The Merlot Murders

“Glad to hear it,” he said. “You need to move on.”

First in Wine

For nearly four centuries—since the first colonists arrived in Jamestown in 1607—Virginians have been making wine. Elated to discover abundant wild grapes growing on the shoreline of the James River, the settlers took only two years before they produced their first harvest. The results, unfortunately, were less than stellar as the native American grapes produced wine that tasted and smelled like wet dog.

By 1618, the Jamestown settlers abandoned local grapes and began importing French vines—and French winemakers. But these delicate vines, known as vitis vinifera, weren’t well suited for the heat, humidity, and pests found in Virginia. The vines either died or didn’t bear fruit. Nevertheless in 1619 the House of Burgesses—stubbornly determined to cultivate a home-grown wine industry—passed a law requiring every male colonist to plant twenty vines. For every dead or non-fruit-bearing vine, the fine was a barrel of corn. Not surprisingly, the House of Burgesses acquired a lot of corn.

Over the years the Virginia legislature continued unsuccessfully to foster a wine industry, even as tobacco was becoming the true cash crop. More than 150 years after Jamestown, Thomas Jefferson, one of Virginia’s most famous native sons, tried to grow grapes at his beloved Monticello. Convinced Virginia had the right soil and climate for producing grapes that would rival European wines, Jefferson died without seeing his dream realized.

Yet his fellow Virginians persisted, and by the 1800s cross-pollination between European vitis vinifera and American grapes created the first American hybrids such as the Alexander, Norton (a Virginia native), Catawba, and others. However, the Civil War, which was hard fought on Virginia soil as nowhere else, caused many vineyards to be destroyed or abandoned. Shortly afterward California wines arrived on the scene and rapidly cornered the lion’s share of the U.S. market. It took Prohibition, arriving in Virginia three years before Congress made the U.S. a dry country in 1919, to finish off what little was left of the industry.

The mid-1970s saw a renaissance in grape planting in the Commonwealth thanks to new success growing French hybrids such as Seyval Blanc, Vidal Blanc, and Chambourcin, along with agricultural breakthroughs finally allowing vitis vinifera grapes to flourish in Virginia. In 2004 the state government in Richmond produced a strategic blueprint for the industry that traces its lineage directly to Jefferson’s long ago dreams. Known as Vision 2015, the goal is to establish Virginia—already a serious contender in national and international markets—as a producer of world-class wines.

Thomas Jefferson would be proud. 

Acknowledgments

I owe an enormous debt of gratitude to Juanita Swedenburg and the late Wayne Swedenburg, owners of Swedenburg Estate Vineyard in Middleburg, Virginia, for the hands-on experience, technical help, and insight they gave me while researching this book. It goes without saying that any mistakes on matters involving wine or the workings of a well-run, small vineyard are mine. Gordon Murchie, president of the Vinifera Winegrowers Association, also provided assistance with historical information.

I hope the good people of Loudoun and Fauquier Counties will forgive the liberties I took with geography— especially re-routing Goose Creek and playing a bit fast and loose with county boundaries—in that beautiful region of the Commonwealth.

Special thanks to Tony and Belinda Collins for an introduction to and education on Virginia’s 90+ (and growing) wineries—and for plying me with reading material and good wine over the years.

Cathy Brannon, Debbie Gador, Catherine Kennedy, and Leslie Shepherd read and commented on early drafts of this book. I am also indebted to Donna Andrews, Carla Coupe, Laura Durham, Peggy Hanson, Val Patterson, Noreen Wald, and Sandi Wilson.

Thanks especially to Sarah Knight and Brant Rumble, my editors, and heartfelt thanks to Dominick Abel, my agent.

Finally, it’s an oft-repeated truism that although writing is a solitary pursuit no writer works in a vacuum. If it were not for André, Peter, Matt, and Tim, nothing I do or say would matter as much. 

About the Author

Ellen Crosby is a freelance regional reporter for The Washington Post and a former Moscow correspondent for ABC News Radio. Her first novel, Moscow Nights, written while living in London, was published in the United Kingdom and is based on her experiences working in the former Soviet Union. The Merlot Murders marks her American debut, and takes place nearer her current home in Virginia’s historic horse and hunt country. She’s married and has three sons. She is currently writing the sequel to The Merlot Murders. 

Visit her website at www.ellencrosby.com.