Wine & Rattlesnakes

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Virginia wine has made a comeback from its bleak beginnings. Cultivation failed to make native grapes competitive with European vintages, and European vines struggled to adapt to the challenges of foreign climates, soils, and pests. Interest in producing good quality wine from native grapes persisted across centuries, and was a preoccupation of Virginia planters, including the Masons, Carters, Washingtons, Jeffersons, and Lees. Stratford founder Thomas Lee experimented with 20 vines of Rhine grape acquired from Pennsylvanian Conrad Weiser, though it is unlikely he succeeded where so many others failed. This month Richard Henry Lee of Chantilly and Stratford ships a cask of Virginia wine to a curious party in London, and indulges his youngest brother’s interest in exotic fauna from back home.

For more on the history of wine in Virginia: read here.

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