Kathleen Sullivan our expert of the day, writes:

What do Virginia wine and England have in common? Answer: history and today’s interest in pursuing quality wine. This year is the 400th Anniversary of the founding of Jamestown by the English settlers. Several events have been planned to commemorate the founding of Jamestown in 1607. One of the events planned will be the tasting of Virginia wines at Vinopolis in London. The theme is “Virginia, First in Wine.” “First in Wine” refers to the quality of Virginia wines and to the established fact that Virginia was the first place in the new world for the English to attempt the cultivation of grapes and winemaking. In February, a number of Virginia wines were judged at White Hall Vineyards in a wine tasting event. The purpose was to choose wines to go to England for a tasting. On April 30, Virginia will present wines at a VIP invitation only tasting at Hampden House (a historical house) in the middle of Chiltern, England. On May 2, the Virginia wines will be tasted at Vinopolis, a world wine center in London. Will the Mother Country be impressed?

Pat Malcolm our expert of the day, writes:

The first documentation of grapevines growing in the Americas was discovered in researching the logbook of navigator Giovanni de Verazzano, who reported in 1504 that a large “white grape” was vigorously growing at Cape Fear, North Carolina. The English explorer of the New World, Sir Walter Raleigh, confirmed in a letter to Arthur Barlowe in 1585, the discovery of a white grape (scuppernong), when he landed in coastal North Carolina.

The 1500’s ancient discovery of native grapevines growing in America was followed by numerous Spanish settlements along the coast of the United States where introduced old world grapevines were planted alongside the native American grapevines. That interplanting resulted in natural crosses of hybrid grapevines, a blending of the characteristics of both types. The French navigators were also exploring territories and lands surrounding Louisiana and were planting European grape vine varieties from the South of France, that also hybridized with native American grapevines. The English settlers established colonies in 1733 in Savannah, Georgia and Fort Frederica, on Saint Simon’s Island, Georgia, under General James Oglethorpe, who was the first Governor of Georgia. These English colonies brought in seeds of grapes from Europe that were planted and grown in small farm vineyards. Those transplants intermixed with native grapevines that grew in woods nearby, and this intermixing resulted in new grape hybrids that were spread by the Indians and colonists everywhere. It is believed that these hybrids produced some selections such as Concord, Niagara, Catawba, and others that were identified as growing naturally in the woods by the great American explorer William Bartram, in his book, Travels, as Vitis labrusca by botanists today.