The History of American wine began when first Europeans to explore parts of North America which they called Vinland because of the profusion of grape vines they found. However, settlers 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 varieties. The first vines of Vitis vinifera origin planted in what is now the United States were planted in Senecu in 1629, which is near the present day town of San Antonio, New Mexico.
However, the discovery in 1802 of the native Catawba grape led to very successful wine-making in Ohio. By 1842 Nicholas Longworth was growing 1,200 acres (4.9 km2) 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 species and flavor than any hock that comes from the Rhine" and wrote that sparkling Catawba "transcends the Champagne of France." 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 and its islands, where mildew was not a problem. The Finger Lakes region of New York State developed a successful wine-making industry beginning in the early 1860s when the Pleasant Valley Wine Company 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.
Read more about History Of American Wine: California Wine, Prohibition
Famous quotes containing the words history of, history, american and/or wine:
“Social history might be defined negatively as the history of a people with the politics left out.”
—G.M. (George Macaulay)
“History ... is, indeed, little more than the register of the crimes, follies, and misfortunes of mankind.
But what experience and history teach is this—that peoples and governments have never learned anything from history, or acted on principles deduced from it.”
—Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770–1831)
“An American cannot converse, but he can discuss, and his talk falls into a dissertation. He speaks to you as if he was addressing a meeting; and if he should chance to become warm in the discussion, he will say “Gentlemen” to the person with whom he is conversing.”
—Alexis de Tocqueville (1805–1859)
“The wine heats temper and complexion:
Oath-enforced assertions fly
On rheumy fevers, resurrection,
Regicide and rabbit pie.”
—Philip Larkin (1922–1986)