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June 26 2006
At the beginning of Chapter II, Dufour wraps up his chapter I narrative that detailed his travels in the states and review of vines and winemaking operations—all of them had largely met with failure. Chapter II begins with his review of his failed operation in Kentucky, before moving to Indiana to again try to create a grape-growing and winemaking operation.
The American Vine-Dresser’s Guide
John James Dufour
Pages 22-25
Chapter II
Divers attempts at vineyards in the United States, viz.—at Monticello—Spring Mill near Philadelphia—at Carol Manor near Baltimore—near the Susquehannah, in the vicinity of Middletown -Fate of them all with the exceptions—.Cape grapes,the only one reared near Vevay; prejudice against those grapes, and description—Coarse grapes and bad apples often make the best Wine or Cider—Spirituous quality of Wine—Sexes of Vine—Wild being of the Dioeciae family and the Tame Hermaphrodite of the Potendria Monogenia family of Lineus.—Wild American vines, found also in Europe—Description of the blossoms of both sorts—Burgundy grapes planted at the Cape of Good Hope, underwent a great change—Expectation of an amelioration of our climate—Obstacles met by the first vine-dressers in Indiana—Home-made wine, will in time stop the distillation of grain.—Vineyard Association at Philadelphia—New Mexico vineyards—Madeira grapes.
The various attempts at vineyards that I heard of, which I went to see, at Monticello, President Jefferson’s place; which, in 1799, I perceived had been abandoned, or left without any care for three or four years before which proved evidently, that it had not been profitable: At Spring Mill, on the Schuylkill, near Philadelphia, planted by Mr. Legaux, a French gentleman, and afterwards supported by a wealthy Society formed by subscription, at that City, for the express purpose of trying to extend the culture of the grape. I saw that Vineyard in 1796, 1799 and 1808.
On the estate of Mr.Caroll, of Carollton, below Baltimore, in Maryland; whither I went on purpose from Philadelphia in 1796, there was a small vineyard kept by a French vinedresser, and where they had tried a few sorts of the indigenous grapes.
At the Southern Liberties of Philadelphia, I saw in 1806, a plantation of a large assortment of the best species of French grapes which a French vinedresser had brought over the Atlantic. They were at their 2nd or 3d years: they had not been attacked by the sickness: their nursery was yet full of hope.—In 1796, I saw also, near the Susquehannah river, not far from Middletown, a vineyard that had- been planted by a German; but who having died some time before, the vineyard had been wholly neglected. I. was told, it had produced some wine but it had suffered so much dilapidation, that I could not recognize the species of grapes. And at last the trial we made in Kentucky, in 1799, under the auspices of an Association made similar, and for the same purpose as that of Philadelphia, before stated, with 35 different species of best grapes, procured from different parts of the world, but principally from the gardens of New York and Philadelphia.
M. Legaux’s vineyard, and a nursery lately established near Baltimore by Mr. Kewster; all shared the same fate; being destroyed by the sickness above spoken of except about one hundred plants that I got from the few that were prosperous at Spring mill vineyard, that we have called Cape grapes, because Mr. Legaux certified having received them from the Cape of Good Hope, and with which we the Swissers have made our subsequent and prosperous plantation near Vevay, on the borders of the Ohio, in Switzerland County, State of Indiana, and which must have now spread much through the country: for we have sent, and have to send abroad a great quantity of the scions every year.
I have drank some good wine made from these Cape grapes, near Glasgow, in the barrens of Kentucky: and I have no doubt but the same grape is the one which succeeds best with the Harmonites, near the Wabash in the State of Indiana: and I doubt if any other sort will do well with the French at Demopolis, in the State of Alabama; but they will meet with the same fate as all those I have yet seen on any other. As no things in this world,—be it good and useful as it may—but has met with enemies when first introduced: The cape grape has been slandered and cryed down to a mere wild grape. It is true, that it is a very coarse grape, unfit for table use, for those who have eaten the best sort in Europe, or who can get a better one. It has a very thick skin and pulp, but the juice is very sweet, when perfectly ripe and has the taste of the strawberry, which gives a fine perfume to the wine; such as made the President Jefferson say, that there was no other such tasted wine within his knowledge in the world.—-It requires, about twelve pounds of grapes to produce a gallon of clear wine, they are similar, as to roughness and thickness of skin, with the grapes from which wine is made in the warm countries of Europe, where they distinguish the fruit by the respective appellations of wine grapes, and table grapes; the former being commonly too coarse to be pleasing at a dessert, and the other …
June 19 2006
In this continuation of The American Vine-Dressers Guide by John James Dufour, he continues his narrative in Chapters 1 & 2 on his initial travels throughout the United States in the late 1700s/early 1800s searching for appropriate land for the cultivation of the Good Grape.
I resolvedtherefore on a visit to see if any remains of the Jesuits vines werestill in being, and what sort ofgrapes they were; supposing very naturally,that if they had succeeded as well as tradition reported, some of them might possiblybe found in some of the gardens there. But I found only the spotwhere that vineyard had beenplanted, in a wellselected place, on the side of a hill to the north east of thetown, under a cliff. No goodgrapes, however were found either there, or in any of the gardens of thecountry. A thick forest was covering that spot, with luxuriant undergrowth, and of asparagus in the place where the Jesuitshad planted a bed of that vegetable.
This lastcircumstance made me think that the vineyard had not been sosuccessful as represented to me; but had been subject to thesame sickness which afflict now all importedgrapes, of which I shall speak more at large hereafter; the existence of whichI have seen on the vines now growing in the gardens of St. Louis & Kaskaskia,where I have been lately. The grapes are such a good fruit that the inhabitantswould have kept some in their gardens, in spite of all the governmental restrictions, as has been done in Brazil;and even, if there would have been grape vines of a hardy nature, as many sorts are inEurope, some vestiges of them would have remained, and climbed up some of the foresttrees and become wild, as the asparagus haddone. Traditions among illiterate men are not to be depended upon.
In myjourneying down the Ohio, I found at Marietta a Frenchman, who wasmaking several barrels of wine every year, out of grapes that were growing wild, and abundantly, on the heads of the Islands of the Ohioriver, known by the name of Sand grapes,because they grow best on the gravels; a few plants of which are nowgrowing in one. of our vineyards, given bythe Harmonites under the name of red juice of the Islands, I drank some of the wine, when about 4 months old, and found it like the wine produced inthe vicinity of Paris, in France, if notbetter. All the French then livingon the borders of the Ohio, were fully of the opinion, that those vineswere of French origin; that they had beenplanted first at Fort Duquesne, now Pittsburgh, and when the English took thatfort, the French rooted them out, andthrew the vines into the river, which carried and lodged them at the heads ofthe Islands, where they havemultiplied and produce (an) abundance of grapes,because they are most regularly pruned by the floating iceof the river which acts on them, as the pruning knife of a vine-dresser. The tradition was handed down with so many peculiar circumstances,and the grapes, which are thebest, that I know among the wild,resembling partly the species known in
France by the name of de la Madelaine, that I believedit, until I found the same kind of grapes, up the Kentucky, and Mississippirivers, where it was impossible they could have been brought, from theOhio by floating on the water; and, by the inspection of their blossom I foundthem to possess the genericcharacters of the indigenous American wild grapes; of which I shall speak more hereafter.
June 12 2006
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
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
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.
June 5 2006
Chapter 1
Brief history of theintroduction of Grape—How it was introduced into Europe—Demitian’sdisastrous law to destroyvines in Gaul—Restoration of them by Probus, two centuries after-Emigrationof the Helvatians to where grapes grew—Introduction of vinesinto the United States—The Jesuite vineyard at Kaskaskia—Wine made atMarietta with sand grapes—Tradition among the French on sand grapes.
Europe isindebted to
Asia, notonly for civilization and arts, but for most of its grasses, fruit,pulse and vines. The Phenicians, who often explored the coast of the Mediterranean,introduced its culture on the Islands of the Archipelago, in Greece, toSicily, at last into Italy, and in the territory ofMarseilles, that culture had made but a small progress into Italy inthe time of Romulus—for that prince forbade the libations of wine, which werein use in all the sacrifices of Asiatic nations. It was Ruma whofirst permitted it; and Pliny adds, that it was one of themeans made use of by the politicians, to encourage the propagation of thatculture: —for soonafter, its produce became, in fact, so abundant, that peoplecould make a free use of wine, such that the Roman Fair were accused of going too far in that enjoyment;which abuse by the ladies, caused a law to be enacted, that women were forbid to drink wineunder penalty of death; and at Marseilles, the same law had been enacted for thatrepublic; but there, as well as among the Romans, the too great severity of thelaw was an obstacle to itsexecution, and soon afterthey fixed at the age of thirty years on both sexes the right of drinking wine; but they soon found out that that restrictionwas too great on the use ofsuch a precious product, whichhad become very common and abundant, that they were obliged, at last,to leave the use of it entirelyfree.
In this excerpt from the first chapter, John James Dufour, the author, of this, the first N. American book published about wine and grapegrowing, he expands upon history in the Roman times. Note, at the very beginning, his knowlege of history—or lack thereof—that Noah, Janus and Bacchus might be one and the same, depending on perspective.
May 1 2006
From Pages 10, 11, & 12 of the Preface to the book, The American Vine-Dresser’s Guide published in 1826—the first book in America on the cultivation of grapes and wine by John James Dufour.
The failure of the first plantation causeda relaxation among shareholders, and not only a great difficulty wasexperienced in collecting the subscribed money, but the subscription of allthe shares was never performed, so that all our stock was made use of, forpaying the hiring of (labor) and other hands, and we were never able topurchase a single share or even to pay for the land: then the whole burden ofthe establishment rested on our family, who kept good courage, for we had begunanew, with the Cape and Madeira grapes, of which we had so few at first, thatit required several years to have enough of them; although we used greatindustry to multiply them; thus we went on until 1806, when I was obliged to goback to Europe, and our family parted. My two young brothers, who triedto keep the place, found themselves too weak to support it; and one frostyspring having took all their crop; and knowing that those of the colony, whohad begun in 1802 on the borders of the Ohio, were successful & hadsuffered nothing by the frost, they abandoned the place to an American tenant,who supposed we had a bad title to the land, obtained a new warrant, and becameowner by a patent, & let all the vines go to destruction.
At my return, which was in 1816, an accountof the war which prevented my coming sooner, I found the vineyard grown upwith briars, and I had to have recourse to law, to have the intruder ejected.Now let us see the difference, if we had punctually followed the plan, andbegan first by the collection of the $8000, and the purchase of 5 families of(laborers) for five thousand dollars, we could then have had from 15 to 20head, big, and small, I could certainly have procured by our joint labor,enough to support us all, after the second year, besides planting as many vinesas we would have done; and although the first planting had failed, we wouldsurely, in 9 or 10 years, have at least 20 acres of bearing vines of the Capegrapes, which, at the average of 180 gallons per acre, as that is the producton the Ohio, would give about 15 gallons per share, besides paying what wascoming to me. The wine then fetched $2 per gallon, and the vineyard would havebeen yearly increasing. By this time, with only common good luck among theeslaves, there could be at least thirty able hands of both sexes, besides agreat many youngsters, with whom I could tend 100 acres of vineyards, besideraising enough for the support of all, at 180 gallons per acre, would give 85gallons per share, worth as many dollars besides my reserve: and the capitalstock would be worth about tenfold.
Those who doubt the aforesaid calculation,have only to come and see our vineyards and vintage on the Ohio, and calculatefor themselves. If by chance myopinion differs from others—or I should express some original ideas, I shallnot enter into contradictory arguments: as I do not pretend to infallibility, Isubmit all to the judgment of candid readers, who however are respectfullyrequested, to postpone, pronouncing, until experimental trials have beenconsulted, as well as the grand book of nature, from which most all I have tosay has been taken, for want of other books, and even, if I had them, among themany I have read on the culture of the vine, but few could be quoted, for nonehad the least idea of what a new country is. I had the loan of Chaptal and Adlum for a few days, and I own Rozier,Peechely and Coxe, to all of whom I have made some few references, of factsunknown to me before, or when I had to say the same thing. Peechely, an Englishauthor on the cultivation of vines, in hot houses in England, where they canget no good grapes out of doors, studied the vines by handling them himself,and not in books; and has made several remarks on their nature in England, as Ihave done in Switzerland and in America, the author I would have quoted often,had I his book it would be the OLIVER De Serre, who was with propriety calledby the French authors the father of agriculture; because, all those who havewritten after him, on that science, have chiefly been his copyists, but it ismore than ten years since I have seen his "Theatra"of agriculture: although it has been lately reprinted in its original oldFrench, by Lasterie, or was intendedto be reprinted, when I left Europe last.
J. J. DUFOUR.
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