By Patrick Evans-Hylton

Acte 12
The House of Commons passed the 12th Acte in 1619, requiring each male colonist to plant grape vines. Colonists complied; the vines did not, failing to bear significant fruit.

The act reads in part:
“Moreover … every householder doe yearly plante and maintaine ten vines, untill they have attained to the arte and experience of dressing a Vineyard, either by their owne industry, or by the Instruction of some Vigneron. And that upon what penalty soever the Governour and Counsell of Estate shall thinke fitt to impose upone the neglecters of this acte.”—PEH

Have you heard the one about how many Virginians it takes to open a bottle of wine?
Three—one to open it and the other two to lament about how good the old bottle was.
It’s true that many Virginians strongly honor the past, not that there’s anything wrong with that. Sometimes you have to know where you came from in order to know where you are going.

There is little doubt in knowing where the commonwealth’s wine industry is going. Last year Travel + Leisure magazine named Virginia one of the top five new wine travel destinations in the world. And, more than a million folks visit one of the state’s 100-plus wineries each year.

The road to success has been rocky, to say the least; early winemakers found difficulty in growing grapes, which produced quality wine. Not long after a vintage in the late 19th century garnered worldwide acclaim, Prohibition hit. During the 20th century, with a focus on French, then California, wines, Virginia struggled to find a place at the table.

Colonists first tried to make wine in 1609 with gathered, uncultivated grapes, producing nearly 20 gallons. They took a drink and promptly regretted it.

The would-be imbibers described the taste as foxy and the fragrance as that of a wet dog and proclaimed the first vintage undrinkable. The grapes were probably native scuppernong, and not a variety of vitis vinifera that produces the quality wines associated with European vintages.

They tried, and tried again, but by 1618, the settlers abandoned the idea of making wine with native grapes all together, and the Virginia Company brought more than eight French vines and winemakers, or vignerons.

Those efforts failed too—a combination of the European vines not being suited to the hotter, more humid climate in Virginia, as well as introduction to a new host of disease and pests, killed them off.

In a continued, but futile, effort, the House of Commons passed the 12th Acte in 1619, requiring each male colonist to plant grape vines.

Today, the Williamsburg Winery honors one of the state’s first laws by producing Acte 12 Chardonnay, a white wine aged in French oak barrels.

“The Williamsburg Winery was established on a tract of land originally known as Archer’s Hope, reflecting the desire of Captain Gabriel Archer of the Godspeed to have the first settlement located on the farm where the winery now stands,” says winery founder Patrick G. Duffeler.

“However, he was overruled by John Smith, who felt settling on an island offered better protection. The farm was, and still is, the home to many wild vines, and such encouraged the settlers to think about planting vines from Europe.”

Virginia was far from a dry colony. High priced, imported wine like claret, sack, sherry, Canary, Malaga and Tent from France and Italy were enjoyed by the upper class. By the way, most colonists drank ale and beer because they were unable to afford the imports—an expense that could be curtailed if Virginia could produce its own vino.

After a while, the momentum for producing commercial wine was lost, but was not abandoned. In 1769, the General Assembly in Williamsburg, now the capital of Virginia, passed “An Act for the Encouragement of the Making of Wine.”

Encouragement notwithstanding, the effort failed due to pests and disease. The onset of the American Revolutionary War also played a part.

About this time, the state also purchased 100 acres of land in York County to establish a winery. They brought over French winemaker Andrew Estave and promised him the deed to the property if he could produce 10 hogsheads—630 gallons—of quality wine within six years. He was unable to do so.

But a good deal of information was harvested—Estave found it was the vines themselves that were the problem, noting that while the French vines withered in summer heat and were destroyed by a host of insects, black rot and mildew, native grapes seemed to do just fine.

The conclusion: if a suitable microclimate could be found—one that closely matched the vine’s native French countryside—and if productive pest control methods were established, then it was time for making wine.

Among those who sought answers was Thomas Jefferson, who many consider to be America’s first wine connoisseur. Jefferson, the third president of the United States, was a true oenophile with a dream of turning Virginia into a major wine producing state.

Intoxicated with all things French, while Jefferson served in that country as ambassador, he spent much of this time learning the skills of winemaking. He wanted to successfully grow the vitis vinifera in Virginia and produce quality, European-styles wines in America.

Enter Italian viticulturalist Filippo Mazzei. Jefferson brought him to Monticello in 1773 to plant and nurture vines from France. They cleared a tract of land—the current site of Jefferson Vineyards, but Mazzei could not nurture the plants past disease and climate conditions. Jefferson did not live to see the problem over come.
While many were looking for a way to successfully grow vitis vinifera on Virginia soil, Dr. Daniel Norborne Norton was developing his own grape from the native American vitis aestivalis to be a viable wine-making fruit.

For the rest of this article, see the Summer issue of Virginia Wine Lovers Magazine, currently available on newstands.