Virginia Historical Society Podcast

On June 30, 2011, Todd Kliman delivered a Banner Lecture entitled "The Wild Vine: A Forgotten Grape and the Untold Story of American Wine." Vineyards and wine making have become all-American success stories in recent years, especially in Virginia. In his book, "The Wild Vine", author Todd Kliman engagingly traces the story of the native grape hybrid, and its nineteenth-century Virginia advocate, that led by a circuitous path to the rebirth of wine-making in the twentieth century. The story begins long before California supposedly put America on the viticulture map with Dr. Daniel Norton's experimentations with grapes in Richmond. The Norton hybrid migrated to the Midwest and then, after seemingly disappearing, returned to Virginia soil to great success in more recent times. Todd Kliman is food and wine editor of the "Washingtonian". (Introduction by Paul A. Levengood and Jack Berninger)