Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/561374
w w w. v w m m e d i a . c o m S e p t - O c t 2 015 | V I N E YA R D & W I N E RY M A N A G E M E N T 1 0 5 entucky is best known for bourbon and horse racing, but wine was once its claim to fame. If you drive through Kentucky's Bracken County and reach the intersection of highways 8 and 19, look for the historical marker informing you that in the 1870s, this was the leading wine-pro- ducing county in the United States, making more than 30,000 gallons annually – more than half the entire national production. People familiar with U.S. wine history know that Nicholas Longworth planted hundreds of acres of vines in Ohio between 1825 and 1850, but less known is that the country's first commercial vineyard was estab- lished in Kentucky in 1799, by Swiss immigrant Jean- Jacques Dufour. Born to a long line of winegrowers, Dufour set sail for America in 1796, at age 33, hell bent on establishing commercial winemaking in the U.S. Unimpressed by the vineyards in the eastern states, Dufour headed west. In Lexington, Ky., the largest settlement in western America, he was encouraged enough by the local interest in winegrowing to assem- ble a group of investors. Dufour named the organization the Kentucky Vineyard Society and promptly bought 663 acres of land on the banks of the Kentucky River. Hav- ing found western vineyards even less satisfactory than those in the East, he traveled to Pierre Legaux's Penn- sylvania vineyard, where he purchased 10,000 vines, of 35 different grape varieties. He planted the cuttings on 5 acres of the Kentucky Vineyard Society's land and named the site "First Vineyard." From our historical vantage point, we know the story can't end well. Most of the vines in the First Vine- yard died, victims of black rot and probably mildew, Pierce's disease and phylloxera. The only glimmer of hope was that two of the alleged 35 varieties Dufour had purchased seemed to be vigorous and productive. Legaux had sold all the vines as vinifera, but there's lit- tle doubt that the two surviving varieties were acciden- tal hybrids. Dufour pushed doggedly ahead, cultivating the successful vines, jettisoning the rest, and ultimately making wine. First Vineyard's poor performance was not Dufour's only disappointment: he also had financial woes. Since he'd begun financing the project before all subscriptions were in, once the vineyard proved substandard, inves- tors were reluctant to invest further. By 1804, it was clear that America's first commercial vineyard had failed. But other vignerons were sprouting up across the region. One of these was Abraham Baker, who in 1852 began building a winery in Augusta, a community in Bracken County just across the Ohio River from Cin- cinnati. According to an excerpt from the Kentucky state records, by 1859 Bracken County boasted more than 120 acres of vineyards, with Catawba the preva- lent grape. Winemaking became so successful throughout Ken- tucky that by the early 20th century, the state was the fifth-largest grape producer in the U.S. Then along came Prohibition. "Perhaps no state has been thought of as more thoroughly and permanently 'Dry' than Kentucky," wrote wine historian Thomas Pinney. "It was the first state to adopt constitutional prohibition; its politicians were usually notable among the public spokesmen for the Dry cause; it was the home of the absurd Carrie A. Nation, the ax-wielding destroyer of saloons." Even more than in other states, + America's first commercial vineyard was planted in Kentucky in 1799. By the early 20th century, Kentucky was the country's fifth-largest wine pro- ducer. + In 2002, Dinah Bird purchased the historic Baker Winery, which had been closed since Prohibition. + Instead of competing with local grapegrowers by planting her own vineyard, Bird decided to pur- chase their grapes. + Baker-Bird produces attention-grabbing wines such as Black Barrel Wine, a Cabernet Franc aged in bourbon barrels. AT A GLANCE 707 938-1300 WWW.ACROLON.COM ® • Wire-less Tank Temperature Control • Fermentation Status From Anywhere • Brix/Temp/Pump-over Tracking • E-mail Alarm Notifications • Production Software Integration • Temp, Humidity, CO2, Night Air • Energy Saving Functions • Wire-less Tank Temperature Control • Fermentation Status From Anywhere • Fermentation Status From Anywhere • Brix/Temp/Pump-over Tracking • Production Software Integration • Temp, Humidity, CO2, Night Air