Good Grape Wine Company

June 12 2006

American Vine-Dresser’s Guide pg 17 -18

In this excerpt of the The American Vine-Dresser’s Guide by John James Dufour, the first North American book on the cultivation of grapes and winemaking in 1826, Dufour continues in the first chapter to give context to his travels throughout the eastern U.S. looking for suitable places to grow grapes. 

In thetime of Julius Caesar, about 600 years before the Christian era,there were no grapes growing yet in Switzerland,called then Helve­tia; and, probably, none in thewhole of Gaul; for aSwiss blacksmith, having crossed the Alps into Italy, whencehe brought back to his native country, some grapes and somefigs. The whole nation of the Swiss undertook to emigrate intothat desirable country, where such fruit was growing, after havingset fire to their towns and villages; but were repulsed by JuliusCaesar on the passage of the Alps, as, indeed, they were again inattempting, to cross the river Saone and go round the Alps by Nice.

Theprecise epoch when grapes first ap­peared in the United States, is not easilyascer­tained: ifa few vines, planted here and there in gardens, or even themaking of a little wine, for one or two years, and afterwardsabandoned, could be counted for the beginning of the cul­ture of the grape, andmaking of Wine in the United States, it may be traced back very near to thebeginning of the establishment of the whites on this side of the Atlantic. Butnone of the different and numerous trials which were made inseveral parts of the United States that Ivisited after my arrival in 1796, were found worth the name of vineyards. Allof them, ex­cept the vines planted in the gardens of the ci­ties of NewYork and Philadelphia, and about a dozen ofplants in the vineyard of Mr. Le­gaux at Spring mill, near the latter place,did not suffice to pay for one half of their atten­dance. I went to see all thevines growing that I could hear of, even as far as Kaskaskia, on the borders ofthe Mississippi; because I was told, by an inhabitant of thattown, whom I met with at Philadelphia, that the Jesuits had there a verysuccessful vineyard, when that country belonged to the French, and wereafter-wards ordered by the French government to de­stroyit, for fear the culture of the grapes should spread in America andhurt the wine trade of France.

As Ihad seen but discouraging plan­tations of vines on that side of the Alleghany, andas the object of my journey to America, was purposely to learn what could bedone in that line of business; I was_.desirous to see if the westwould afford more encouragement.

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