History of American wine

The wide variety of wild grapes in North America were eaten by the indigenous people.^[2] The first Europeans exploring parts of North America called it Vinland because of the profusion of grape vines found there. The various native grapes had flavors which were unfamiliar to European settlers and did not like using them in the initial production of American wine. This led to repeated efforts to grow familiar Vitis vinifera varieties. The first vines of Vitis vinifera origin came up through New Spain (Mexico) and were planted in Senecu in 1629, which is near the present day town of San Antonio, New Mexico.

The discovery in 1802 of the native Catawba grape led to very successful wine-making in Ohio. By 1842 Nicholas Longworth was growing 1,200 acres (4.9 km²) of Catawba grapes and making the country's first Sparkling wine. In 1858, The Illustrated London News described Catawba as "a finer wine of the hock species and flavor than any hock that comes from the Rhine" and wrote that sparkling Catawba "transcends the Champagne of France."^{[citation needed]} But the successful operations in Ohio ceased when fungus disease destroyed the vineyards. Some growers responded by moving north to the shores of Lake Erie and its islands, where mildew was not a problem. The Finger Lakes region of New York State developed a successful wine-making industry beginning in the early 1860s when the Pleasant Valley Wine Company began using carefully selected derivatives of native grapes to produce wine. In 1865 the Urbana Wine Company (which marketed its wine under the Gold Seal label) was established. In 1872, O-Neh-Da Vineyard was established by the late Bishop Bernard McQuaid, on the shores of Hemlock Lake, to make pure grape wine for his churches. 1880 saw the establishment of the Taylor Wine Company. By the late 19th century, wines from the Finger Lakes were winning prizes at wine tastings in Europe.