History
For decades, the area was a key tobacco-growing region. However, as tobacco farming and cigarette manufacturing in the area declined, some entrepreneurs, including tobacco farmers, have turned to winemaking. The native grapes of this region of the southeastern United States are the Muscadine and the Scuppernong. Early attempts to grow the European wine grape, Vitis vinifera, in the southeastern United States, including 18th century efforts by Thomas Jefferson at Monticello, Virginia, had mixed success. But in the past two to three decades, viticultural research has helped adapt these grapes to the climate, soil, and pests of the region. Additionally, Surry Community College, located in Dobson, North Carolina, has served as a valuable community resource for this growing industry by offering certificate and degree programs in viticulture and enology. In 2005, Davidson County Community College formed a partnership with Surry Community College for the delivery of the viticulture and enology program/certifications in Davidson and Davie counties.
In 2003, in an effort led by Charlie and Ed Shelton of Shelton Vineyards, the United States' Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives approved the new appellation for the region with the name Yadkin Valley AVA, allowing winemakers to bottle wines with a label indicating that the wine came from the Yadkin Valley. In 2005, there were 14 wineries and 400 acres (162 ha) of vineyards in the region. By 2005 the number of wine producers had increased to 23.By 2012 there are 33 wineries operating in the Yadkin Valley.
Read more about this topic: Yadkin Valley AVA
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“History does nothing; it does not possess immense riches, it does not fight battles. It is men, real, living, who do all this.... It is not “history” which uses men as a means of achieving—as if it were an individual person—its own ends. History is nothing but the activity of men in pursuit of their ends.”
—Karl Marx (1818–1883)
“The history of the genesis or the old mythology repeats itself in the experience of every child. He too is a demon or god thrown into a particular chaos, where he strives ever to lead things from disorder into order.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“Revolutions are the periods of history when individuals count most.”
—Norman Mailer (b. 1923)