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2012 SESSION
12103881DWHEREAS, the Virginia Wine Industry celebrates 250 years of producing internationally recognized fine wines in 2012; and
WHEREAS, the Commonwealth has a long and proud tradition of winemaking that traces its roots back to Colonial times, when settlers planted grape vines and made their own wines from the harvest; and
WHEREAS, several of the nation’s founding fathers, including George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and James Madison, had an interest in viticulture and enology and contributed to the development of the wine industry in Virginia; and
WHEREAS, by the 1760s, Charles Carter, son of famed Virginia landowner and former speaker of the House of Burgesses, Robert “King” Carter, had planted 1,800 vines at his estate and was producing wines from both native and European grapes; and
WHEREAS, at the time, the Society for the Encouragement of the Arts, Manufactures, and Commerce (Society) in London, England, offered awards for desirable enterprises in the colonies, including vine growing and winemaking; and
WHEREAS, in 1762 Charles Carter sent the Society a dozen bottles of his wine, made from the American winter grape and white Portugal summer grapes; and
WHEREAS, the Society awarded Charles Carter a gold medal as the first person to make a “spirited attempt towards the accomplishment of their views respecting wine in America,” making his wines the first internationally recognized wines of America; and
WHEREAS, the following year, Royal Governor Francis Fauquier, the governor of the Colony of Virginia, certified that the Carter family was successfully growing European vines, the first recorded history of successful grape production with European vines in Virginia; and
WHEREAS, in 2012 the Virginia Wine Industry will mark the 250th anniversary of the first internationally recognized fine wines produced in the Commonwealth as a result of Charles Carter’s award from the Society for the Encouragement of the Arts, Manufactures, and Commerce; now, therefore, be it
RESOLVED by the House of Delegates, the Senate concurring, That the General Assembly hereby commend the Virginia Wine Industry on the occasion of its 250th anniversary of producing internationally recognized fine wines in the Commonwealth; and, be it
RESOLVED FURTHER, That the Clerk of the House of Delegates prepare copies of this resolution for presentation to the Virginia Wine Council and Philip Carter Strother, owner of Philip Carter Winery, as an expression of the General Assembly’s congratulations and appreciation of the Virginia Wine Industry’s historic contributions to the Commonwealth’s economy and viticultural heritage.