Virginia Wine Today

For the founding fathers' generation, grape growing was not incredibly successful and wasn’t the replacement for tobacco they hoped, but their legacies continue. Many of the hurdles during Thomas Jefferson’s time, such as the vine diseases, have been solved and wine from the exact same land Jefferson worked has been produced successfully. Many of these successes have been done in the spirit of restoration and historical preservation. In 1977 horticulturist Peter Hatch became director of grounds at Monticello and during his time there he restored both the Northwest and Southeast vineyards. Another example of these restoration projects is in Barboursville where the Zonin brothers, Italian wine moguls, have decided to “expand their business to the United States” (Rohrs) and reestablish one of the many farms owned by Jefferson so they can grow wine. The Virginia wine industry as of 2017 has more than “260 wineries which produced more than 556,000 cases of wine annually” (Painter 290). Wine’s place in Virginia has been long and complicated and as Painter put it “no American state can claim a longer history of experimentation with and promotion of viticulture, nor can any boast a more spectacular record of initial failure followed by eventual success than can Virginia” (Painter 289). The founding fathers from Virginia didn’t just take a risk with a new government that the world hadn’t seen before, they also left us with a legacy of Virginia wine that we continue to apprciate.