Wine encyclopedia

Table of Contents
1. Origin
2. History
3. Collection
4. Production
5. Availability
6. Serving Techniques

Preview

The North American continent is home to several native species of grape, including Vitis
labrusca, Vitis riparia, Vitis rotundifolia, Vitis vulpina, and Vitis amurensis, but it was
the introduction of the European Vitis vinifera by European settlers that led to the growth
of the wine making industry. With more than 1,100,000 acres (4,500 km²) under vine, the
US is the fifth most planted country in the world after France, Italy, Spain and Turkey.
History
History of American wine
The first Europeans to explore North America called it Vinland because of the profusion
of grape vines they found. The earliest wine made in what is now the United States was
from the Scuppernong grapes by French Huguenot settlers at a settlement near
Jacksonville, Florida between 1562 – 1564. In the early American colonies of Virginia
and the Carolinas, wine making was an official goal laid out in their founding charters.
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 beginning with the Virginia Company
exporting of French vinifera vines with French vignerons to Virginia in 1619. These early
plantings were met with failure as native pest and vine disease ravaged the vineyards. In
1683, William Penn planted a vineyard of French vinifera in Pennsylvania that may have
interbred with a native Vitis labrusca vine to create the hybrid grape Alexander. One of
the first commercial wineries in the US was founded in Indiana in 1806 with production
of wine made from the Alexander grape. Today French-American hybrid grapes are the
staples of wine production on the East Coast of the United States.
In California, the first vineyard and winery was established by the Franciscan missionary
Junípero Serra near San Diego in 1769. Later missionaries would carry the vines …