Consider this a very brief history of wine in the United States, highlighting some fun and perhaps surprising facts. Maybe try a few of these at your next party trivia game or test that friend who claims to be a wine “expert.”
With apologies to Native American tribes, some of whom did cultivate and make wine fermented from wild grapes and other fruit long before the arrival of Europeans, wine after Europeans arrived has been produced in America since the 1560s. It was then that the first Spanish missionaries and settlers in what is now St. Augustine, Florida, planted Muscadine and Listán Prieto (“Mission”) grape vines brought from Europe. As Spanish exploration continued, the Mission grape and other varietals were planted in 1629 at the San Gabriel Mission, near what is now Santa Fe, New Mexico, with the first vineyards in California planted by Franciscan missionaries in 1769 at Mission San Diego de Alcalá.
While Spanish missionaries were clearly early wine growers in America, they were not alone. In 1619, the House of Burgesses, America’s first Colonial legislative assembly, passed “Acte 12,” requiring every male household in Virginia to plant and cultivate at least 10 vines of European vinifera grapes to make wine, in theory to ship back to England. For the most part, the plan failed, and it was not until 1768 that Virginia wine growers successfully shipped wine to England.
Continue reading “WineLines: Wine in America”
