WINERY LINKS OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: Wine Related Links for The New England States

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(Just skip down past narrative to locate the winery links for New England)

New England Winegrowing & History

Thus far we identified 78 winery operations and eight support/advocacy groups within New England. The distribution of wineries is: Connecticut (20), Maine (10), Massachusetts (26), New Hampshire (7), Rhode Island (7) and Vermont (8).

Grape varietals (both European and American) are used by 48% of the wineries, 37% produce wine from grapes, other fruit sources & honey, while 12% produce their wine from non-grape and honey sources. Eight of these wineries make fruit & grape blended wines, two wineries also include a distillery, and one makes a beer.

The history of winegrowing in this sub-region starts with the Pilgrims of Plymouth, Massachusetts, who were making wine in 1623. Massachusetts Governor John Winthrop authorized wine grapes on Governor’s Island, Boston Harbor, (now the location of Logan Airport) in 1632. An interesting bit of history about this sub region is the Concord grape. The Concord Grape Association Web site ( http://www.concordgrape.org/ ) stipulates the following: “Experimenting with seeds from some of the native species, Boston-born Ephraim Wales Bull developed the Concord grape in 1849. On his farm outside Concord, down the road from the Emerson, Thoreau, Hawthorne and Alcott homesteads, he planted some 22,000 seedlings in all, before he had produced the ideal grape. Early ripening, to escape the killing northern frosts, but with a rich, full-bodied flavor, the hardy Concord grape thrives where European cuttings had failed to survive. In 1853, Mr. Bull felt ready to put the first bunches of his Concord grapes before the public -- and won first prize at the Boston horticultural Society exhibition. From these early arbors, fame of Mr. Bull’s ('the father of the Concord grape') Concord grape spread world-wide, bringing him up to $1,000 a cutting, but he died a relatively poor man. The inscription on his tombstone states, “He sowed--others reaped.” Click here to http://www.nal.usda.gov/speccoll/collect/history/grapespg.htm to see the first Concord grape vine grown by Mr. Bull.” (Highlighting by this author)

Perhaps the most interest bit of missing information from the Concord Grape Association Web site is that it obviously avoids any mention of the use of the juice from the Concord grape to produce wine! However, not all organizations are devoid of the fact that the Concord grape played a large role in wine production, especially during the era of Prohibition and the years that lead up to its enactment. The Concord Grape Belt Heritage Association . web site says: “Our Mission Statement - To encourage and support the dynamic economic development of the grape and wine industries, tourism, and associated industries throughout the Lake Erie Region that is built upon our Concord grape heritage and results in an enhanced quality of life for all the region's citizens.”

In Leon Adams' book, "The Wines of America" (1973, Houghton Mifflin Co.), he says the following: “I found only one record of commercial winegrowing in New England during the nineteenth century. It is a letter published in the American Wine Press and Mineral Water News for August 1900. The writer, one Albert Bernard of Meriden, Connecticut, described Meriden as a wine-producing locality at the time. In particular, he mentioned a ‘Coe Farm’ southwest of Meriden as having cultivated Concord and Worden grapes for wine between 1894 and 1897, and as having produced ‘a superior claret’ that was sold in Hartford and in New York City.”

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General Sub Region Links of Interest

"New England Grape Growers Resource Center"
"New England Vine"
"Coastal Wine Trail of Southeastern New England"
"East Coast Wineries Blog"
"Vinifera Wine Growers Association (VWGA)"
"The Information Source for Wine and Fine Dining in New England"

Connecticut Winery Links