Photo by Jane Fullerton Lemons
The Norton Showcase wine festival was held recently at Piedmont Meadows in Prince William County.
Virginia’s native Norton grape will take center stage this summer at a series of wine-tasting festivals at wineries throughout Virginia.
The seasonal tour kicked off recently with a Norton Showcase at Piedmont Meadows in Prince William County. Next up will be five events taking place from July through September — including many within easy driving distance of Alexandria — each featuring wines from multiple wineries.
This year’s events, hosted by the Norton Network of Virginia wineries, will culminate Saturday, Oct. 11 with the “Judgment of Richmond,” an event focused on Norton production that will take place at the Virginia Museum of History & Culture in Richmond.
Photo courtesy of Jill Smedley
The event featured panel discussions about the history and future of Norton wines.
All the wineries participating in the summer events produce different varieties of Virginia wine, but all have one style in common — Norton wine. The history and future of Norton wine production was the topic of a pair of recent panel discussions at the Norton Showcase.
“That grape did what Thomas Jefferson had been trying to do for four decades,” said Todd Kliman, author of The Wild Vine, a book that explores the history of Norton.
Restoring Virginia’s Native Grape
Photo by Jane Fullerton Lemons
A series of wine festivals featuring Norton wine will be held this summer.
Virginia’s history with wine dates back more than 400 years to its earliest days as a colony. Its prospects received notable boosts along the way from Thomas Jefferson, an ardent wine advocate but an unsuccessful grape grower.
Norton, America’s oldest wine grape, was first cultivated in the 1820s by Dr. Daniel Norton, a Richmond physician, with vines native to the United States, rather than those native to Europe such as Chardonnay or Cabernet Sauvignon.
Gaining great acclaim in Virginia and other states before the Civil War, Norton’s popularity was cemented when it won the award for “Best Red Wine of All Nations” at the Vienna World’s Fair of 1873.
In the 20th century, Prohibition nearly wiped out Norton along with most of the nation’s wine industry, but producers in Missouri kept it alive. In the 1980s, Dennis Horton, a Missouri native who founded Horton Vineyards in Gordonsville, brought Norton back to Virginia. Other growers have followed suit, including Jennifer McCloud at Chrysalis Vineyards in Middleburg, which now has the world’s largest single planting of Norton vines.
“I was inspired by the restoration of a great American grape,” McCloud said during one of the panel discussions.
A Wine of Place and Sustainability
While the history of Norton is a classic American story of perseverance, its next chapter continues to be written.
The Norton grape thrives in the vineyard, requiring less intervention to combat fungi and pests, thanks to its native resistance to environmental pressures that typically affect non-native varietals. This makes Norton more environmentally sustainable and underscores its unique advantages as a Virginia wine grape.
That’s why some Virginia winemakers believe it holds promise for the future — both in terms of producing wine that is sustainable at the same time it reflects the place where it came from. That versatility is an advantage, said Kendall Anderson, winemaker at The Winery at Bull Run in Centreville.
“Wine as a whole is very local, and that’s my favorite thing about wine — that it has this locality feel to it,” Anderson said. “Everywhere you taste, everywhere you go, it’s the experience that you love and then the wine enhances that, and that’s where I see Norton going.”
Norton wines are deeply colored with rich, fruity aromas and flavors of plums and tart cherries. It can be enjoyed as a single variety wine or combined with other varieties to boost richness in blends.
“It tastes like where it came from,” said Steve Monson, a Missouri native who has studied Norton and is now the winemaker at Rappahannock Cellars in Huntly. “It is a wine of place.”
However, Norton generates debate and differing opinions in the Virginia wine community. Some consumers enjoy its specific style — in fact, Chelsey Blevins, winemaker at Fifty-Third Winery & Vineyard in Louisa, said her customers demand it. But others, both consumers and winemakers, are not fans of its unique style and flavor.
As Virginia producers experiment with other new grape varieties and wine styles, some see a role for Norton, particularly with an eye toward newer or younger wine drinkers at a time when wine consumption overall has been decreasing.
“It’s a grape that is made out of passion,” said Dustin Miner, winemaker at Nokesville Winery in Prince William County. “That’s what I think is the future of it.”
Upcoming Norton Wine Tour Events
Each event on the Norton Tour will be held a specific winery, but there will be additional wineries on-site, pouring their own wines.
- July 12 at Nokesville Winery in Prince William County, with additional wineries: Chateau MerrillAnne, Little River Vineyard, Chrysalis Vineyards, and Barrel Oak Winery & Brewery.
- August 9 at Casanel Vineyards & Winery in Leesburg, with additional wineries: Cana Vineyards & Winery of Middleburg and DuCard Vineyards.
- August 23 at Fifty-Third Winery & Vineyard in Louisa, with additional wineries: Barrel Oak Winery & Brewery, Nokesville Winery, and Little River Vineyard.
- August 30 at DuCard Vineyards in Etlan, with additional wineries: Horton Vineyards and Rappahannock Cellars.
- September 13 at Chateau MerrillAnne in Orange, with additional wineries Chrysalis Vineyards, Nokesville Winery, and Woodbrook Farm Vineyard.
For the latest information about each event, including how to purchase tickets, check the Norton Wine Tour page on Facebook.
