Cynthiana

           A wine dear to the few who celebrate America’s native grapes, this was an early and highly successful attempt to create a good-tasting variety that could resist the New World’s climate and pests. As recounted in Todd Kliman’s “The Wild Vine” and elsewhere, Dr. Daniel Norton created the variety in the early1820s at his farm near Richmond. As he tried to cross the V. labrusca grape Bland with Pinot Meunier, the Bland was accidentally fertilized by wild V. aestivalis pollen. The offspring, which became known as Norton’s Virginia Seedling, produced a full-flavored wine with native character but without labrusca’s disagreeable foxiness.

            The grape quickly won commercial favor in the East and later in the Midwest, where Missouri’s growing conditions proved especially welcoming. Famously, a bottle of Missouri Norton was honored as among the world’s best wines at Vienna’s Universal Exposition in 1873.

            Along the way, Cynthiana became recognized as a separate variety. Many believed it to be a mutation of Norton with distinctly different flavor and ripening characteristics. Whatever the case, DNA analysis has shown that today’s Norton and Cynthiana are one and the same, and the latter name now predominates in reference books (if not in Virginia).

            This particular bottle comes from St. James Winery, one of many smaller U.S. wineries listed on the Winemakers Direct site, which is searchable by variety. Another notable example is the Chrysalis Vineyards Estate Bottled Norton, grown near Middleburg, Va.

            Cynthiana/Norton is a wine you needn’t be ashamed of serving to your European friends – preferably at a cookout where the main course is grilled beef. It has good fruit and grip, and somehow does taste American.