Washington, Jefferson, and Norton?

Photo Courtesy of
Wikimedia Commons.

With President's Day and George Washington's birthday this week, presidents are on our mind. Did you know that Thomas Jefferson is widely considered America's first connoisseur of gourmet food and wine? Presidents. They’re just like us!

George Washington tested new ways of farming and was a would-be grape grower and vintner. According to an article on www.mountvernon.org, Washington's favorite wine was Madeira (Thompson, n.d.), a port-style wine made from grapes grown on the Madeira Islands off the coast of Morocco. The main grape used in Madeira is Tinta Negra Mole, a cross between Grenache and Pinot Noir. Today, Madeira can be found in the U.S., but it is not a common wine.

Photo Courtesy of
Wikimedia Commons.

Thomas Jefferson, too, favored Madeira, but that changed when he was named Ambassador to France and travelled to Paris. There, he fell in love with French wines. According to www.monticello.org, he worked with an Italian winemaker to grow grapes found in France’s Burgundy and Bordeaux regions at his home in Virginia (Bear, 1984). Unfortunately, the climate was not conducive to the French grapes, and they did not thrive. His passion for wine and gourmet food did not subside, as James Gabler shares in Passions: The Wines & Travels of Thomas Jefferson, an excellent biography of Jefferson's five years travelling through France, England, Germany, Italy, and Holland.

Where both men tried and failed to grow grapes in Virginia, Dr. Daniel Norton succeeded in 1830 when he developed the hybrid Norton grape, which thrived in U.S. soils. In fact, during Abraham Lincoln's presidency, the first wines served at an official White House function featured local wines made with the Norton grape (Johnson, 2015). However, Norton's success was short lived. With Prohibition, vines were destroyed and Concord grapes, used for juices and jams, were planted in their place. Today, the area around the Potomac River is filled with vineyards who are producing wines made with the Norton grape. In fact, the largest single planting of Norton in the world is located at Chrysalis Vineyards in Middleburg, Virginia, less than two hours from Mount Vernon and Monticello (Norton (grape), n.d.). Washington and Jefferson would be proud!

Sources:

Bear, J. J. (1984). Thomas Jefferson Foundation, Inc. Retrieved from Article Courtesy of the Thomas Jefferson Encyclopedia: https://www.monticello.org/site/research-and-collections/wine

Johnson, R. (2015, February 16). Presidential Wine Trivia: 14 Fascinating Facts. Retrieved from Vinesse Wines: https://blog.vinesse.com/2015/02/16/presidential-wine-trivia-14-fascinating-facts/

Norton (grape). (n.d.). Retrieved from Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norton_(grape)

Thompson, M. V. (n.d.). Madeira. Retrieved from George Washington's Mount Vernon: http://www.mountvernon.org/digital-encyclopedia/article/madeira/

What are you reading this week?

I love to read. I dabble occasionally with fiction and non-fiction, and every once in a while, I’ll be tricked by a well-written blurb into reading a “romantic thriller.” It’s always good to mix it up, but my favorites are, and always have been, mysteries.

This love affair started when I was pretty young. My favorite cartoon? Scooby-Doo, Where are You! Then came Encyclopedia Brown. That boy WAS a genius! Not even the adults could fool him! In middle school, I met Nancy Drew. Nancy, with her titian hair, driving around River Heights in her blue roadster with her best friends Bess and George, putting herself in the most dangerous situations and solving the crime every time.

I’ve always been fortunate to have access to books and people willing to “talk books” with me. Now I’m excited to pay-it-forward and share some of the great books I’m reading with you. Each Monday, I’ll share “What I’m Reading” on our Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram accounts. At the same time, I’m also excited to launch the “So Good, It’s Criminal” Book Group!

So, first, here’s “What I’m Reading” this week – Final Girls by Riley Sager. In Final Girls, we meet Quincy Carpenter, the lone survivor of a massacre that left five of her friends dead. It’s been ten years, and Riley has (mostly) put her life back together. She still needs her prescription for Xanax, has an almost-fiancé, and is the author of a popular baking blog. She’s connected with two other women the media have dubbed “Final Girls:” Lisa, who survived an attack in her sorority house, and Sam, who fought off the “Sack Man” at the Nightlight Inn. Although they’ve never met in person, their shared traumatic experience has bonded them together as a sort of support group. When Lisa is found dead with her wrists slit, Quincy can’t believe Lisa would commit suicide after everything she’d been through. Then Sam shows up at Quincy’s door, pushing Quincy into dangerous situations and into reliving the night of her attack. The more questions Quincy has, the more things don’t add up. Is Sam really who she says she is? Why is she so interested in what happened to Quincy that night?

Second, I'd like to invite you to join the discussion of Final Girls at the inaugural meeting of the So Good, It's Criminal! book group on Thursday, March 8, at 7:00 p.m. Book groups are a great way to connect with fellow mystery lovers, and of course, there'll be wine!

Happy Reading!

Here We Go!

The roaring fireplace

Hello! Welcome to the very first blogpost from It’s Criminal! Book & Wine Bar.

Sometimes, as we’re puttering around the bar, adding a new wall decoration there, moving the furniture around here, we can’t believe this dream has become a reality. The idea actually first came to us about 20 years ago. Picture, if you will, Me and Him, curled up on the couch by the fireplace.

Him: “Man, you have a lot of books.”

Me: “I know, almost all of them are mysteries.”

Him, drinking a rich merlot: “This wine is so good! You  know what I think?”

Me: “No, what?”

Him: “Wine's going to be the next big thing.”

Me: “You know what would be really awesome? A wine bar that sells mystery books.”

Him: “That would be so good, it’d almost be criminal!”

Both: Much laughter

You know how it goes. You were kind of half kidding, right? Then, all of a sudden, there are kids, and jobs, and house payments, and then kids’ activities, and the next thing you know, the kids are grown and on their own. But what’s really amazing is, in all that time, that little seed of an idea was still there, the passion for books and wine endured, and now, here we are!

We have so many wonderful things planned for you! In this space, we’ll talk about the great books I’m reading and the delicious wines he’s discovered. We’re big on community, especially the arts, and we have some fun partnerships in the works as well as awesome special events and promotions happening that we can’t talk to tell you about.

We’re thrilled that you’re coming along on this journey with us! Here we go!