Notes From the Vintner Welcome to our column. We hope that you will return to learn interesting notes on wine, and related subjects. Wine is a great gift from God to be used for the enjoyment of man. It is a food, and should be treated as such. It is meant to lift up the body and lighten the soul. 7/1/00 Wine in the young nation… It was Thomas Jefferson, as Secretary of State, Ambassador, and President, who taught the nation the appreciation of wine. He walked the whole of France tasting wine, and learning of the fruit of the vine. However, it was John Alexander of Pennsylvanian, who cultivated native American grapes. His grape was called Alexander, and was able to stand the cold winters, and was not subject to rot. By 1804, Jean Dufour a native from Switzerland had planted hundreds of acres of Alexander grapes along the Ohio River in Indiana, in what is now Switzerland county. Dufour wrote a manual for growing grapes in 1826. John Adlum , of Georgetown, introduced the Catawba grape, a grape found wild in North Carolina. It proved a big hit as a grape for many different uses. Nicholas Longworth built a very large winery near Cincinnati, and produced the first sparkling wine from Catawba grapes. In 1818 grapes were planted in western New York by a Baptist deacon. In 1829, Father William Bostwick, an Anglican priest planted Catawba, and Isabella grapes behind the church in Hammondsport, New York for communion wine. In 1854, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, wrote an “Ode to Catawba Wine”. Henry was a lover of fine wine, and was really impressed with the Catawba wines. In 1860, Charles Champlin, headed a consortium, and founded Pleasant Valley Wine Company just south of Hammondsport. This winery later became the first federally licensed winery in America. Wine was being enjoyed to a higher degree in the young nation. The vine had taken root, and was growing. Wine was drunk for medical and social reasons as well as with meals. It was part of a way of life. The use of wine to get drunk was reason to look down on people. Yes, a glass of wine was just the thing in the new nation. Robert G Cowie Wine Maker Email The Vintner Vintner Notes Archive - 6/01/00 Vintner Notes Archive - 5/01/00 Vintner Notes Archive - 4/01/00