Virginia's Wine Legacy:
From Jefferson to the Present
Story and Photos by Dave DeWitt
When you think about wine country, Virginia is not the first place that pops into your mind. But after a few days' immersion in the fermented juice of Virginia-grown grapes, the state is now getting the attention of my taste buds.
From June 13-16, 2007, Mary Jane and I attended the "Virginia's Wine Legacy" seminar at the University of Virginia, sponsored by the Travel and Learn program of the School of Continuing and Professional Studies (www.virginia.edu/travelandlearn). Not only was it great to return to my alma mater (class of '66), I was eager to enhance my knowledge of wine in general.
The rather intense program, planned and coordinated by Joan Gore and Ashleigh Edwards of the University, featured classroom wine presentations in the mornings on a wide range of subjects from Old Wine History to viticulture to wine legislation to the business of wine to wine marketing. In the afternoons we toured participating wineries such as Jefferson, Stone Mountain, King Family, Kluge, and Barboursville, tasting their wines as well as learning about their winemaking techniques. The evenings featured dinners in the Solarium on the Lawn and at participating restaurants, where wine was paired with delicious dishes of all kinds. We were on the go from eight in the morning to after eleven in the evening!
Our Third President, Thomas Jefferson
Constantly in the background of our lectures and tours was the ghost of Thomas Jefferson. After all, we were learning at the university he founded and were soon to visit his home. Despite being raised on the Virginia frontier, Jefferson became the most knowledgeable wine connoisseur of his time, and his tastes in wine—especially after his European tour--included vintages from France, Germany, Italy, Cyprus, Hungary, Madeira, Portugal, Spain, and America.
After living in France for two and a half years, Jefferson got bored with merely drinking wines in Paris and took a three and a half month wine tour through southern France and kept tasting notes on such important wines as Chambertin, Margaux, Haut-Brion, and many more. A year later he traveled down the Rhine to learn about German wines, and again kept tasting notes. The vineyards he singled out for high praise still produce wines of great quality today.
Wine was considered to be a "necessary of life" for Jefferson and he continually imported it from Europe for the President's House and Monticello. He planted vineyards at Monticello using more than twenty-four European grape varieties, but as noted in his Garden Book, constant replanting of the vines indicate that they did not grow well. However, when the European varieties were grafted onto native rootstock in the 1985 restoration of the vineyards, they did very well. There is no evidence that wine was ever produced at Monticello.
During 1801, his first year in the President's House, Jefferson spent $2,262 on wine, more than he did on food. (Presidents of the time were required to furnish food and drink for the President House staff and guests out of their own salaries.) During his eight years in office he spent $10,955 on wine; in 2007 currency that would amount to more than $175,000. And Jefferson was opposed to hard liquor, commenting "No nation is drunken where wine is cheap, and none sober where dearness of wine substitutes ardent spirits as its common beverage."
The faculty of the seminar ranged from an attorney to wine marketing experts to the makers of a documentary film entitled The Cultivated Life, which was about Thomas Jefferson and wine. Two of the faculty members were notable experts, Gabrielle Rausse and Peter Hatch. Gabrielle has been called the "second father" of Virginia wines (after Jefferson) because he has consulted with many Virginia wineries since the 1970s and is probably the most influential winemaker in the state. Peter is the director of gardens and grounds at Monticello, Jefferson's home, for the past thirty years and is responsible for restoring the gardens and grounds to their former glory with the original heirloom plant varieties planted by Jefferson.
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Gabrielle Rausse in His Outdoor Classroom
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Lu and Peter Hatch at Palladio |
Both Gabrielle and Peter discussed Jefferson and his attempts to establish wine grapes at Monticello. "Jefferson was a perennial optimist with grape growing," noted Peter, who told us that there is no evidence that any wine was ever made at Monticello, and that Jefferson's grapes suffered from fungal diseases and insects. Jefferson once commented that growing grapes for wine is "like gambling." Gabrielle noted that the success of Virginia wines dated from the late 1970s when Barboursville Vineyards produced their first thousand bottles of wine. The secret to Virginia wine success was not hybrids of the European vinifera varieties with native "fox" grapes, but rather grafting. European vinifera varieties were grafted onto native rootstock, resulting in vines that were more resistant to disease but still yielded excellent grapes of Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, and Cabernet Sauvignon.
The highlight of the first day was a private, after-hours tour of Monticello. Our party of 22 "students" was divided into two groups, each with its own Monticello guide, and it was delightful to tour the mansion and grounds without tripping over tourists. Because we were a private group, we were allowed to visit the second and third floors of the mansion, which are off-limits to commoners. We didn't have much time to tour the extensive grounds of Monticello, but I did stop by the vegetable garden, which measures 1,000 feet long by 80 feet wide, and took a shot of the Garden Pavilion, where Jefferson meditated on horticultural subjects.
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Monticello Mansion
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Vegetable Garden and Pavilion
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After the Monticello tour, we returned to the University Solarium on the Lawn for the opening reception and dinner provided by Harvest Moon Catering. The food, including a grilled pork chop with spicy apple chutney, was a great start for the feasts to come. Mary Jane and I were impressed with Gabrielle's Viognier, a white wine with great character that is fast becoming a favorite of Virginia wineries. Mary Jane was so impressed that she bought a case of it from Gabrielle.
Gabrielle Rausse's Viognier
Day Two began with lectures on viticulture by Christopher Hill, a vineyard consultant, and on the business of wine by Chad Zakaib, the general manager of Jefferson Vineyards. Christopher noted that "Jefferson never stood a chance of growing grapes for wine" because Virginia has every possible weather problem, from excessive humidity in the summer to subzero temperatures in the winter--not to mention that pesky grape berry moth, whose larvae bore holes in the grapes, causing them to leak sugary juice that causes mold to grow. Chad emphasized that "good fruit equals good wine," and that having a successful winery in Virginia means managing the risk factors and spreading the risk around, like by buying grapes from other vineyards when necessary. Chad was followed by Neal Williamson discussing the marketing of wine, and he left us with some interesting facts such as only six percent of all the wine sold in Virginia is made in the state, that 77 percent of all wine is purchased by women, and that 98 percent of all wine bought is consumed within 48 hours.
Chad rejoined us and conducted a tour and tasting at Jefferson Vineyards, and then we moved on to the King Family Vineyard in Crozet for a tour, tasting, and a fantastic dinner that included grilled salmon with a reduced balsamic sauce and the best risotto we've ever tasted, paired with very nice wines.
The Feast in the Barrelroom at King Family Vineyard
On the grounds of the King Family Vineyard was a huge polo field (300 yards long by 160 yards wide) for a charity polo match. The polo ponies were hanging out in a huge pasture adjacent to the field.
On Friday morning we were treated to a screening of the documentary film, The Cultivated Life: Thomas Jefferson and Wine, which was excellent, followed by a discussion by the two filmmakers, Sam Santarelli and John Harrington. It was their view that wine for Jefferson was a civilizing force, and that he fervently believed that Virginia could produce wine as excellent as the wines he was buying from France and Italy. He was right--but it took more than 200 years to accomplish that feat. The film is available on DVD from www.shoppbs.org
Fog-Shrouded Stone Mountain's Vineyards
Next up was a rather long ride to Stone Mountain Winery, which as the name suggests, is atop Stone Mountain at 1,700 feet altitude. I was impressed with their rather young Cabernet Sauvignon, and bought a bottle to age for a couple of years before drinking it. We returned to Charlottesville for dinner at Tastings on the Downtown Mall, where wine expert and chef Bill Curtis directed a wonderful dinner that featured two wines with each of four courses. It was our job to choose which wines were Virginia and which were "foreign" to the state. I got three of four correct, but one of the choices was easy because it was obviously Gabrielle's Viognier. One set of wines was composed of two Syrahs, so I remarked if we didn't guess correctly, "Que Syrah, Syrah." In my opinion, the irrepressible Bill Curtis produced the most fun and tasty banquet of the entire seminar. The first course was a smoked haddock and mussels that were paired with the Viognier, followed by two chicken dishes, one grilled perfectly and one in confit. Next was a hanger steak in a nice sauce, and the dessert was bleu cheese, Stilton, and brie accompanied by Virginia grapes and other fruit.
On Saturday, Mary Hughes, a prospective wine grower, showed slides of her retirement project to start a new vineyard called Jump Mountain from scratch. It was a sobering discussion because of all the obstacles to be overcome for success. For example, how does one protect the vineyard from deer depredation? One solution is to build a fence eleven feet high around the vineyard, and another is to post hunting dogs as sentries. One thing that I learned from her presentation is that I will never be a wine grape grower. Mary was followed by Terri Bernie, an attorney who tracks governmental activity for Virginia wines. She is leading a movement to allow wineries to sell directly to retailers, bypassing the antiquated distributors who really don't help Virginia wineries.
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Bill Moses Instructs on Grafting and Pruning
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Wine Tasting at Kluge Winery
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Our winery tour continued with a visit to Virginia's largest, Kluge Winery, that has about 220 acres "under vine," as they say in wine lingo. Bill Moses took us into the vineyard and described grafting and pruning techniques, and then we feasted on a curry chicken salad. The Kluge red wine blends were the best reds we tasted during the seminar, in my humble opinion.
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Barboursville Sign |
Barboursville Vines |
Dave and Mary Jane Party Hearty! |
Then we drove to the Barboursville Vineyards for more tastings of really excellent wines, and a final dinner at the Barboursville Vineyards' restaurant, Palladio. The highlight of that meal was a splendid duck breast salad and traditional Chesapeake Bay soft-shelled crabs. Peter Hatch and his wife Lu joined us at our table, and I had a great conversation with Peter about growing heirloom plants at Monticello and writing about them. He is now working on a book about Jefferson's vegetables at Monticello.
The seminar ended with a breakfast Sunday morning where many of the attendees ordered wine from Gabrielle, purely for research purposes, of course. My assessment of the seminar was that my wine knowledge probably quadrupled, and that there was a lot of entertainment along with the learning. Our thanks to Joan and Ashleigh of the University for a really fun time combined with a great chance to be educated by some of the most respected experts in the wine business.
And according to one source, Virginia is the home to at least 120 wineries and 300 vineyards--so the state is wine country after all!
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