Lum wrote:

>
> "Paul E. Lehmann" > wrote in message
> ...
>> From "AAA World" magazine july/August 2005 edition:
>>
>> "... in 1619, America's first legislature, the House of Burgesses, formed
> at
>> Jamestown Colony, required every male over 20 to plant at least 10 grape
>> vines. That started America's industrial wine production with a 200-year
>> head start on California. What's really odd is that the East Coast wines
>> ever got so far behind."
>
> Hi Paul,
> I suspect Phylloxera and Pierce's disease slowed East Coast vineyard
> development down a bit.
> Lum
> Del Mar, California, USA

Perhaps, but it should not have been a problem with native varieties.
Perhaps the slow down was due more to religious intolerance for alcohol.
Just a theory, who knows.

I think I read somewhere that even apple orchards were almost wiped out at
one time in the east because of the bible thumpers objection to hard cider.