“It’s important to acknowledge Catawba’s history,” says Tim Benedict, winemaker of Hazlitt 1852 Vineyards in New York’s Finger Lakes region, which uses the grape in two of its flagship offerings. “If you get a pink Catawba, it’s a trip back in time.”
The red grape has been used to make a signature bright pink and fruity wine for hundreds of years. It was first introduced in 1823 by John Adlum, an American viticulturist, winemaker and author of A Memoir On The Cultivation Of The Vine In America. Though it likely had been propagated and grown even earlier.
Its origins are somewhat contested, according to J. Stephen Casscles, owner of Cedar Cliff Vineyards and Nursery in Athens, New York. But most concede this cross between American Vitis labrusca (also called Fox Grape) and Sémillon came from North Carolina.
Once it entered the public consciousness, growers realized the grape’s hardy nature and natural resistance to various vineyard diseases and pests. Soon, Catawba became the most widely planted grape in the United States. High concentrations of Catawba vineyards were scattered throughout Cincinnati and the Finger Lakes throughout the 1800s, used for both still and sparkling expressions.
“Before Prohibition, Catawba was one of the most drunk wines in the country,” says Chris Stamp, winemaker at Lakewood Vineyards in the Finger Lakes, which makes a bubbly with the hybrid.
