Philip Carter Winery of Virginia

Sobre la bodega y los vinos

Virginia’s wine industry dates to the early seventeenth century when the first English settlers planted vines and made wine at the Jamestown Colony around 1608. The first settlers made wine with grapes from England, but the colonists soon became determined to grow their own grapes on Virginia soil. In 1623, the Virginia House of Burgesses enacted a law that required every householder to set aside a quarter-acre of land yearly for the purpose of growing grapes and making wine. In 1759, a committee of the Virginia assembly was formed and charged with the question of economic diversification, a question made urgent by the depression in the tobacco trade. As its chairman, Charles Carter entered into correspondence with Peter Wyche in London, chairman of the agriculture committee for the Society for the Encouragement of the Arts, Manufacture, and Commerce (now the Royal Society of Arts), which offered awards for various desirable enterprises in the colonies, among them vine growing and winemaking. Carter’s correspondence reveals that the prospects and methods for the cultivation of the grape in Virginia were an important subject. Charles Carter, 5th child born of Colonel Robert “King” Carter and Elizabeth Landon-Wells was born in Lancaster County, Virginia, and resided in Lancaster and King George County, Virginia. “King” Carter’s wealth came from service as land agent for the English Proprietor, Lord Fairfax. As such, he collected rents on the millions of acres owned by Fairfax in Virginia. Politically active and instrumental in the development of trade and commerce in the colonies, the Carter family at one time owned over 300,000 acres and built numerous estate homes in Virginia, many of which remain as historic landmarks today.