History of Virginia Wineries
The first settlers in Virginia had high hopes that Virginia would be the major source of wine for the British Empire. For more than four centuries now, the Jamestown settlers have made wine. The first settlers were very ambitious and in 1619, they signed into law a requirement that stated that each male settler had to grow at least ten grape vines. The initiative taken by these settlers faced major drawbacks as the vines from Europe such as vinifera were attacked by pests such as Phylloxera and several diseases. The tobacco business that was booming at the time made the settlers lose faith in the wine business. Fine wine was a rare commodity only to be sourced from Europe but since brandy, beer and whisky were in plentiful, the settlers saw no need for wine.
One settler, Thomas Jefferson never gave up. He cultivated European grapes for a period of more than 30 years in his Monticello vineyards. He never got lucky and never produced a single bottle of wine. George Washington too tried for 11 years and achieved nothing. Success came in 1820s, when wine was made from Native American grapes. At the Vienna World’s fair in 1973, the Virginia Norton wine was identified as ‘the best wine of all nations’. In 1889, at the Paris World’s Fair, Virginia Norton wine received a gold medal. This new discovery that the European and native vines could be grafted gave the Virginia’s wine industry a boost.
The Virginia’s wine industry faced a major challenge in the early 20th century when the Prohibition came into place. After the Prohibition’s repeal, the industry took some time to bounce back. In the 1950’s, the experiments done on Vinifera were promising. The industry slowly recovered and in the 1970’s, six new wineries were established. There was a renewed effort to grow European Chardonnay and the efforts bore fruits at Waverly Estate in Middleburg