Canada to Lebanon' ...
,
Pinot noir Pinot Noir () is a red-wine grape variety of the species ''Vitis vinifera''. The name may also refer to wines created predominantly from pinot noir grapes. The name is derived from the French language, French words for ''pine'' and ''black.' ...
, Semillon, and many others. LeFranc produced good wine as did his son-in-law,
Paul Masson Paul Masson (1859 – October 22, 1940) was an early pioneer of California viticulture known for his brand of Californian sparkling wine. Biography Masson emigrated from the Burgundy region of France in 1878 (at the age of 19) to Californi ...
. In 1854,
John Patchett John Patchett (1797–1876) was the first person to plant a commercial vineyard and build a commercial wine cellar in the Napa Valley in California. Patchett planted his vineyard in 1854 and started making wine in 1857. Patchett established hi ...
planted the first commercial vineyard in Napa Valley and established the first winery there in 1858. In 1861 Charles Krug who previously had worked for Agoston Haraszthy and Patchett founded his namesake winery in
St. Helena Saint Helena () is a British overseas territory located in the South Atlantic Ocean. It is a remote volcanic tropical island west of the coast of south-western Africa, and east of Rio de Janeiro in South America. It is one of three constitu ...
and began making his own wine. Originally a Prussian political dissident, Krug learned the trade of the vintner as an apprentice to Haraszthy in the Sonoma Valley. The land on which Krug founded his winery was part of his wife's (Carolina Bale's) dowry. Krug became an important leader of winemaking in the Napa Valley. He was also a mentor for Karl Wente, Charles Wetmore and Jacob Beringer, all of whom became important vintners. Early on, the Napa Valley demonstrated leadership in producing quality wine. At the Exposition Universelle in Paris in 1889, Napa Valley wines won 20 of the 34 medals or awards (including four gold medals) won by California entries. This was the high point that was followed by 40 years of natural and human-caused disasters. Severe frosts, the outbreak of the
phylloxera Grape phylloxera is an insect pest of commercial grapevines worldwide, originally native to eastern North America. Grape phylloxera (''Daktulosphaira vitifoliae'' (Fitch 1855) belong to the family Phylloxeridae, within the order Hemiptera, bugs ...
louse which destroyed ''Vitis vinifera'' vines, an economic depression, the San Francisco earthquake that destroyed an estimated of wine in storage, and the disaster of national
Prohibition Prohibition is the act or practice of forbidding something by law; more particularly the term refers to the banning of the manufacture, storage (whether in barrels or in bottles), transportation, sale, possession, and consumption of alcoholic ...
from 1920 through 1933.


Prohibition

Some wineries managed to survive by making wine for religious services. However, grape growers prospered. Because making up to of wine at home per year was legal, such production increased from an estimated before Prohibition to five years after the imposition of the law. Unfortunately, quality grapes do not ship well, so producers ripped out their vines and replaced them with tough but poor quality grapes such as Alicante Bouschet and
Alicante Ganzin Alicante Ganzin is a red French wine grape variety. Unlike most ''Vitis vinifera'' wine grapes, Alicante Ganzin is a teinturier with dark flesh that produces red juice. Most varieties used to produce red wine, such as Cabernet Sauvignon, Syra ...
. Following Prohibition, American wine making reemerged in very poor condition. Many talented winemakers had died, vineyards had been neglected or replanted in poor quality grapes, and Prohibition had changed Americans' taste in wines. Consumers now demanded cheap "jug wine" (aka "dago red") and sweet, fortified (high alcohol) wine. Before Prohibition dry table wines outsold sweet wines by three to one, but after the ratio was more than reversed. In 1935, 81% of California's production was sweet wines. The reputation of the state's wines suffered accordingly. During the 1970s a system was established to identify appellations of origins, using the term
American Viticultural Area An American Viticultural Area (AVA) is a designated wine grape-growing region in the United States, providing an official appellation for the mutual benefit of winery, wineries and consumers. Winemakers frequently want their consumers to know abo ...
s (AVA). An AVA guarantees that a minimum of 85% of the wine in the bottle comes from grapes grown in that AVA. The use of individual
vineyard A vineyard (; also ) is a plantation of grape-bearing vines, grown mainly for winemaking, but also raisins, table grapes and non-alcoholic grape juice. The science, practice and study of vineyard production is known as viticulture. Vineyards ...
names guarantees that 95% of any wine using a vineyard name must be made from grapes grown in that vineyard, and from within a recognized AVA. There are 238 AVAs, of which 138 are in California. Leading the way out of the abyss was research conducted at the
University of California, Davis The University of California, Davis (UC Davis, UCD, or Davis) is a public land-grant research university near Davis, California. Named a Public Ivy, it is the northernmost of the ten campuses of the University of California system. The institut ...
. Faculty published reports on which varieties of grapes grew best in which regions of the state, held seminars on winemaking techniques, consulted with grape growers and winemakers, offered academic degrees in viticulture, and promoted the production of quality wines. The results of their success would be demonstrated decades later at the Paris wine tasting in 1976, the nation's 200th anniversary.


References


Further reading

*Clarke, Oz. ''Oz Clarke's New Encyclopedia of Wine''. NY: Harcourt Brace, 1999. *Johnson, Hugh. ''Vintage: The Story of Wine''. NY: Simon & Schuster, 1989. *Taber, George M. ''Judgment of Paris: California vs. France and the Historic 1976 Paris Tasting that Revolutionized Wine''. NY: Scribner, 2005.


External links


New York State Wines and Wine Ratings
{{DEFAULTSORT:History Of American Wine
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