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Norton: America’s First Favorite Wine
Zinfandel is often referred to as “America’s grape,” but I’ll throw out another variety that deserves that epithet: Norton. A truly American specialty born in the Early Republic and risen to prominence around the Civil War, Norton gave a new identity to America’s blossoming wine industry and made possible Thomas Jefferson’s dream of a great vineyard in his home of Virginia and beyond. While little known to wine lover’s today, Norton’s story provides fascinating insight into the early challenges of American winegrowers and their first triumphs.
Virginian Origins
Norton was first “discovered” around 1820 by Dr. Daniel Norborne Norton, who gave his name to the cultivar. He believed it was a crossing of the hybrid variety Bland (Norton is anything but bland, despite its parent’s cruel name) and Pinot Meunier—the famous red Champagne grape then referenced under its English translation “Miller’s Burgundy.” The two varieties were grown adjacent to one another in Dr. Norton’s garden in Richmond, Virginia. The physician planted some seeds from the Bland berries (hypothetically pollinated by material from and thus crossed with the supposed Pinot Meunier, though modern DNA testing suggests otherwise). With each of the resulting seedlings being genetically distinct, Dr. Norton identified one for its positive attributes which would be propagated as his eponymous variety.
While it would take several decades, Norton eventually became an important part of America’s 19th century wine tapestry. Beginning with increases in cultivation in the 1850s, Norton observed significant growth in the immediate aftermath of the Civil War, particularly around Charlottesville, Virginia in the 1870s. The variety’s prominence in the area led to its moniker as the “Wine Belt of Virginia.”
Meet Me (Outside) St. Louis
Around this same time, Norton found a second home along the banks of the Missouri River in Hermann—about 90 minutes outside of St. Louis today. German settlers in the region immediately pursued viticulture in the midwestern region upon their arrival in the 1830s and ’40s. After experimenting with a host of European and hybrid varieties with middling success, they eventually discovered the potential of Norton, first cultivated in Hermann in 1850. This placed the state’s vinicultural traditions in parallel with those of the South and Virginia, as opposed to the more white-wine centric German communities in Ohio and the Northeast.
The earliest Norton wines of Missouri saw only a few days of skin-contact, resulting in more of a rosé than the fully red Nortons of contemporary standards. In their early era, Norton wines of Missouri were considered among the country’s absolute finest, surpassing California’s nascent reputation, with writer Charles Loring Bruce noting in 1867, “no red wine has ever been produced in America equal to that made by the Germans of Missouri.” In 1869, with the opening of the nearby Bluffton Wine Company, President Ulysses S. Grant ordered 40 cases of wine, including Norton. And at the 1873 World’s Fair in Vienna, it earned the title the “best red wine of all nations.”
What is a Hybrid?
The near entirety of fine wine is produced from a single Eurasian vine species, Vitis vinifera. While such famous grape varieties Riesling and Cabernet Sauvignon may seem dramatically divergent in their profiles, they are, indeed, technically both vinifera. You can think of these varieties like dog breeds—Great Danes and Chihuahuas hardly resemble one another, but they are technically the same species.
Nevertheless, there are a few exceptions in the wine world, and other grape species, particularly American grape species like Vitis aestivvalis or Vitis labrusca serve various roles in global viticulture. One such purpose is the creation of hybrids, whereby varieties of two different vine species are crossed with one another.
Hybrids have emerged naturally, but they are also intentionally designed with the ambition of harnessing the positive attributes of each parent. Those qualities may be related to flavor or yield, but they often involve disease prevention and climate adaptability. Various American species, for example, are better adapted to frigid winters than vinifera, and thus cold hardy hybrids are commonly planted in New England and Canada to avoid freeze. Other American species are well suited to humid conditions with high mildew pressures. Grapes like Norton thrive in such climates common in the South and Midwest, whereas more traditional varieties might be challenged.
Returning to Their Roots
Although Norton’s influence in American wine culture has greatly declined since its peak in the mid- to late 19th century, its role in American wine history is still felt. Norton maintains healthy plantings in both Virginia and Missouri, where it is the official state grape of each. As since its first plantings, Norton remains well adapted to the hot summers and humid climate of the South and Midwest that leaves it better defended against various vine diseases than European varieties. A long cry from the pink wines of 1860s Missouri, Norton today is enjoyed for its rich, plummy flavor, sweet spiciness, and affinity for new oak and long-term aging.
