A Thoroughly American Grape
How It Began
Often called the oldest American Wine Grape, it was first cultivated by a man by the name of Dr. Daniel Norborne Norton who lived in Virginia between 1791 and 1842. He was born into a nation that had just been born itself, stepping into a world that barely knew what the United States of America was or would become.
Our story really begins before Dr. Nortons birth. Vintners and wine growers all over the United States wrestled with far less amicable weather than many of their European counterparts. This led to many old-world varieties suffering under the myriad pressures that the untamed New World offered. Disease, pests, soil composition, you name it and grape growers new to the continent were struggling with understanding the best ways to mitigate the barriers to growing the grapes that they knew and loved from the vineyards of Europe.
A medical doctor by trade, Dr. Norton had not considered a life in agriculture prior to moving onto the Magnolia Farm property that he and his wife Eliza had received from her father, but he threw himself into the task of managing the farm with the same fervor that he studied medicine with, devouring books on the various plants and animals he kept to further improve his understanding of his new responsibilities. Soon though, his wife would pass away, leaving Dr. Norton alone with their young child and the farm. He found distraction from his grief through a singular focus, experimenting with viticulture on his farm; the farm where he would eventually, even accidentally, create the Norton Grape we know and love.
“I had, my dear Brother [sic], looked to the grave with pleasure as a retreat from my misery,” he later wrote to his half-brother, John Jaquelin Ambler. “I never slept but for a few moments at a time, and then I would dream of Heaven, but to wake in Hell.” Dr. Norton, letter to his brother.
His grief and misery would lead him to throw his entire being into his experimental vineyard, setting up the reveal for the soon to be born Norton grape tucked away in a corner of the plot.
The real breakout for this American grape was whenever a person by the name of William Prince Jr, who was running the third generation of the Prince’s Linnaean Botanic Garden and Nurseries in Queens, New York. Mr. Prince was trusted by many with horticultural mysteries and Dr. Norton’s vine was one he was keen to fold into his catalog. In 1822, we see “Norton’s Virginia Seedling”, Latin name Vitis Nortoni, listed for purchase and in 1830 we see an entry in Prince’s “A Treatise on the Vine” that describes Norton’s Virginia Seedling as follows.
“The vine resists the cold of the most severe winters, never failing to produce fruit and that most profusely, thriving even without pruning. [The grapes] are round and a little flattened at the end … they do not contain a great quantity of juice, but what they yield is of the richest quality.”
It was through this catalog that the Norton spread inexorably west, finding very fertile ground in which to grow along the Missouri River Valley. While Virginia had proven to be a place where Norton could grow, Missouri was where the vine could thrive. The Norton grape works best if given a relatively long growing season, especially compared to the more common European varietals. Growers in the Midwest found its hardiness and its seeming perfect temperament for the region to be excellent for the burgeoning wine industry in the states that were grasping and begging for any grapes that could be used to perhaps rival the bold red greats of the old world.
One of the first Norton plantings in Hermann that we know of was in 1843, with Jacob Rommel and Michael Poeschel producing the first bottles of Missouri Norton in 1846. The grape swiftly rose to prominence in the region, and it was soon featured in the wineries that were suddenly cropping up everywhere in the region. The Stone Hill Wine Company was founded in 1847 by Michael Poeschel, and the Norton grape was among his favorite grapes. In the 1870s, when partners John Scherer, William Herzog, and George Stark (Read about George here) were part of the company, that we see Norton wine finding a market and acclaim on the world stage. Stone Hill Norton was declared the “Best Red of All Nations” at the 1873 Vienna World’s Fair, which would quickly help the winery and grape grow in esteem. The wine would continue to win awards at multiple World’s Fairs through the 1900s.
All the more tragic considering what was about to come to pass.
Prohibition
The 18th amendment hit the country hard, and it hit the Midwest wine country; the “Weinstrasse” west of St. Louis, hardest of all. This part of the country took a very long time to recover from the draconian enforcement of the Volstead Act that saw vines ripped up, tools, machines, and barrels destroyed. Entire livelihoods were destroyed by federal zealots who are said to have taken the ills of World War I and channeled the anti-German sentiments that were roiling throughout the country because of that and directed that ire against the German immigrants who made up the majority of the population of the “Missouri Rhineland” along the Missouri River Valley.
With Prohibition in full swing thanks to the legislation above, the Norton grape slowly but surely drifted into near obscurity, at least outside of the specific regions that still had the touchstones of that pre-war past glory. Some farmers were able to keep their winemaking traditions alive through a small but valuable loophole that allowed for farmers to create up to 300 gallons of wine a year for “Personal Consumption” and in this way, the Norton vines survived here and there. Though, by the 1960s, Norton was thought to be completely extinct and lost to time.
In 1965, when Jim and Betty Held reopened Stone Hill, they knew of the acclaim of the lost Norton grape that Hermann’s wine industry was once built upon. Unfortunately, no one knew if any still remained. Later that year, they “heard it through the grapevine” that there was a family of homesteaders, the Rauch family, in the countryside ten miles west of Hermann who had been farming a planting of grapevines since 1861. When Prohibition hit, these vines, and the homesteaders themselves, were overlooked, and so, generations of the Rauch’s continued making wine off their small vineyard.
Jim, being determined to be able to source local grapes from anyone who could provide, introduced himself to the Rauch’s and noticed their grapevines needed some care. The Rauch’s still had the original documents listing what variety their ancestors’ bought way back in the 1860s, and when compared with botanical descriptions, it was a match, it was the missing Norton grape! With time and new generations, knowledge about viticulture had been lost, and the Rauch’s no longer pruned the vines in a way that promoted well balanced fruit and high yielding grapevines. Jim came up with a solution, if they’d let him prune and train the vines, they’d get much higher yields than before, all he asked was that he could buy what they didn’t use. The Rauch’s, being quite old at the time and ready to retire from vineyard care responsibilities, were quick to accept his idea. Soon thereafter, Jim and Betty would purchase the Rauch property, giving the family lifetime tenancy, and planting vineyards across the Rauch hillside overlooking the Missouri River.
With that first production of Norton in 1965, the grape was officially rediscovered and reintroduced to the world. Those pre-Prohibition Norton vines would be used by Jim to plant new vineyards of Norton. This original 1861 planting is still farmed today, with the wine being released as our Old Vine Reserve Norton. The vines’ survival was an amazing gift to future wine enjoyers as those vines produce some of the most interesting flavor profiles that you can find among Norton wines.
Legacy
To this very day our Norton wines continue to win awards at every competition they enter, we currently have our Estate Norton, our Cross J Norton, and our Old Vine Reserve Norton. We hold a Norton Dinner every year, which features a vertical tasting of the last ten vintages of our Norton and celebrates the grape that helped put Stone Hill Wine Co. on the map once, over 100 years ago, and did it all over again when Jim and Betty Held brought the Stone Hill Winery back to its former glory.
We have made the Norton grape a cornerstone of our winery, the wine we hang our hat on, and the foundation to our future success. We have at least two more Norton wines that are coming to the winery in the future, our Kemperberg Norton which comes from our Kemperberg Vineyard (surprise, I know) which offers a new, unique terroir to explore for the grape. We are also, through a bit of luck, working on a Norton Ice Wine of all things so keep an eye on the horizon for those new and exciting wines to appear in our catalog. And who knows, maybe there are some more surprises in store!
Norton is now grown throughout Missouri and the Eastern United States, and it has found a home abroad in Japan, Brazil, France, and Australia. Almost all those plantings can trace their lineage back to our Rauch Vineyard Norton vines. It has also returned to its birthplace of Virginia. Dennis Horton, of Horton Vineyards, asked Jim Held in the 1980s for cuttings from the Rauch vines so that he could grow it in Virginia again. From there, it has expanded across Virginian wineries, with Chrysalis Vineyards having the largest planting in Virginia. The grapes and the wine have been doing well there, and you could say there has been something of a renaissance for the Norton grape on the East Coast because of it.
This is part of the legacy of the Norton grape, of Stone Hill Winery. We have been enjoying Norton wine in Missouri since we had a wine industry to enjoy it through. Prohibition was a small break, but you could argue that we have never truly stopped drinking it here.
The Norton Grape may have been born in Virginia, but its home is here in Missouri.
Taste our history, you can shop our wines Here.
Michael Haggerty is the Shipping Coordinator at Stone Hill Winery and handles all DTC wine shipments.
You can reach him for shipping inquiries via email at shipping@stonehillwinery.com or by phone at 573-486-2221.