The Tragic Tale of Dr. Norton and His Famous Grape
Love Lost
Born in Williamsburg, VA, 1794, Daniel Norborne Norton was a privileged man and horticulture hobbyist. His stepfather, John Ambler, was a Virginia
House of Delegates member and prominent Richmond socialite. In 1815, Norton graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with a medical degree and opened a
practice in his home town of Richmond (apparently patients trusted 21-year-old doctors at the time). At the age of 27, Dr. Norton was married with his first
child on the way. His wife, Elizabeth Jaquelin Call, daughter of a well-regarded lawyer, was
“a truly amiable and excellent young lady” with a “sincere, benevolent, and affectionate heart”.
Norton's life took a tragic turn when, during childbirth,
Elizabeth and her baby died. His business hardly diverted him from his grief: he practiced medicine as a necessary source of income. His step father always
lavished wealth on his half-siblings, giving Norton only enough to stand on the sidelines of Richmond society, a position he resented. Wishing to battle
his crippling depression via distraction, Norton turned not to his job, but to his hobby: viticulture.
"You shall have grapes that will compare with those of France or Italy"
Norton encountered a hybrid grape known as the "Bland" while walking the Virginia countryside. Although the Bland is extinct now, Norton's find
was likely a cross between vitis labrusca, a native species and
vitis vinifera, a Mediterranean variety. He crossed it with another
native species, vitis aestivalis, to create a hardy, disease-resistant
grape to compete with European wine-making stock.
Naming the vine after himself, Norton documented it and sent a thorough description to William Prince, a famous horticulturist in New York. Prince published
the description in 1830, peaking the attention of winemakers across America. Proprietors
Michael Poeschel and John Scherer opened Stone Hill Winery in Hermann,
Missouri and began bottling Norton wines, which won several international awards in the 1870s. Despite being the third largest winery in the world, Stone Hill
was forced out of business during Prohibition's destruction of the American wine industry.
Norton's Revival
Decades later, Stone Hill reopened along with many other wineries across the country. Norton made its way back to Virginia, and growers there sometimes
mistakenly claim it was discovered at Thomas Jefferson's Monticello. Dr. Norton did send Thomas Jefferson's grandson grape vines, however they weren't Norton
varietals. Wineries likely used letters between the two men to establish a tenuous connection for marketing purposes. Dr. Norton, creator of a home-grown
American grape to rival its European counterparts, is largely unknown to history. The tragic loss which spurred him forward was eventually mitigated: Norton
married Elizabeth's cousin and had five children with her. He died prematurely in 1842 and is buried in Richmond's Shockoe Cemetery; a grapevine grows next
to his grave.