Jefferson's Dream

A world-class American wine industry. And it's here:

Jefferson died without seeing his vision of an American winemaking industry mature. But today, the third president would be astounded that wine is made commercially in every state in the continental U.S., including at Monticello and elsewhere in Virginia, and that some of our West Coast wines stand up well in the international marketplace. Indeed, the so-called Judgment of Paris, a blind tasting on July 4, 1976 in which the best California wines outperformed their top French counterparts, would probably have brought Jefferson no end of satisfaction.