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Thomas
Jefferson
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Historic Landmark
Thomas Jefferson's inspiration of grapegrowing in Virginia
is as great as his love for the wines he imported from Europe.
No one after him has been more hopeful for European-style
viticulture in America. Before the Revolution, Jefferson
retained the Tuscan viticulturist Filippo Mazzei to pursue
methodical plantings of European vines (vitis vinifera)
at Monticello, and along the Southwest Mountains which run
up to Barboursville. Although Mazzei's experiments failed
because of the root disease, phylloxera vastatrix, they
convinced Jefferson that these eastern slopes are ideal
for winegrowing. These precedents, and our own tests and
experiments convinced us, too. When we established Barboursville
Vineyards in 1976, we became the first
vinifera winegrowers in the Monticello Viticultural
Area since Thomas Jefferson. As we glance through our windows
at the mansion he designed for James Barbour, we know our
vines are a kind of monument, echoing another. |
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James Barbour
As the Barbour family began to occupy their new residence
in 1822, the Zonin family was just celebrating its first
year in winemaking in the Veneto. James Barbour held Virginia's
two highest offices as Governor and Senator, and also
served as Defense Secretary and Ambassador to Great Britain
under John Quincy Adams.
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The entrance side of Barbour's mansion
before the 1884 Christmas fire. |
At his untimely death in 1842, Barbour bequeathed what
was then the most highly assessed plantation home in the
County to heirs who occupied it continuously until an accidental
Christmas fire in 1884. In his design of Governor Barbour's
residence, Thomas Jefferson employed an architectural signature
which now symbolizes this estate - a central, octagonal
parlor we honor with the label of our premier wine, Octagon.
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