The Industry Grows: the 1800’s

At the beginning of the 19th century, though some were still planting vinifera grapes, native grapes such as Isabella and Catawba were proving most successful in vineyards in the Northeast. The main reasons for the failure of vinifera vines were three diseases and one pest: black rot, powdery mildew, downy mildew, and phylloxera. These ailments were unknown in Europe as they are native to North America. They resulted in failure of vineyards typically within a few years of planting.

Alphonse Loubat, a winegrower from the south of France, established 40 acres of vinifera vines at New Utrecht in Brooklyn which were overcome by black rot shortly. After seeing the failure of their vinifera vines many growers chose to replant their vineyards with native grapes. Robert Underhill, considered one of the founding fathers of the Hudson Valley wine industry, replanted his vines to Isabella and Catawba after seeing they were much more viable than the vinifera he had planted originally. Reverend William Botswick planted swaths of Isabella and Catawba in Hammondsport in the Finger Lakes. In 1839, the Frenchman Jean Jaques founded Blooming Grove winery, the first commercial winery in the Hudson Valley. It is still in operation today under the name Brotherhood Winery. Brotherhood is one of the few wineries to survive prohibition (Brotherhood produced “sacramental wine” during this period).

An influx of talented German winegrowers brought their skills to the Northeast, especially to the Finger Lakes, in 1848-1849 due to the violent revolutions sweeping through Germany at the time. The Finger Lakes saw unprecedented growth and improvements in technology, and many of the large producers date back to this time: Canandiagua, Hammondsport, and Pleasant Valley).

The 1800’s were a period of growth and experimentation. Native grape potential began to really be explored, and intentionally produced hybrid native x vinifera vines surfaced beginning with the Ada grape produced in 1852 on Long Island. A major development during this period was the creation of the Concord grape by Ephraim Bull in 1849. This grape would come to dominate vineyards in the Northeast and shift the American consumer palate away from dry wines to sweeter wines. It posed a serious roadblock over the years to winemakers who wanted to create a more European style. Concord took over the Chautauqua region of New York in particular, where it eventually gave rise to the Welch’s grape juice empire. The last few decades of the 1800’s saw a boom both in vineyard plantings, wine production, and hybrid grape creation. Gardener’s Monthly stated, "next to oil, nothing is so much spoken of in the cars, on the street, by the roadside, everywhere, as the grape, and the grape native vine." Peddlers sold hybrids door to door all around the country.

From the 1860’s to the 1880’s the Finger Lakes and New Jersey regions experienced particularly rapid growth. Pleasant Valley Winery in the Finger Lakes was producing upward of 30,000 gallons of sparkling wine, which was consistently winning awards overseas in Europe. The Urbana Wine Company (which would become the Gold Seal Products Company under Prohibition) began production at this time, as did Germania Wine Cellars, the Taylor Wine Company, Widmer’s Wine Cellars, and the sacramental wine producer O-Neh-Da Vineyard. By the end of the century the Finger Lakes had 25,000 acres of planted vineyard, up from 3,000 acres in 1865. Similarly, New Jersey’s wine industry skyrocketed, with its Norton-based wines winning awards in many competitions including the Paris Exposition of 1878. By 1878 New Jersey was producing 220,000 gallons of wine annually mainly from the 800 acres planted around Egg Harbor City - up from practically nothing just a few decades before. Gardener's Monthly reported that Egg Harbor City was full of Germans making wine "as good as any in the world" during this period.

The boom experienced in the second half of the 19th century was accompanied by a focus on understanding the native grapes, the growing conditions, and methods to improve the chances of growing vinifera grapes in the Northeast. An agricultural society was organized and carried out studies of hybrids and native grapes at Egg Harbor City in New Jersey in 1859. In 1882, the Agricultural Experiment Station at Geneva was founded (now it’s part of Cornell University). A grape breeding program started here which studied native, vinifera, and hybrids vines; shortly after the turn of the century, successful growing was beginning and scientists wrote that they had developed methods of protection for vinifera against all four of the major vine issues here.

The Northeast was finally poised for success.