Herbemont’s Madeira: the Forgotten Wine of South Carolina

Herbemont's Madeira vine south Carolina

CHARLESTON, SC—South Carolina is not especially well known for its wine industry. Growers vinify grapes of classic European varietals and mix in staples of the American south like muscadine and scuppernong. But the current state of the industry belies a reality from over 200 years ago. South Carolina was once home to one of the most favored grapes in all of North American wine. The particular vine was so well adapted to growing there, in fact, that when diseases struck down European vineyards at the end of the 1800s, these special grape vines were all uprooted and sent across the Atlantic to save the European vintage. 

This grape was called Herbemont’s Madeira, named after the man who discovered it and advocated for its widespread use, Nicholas Herbemont, who had come to South Carolina as a refugee of the French Revolution. Born in Champagne, wine was in his blood, but America had none of the vintage to speak of. So, when Herbemont arrived in the States, he embarked on a lifelong viticultural quest to bring quality wine to this side of the Atlantic. 

Herbemont moved to Columbia, South Carolina and began cultivating a variety of grape vines in both a downtown garden and out in the Sandhills. Between the two plots, the Frenchman cultivated over 300 varieties of grapevine, both native and imported. Then, around 1814, the vintner discovered a grapevine growing on the plantation of a Daniel Huger that locals were calling “the Madeira,” or in Georgia, “the Warren and Warrington grape.” 

Vitis bourquiniana Munson
Botanical drawing of Herbemont's Madeira grape cluster

The grapes on this vine were brown and resembled Verdelho from the island of Madeira. But this vine was incredibly fruitful and it proved to be disease resistant against the North American threats like phylloxera and the humidity loving mildews and rots. 

By 1823, Herbemont had vinified his own wine from the brown grapes and found it to be excellent. He embarked on a mission to spread the grape throughout the American wine industry–which struggled to produce European quality wines out of hardy North American wine varietals. Herbemont wrote, “I have taken great pains (and expense) to propagate it and extend its cultivation by sending it into various parts of the United States.”

For his work in propagating the vine (he began sending cuttings out on a large scale in 1829,) he earned the Gold Medal of the United Agricultural Society of South Carolina. In 1830, grape growers in the South organically arrived at a new name for the vine, Herbemont. 

On October 21, 1831, the editor of the American Farmer, Gideon B Smith, wrote of Herbemont and the grape: “If Mr. Herbemont is not entitled to credit for originating this excellent grape, he is richly so, for bringing it into notice and extending its cultivation. There is no more appropriate mode of bestowing honorary rewards upon such public benefactors than by denominating the plants they have produced or brought into general use by their names.”

Herbemont Grape
The Herbemont Grape vines growing at the Robert Mills house in Columbia, SC. From https://www.historiccolumbia.org/garden-search/detail/vitis-herbemont

Herbemont pushed back, explaining that the vine was likely a hybrid developed in North Carolina or Georgia years before he came across it. Still the name stuck, but the origin of the vine has continued to elude oenologists for over 300 years. 

There is general consensus today, that the Vitis bourquiniana Munson species, sometimes called the Black Herbemont, Bottsi, Brown French, Deverux, Dunn, Herbemont, Herbemont’s Madeira, Hunt, Kay’s Seedling, Madeira, Mcknee, Neal Grape, Neil Grape, Thurmond, Warenton, Warren, Warrenden, Warrenton, and White Herbemont, is some kind of hybrid between European vitis vinifera and the American vitis aestivalis and cinarea. Where that hybridization originally occurred remains a mystery. 

But the flavor of Herbemont’s madeira must have been something special for early American wine growers. Madeira itself was far more popular in the United States back in the pre-Revolutionary era and immediately following it than it is today. A grape that so closely resembled the flavor of the mid-Atlantic island wine would have been highly coveted. 

Herbemont himself wrote the praises of the wine in the Farmers’ Registered in October of 1837, “Take the produce of these two vines, and that of the others in the garden, and I doubt much whether it has ever been excelled in this or in other countries. These vines are principally those called Herbemont’s Madeira, and a few of the Lenoir, in all 45 vines.” 

Amorpha herbacea Schltdl
A botanical clipping of dwarf indigo collected by Herbemont in 1820 and still in the Smithsonian's collection today. From https://www.si.edu/object/amorpha-herbacea-schltdl:nmnhbotany_13330094

Yet, despite the popularity of the vine in the early 1800s, it is now impossible to find. At the end of the 1800s, when phylloxera, downy mildew, and powdery mildew escaped the New World, American viticulturist, Thomas Volney Munson, found a solution–grafting European vines that produce good wines onto the disease resistant rootstocks of American vines. 

Grafting like this had been done before. In fact, Herbemont was known as an expert grafter during his day and developed the standard grafting procedures for his contemporaries. But the demand from Europe for American rootstocks sky-rocketed. Herbemont’s Madeira was uprooted from Texas, Missouri, and South Carolina and shipped to Europe en masse. While it helped to save European viticulture, it all but disappeared from America. 

Today, Herbemont’s Madeira is grown successfully in Brazil at a commercial scale. And five years ago, Historic Columbia, a preservation society in South Carolina’s capital, decided to try to reintroduce the vine to its historic home. They wrote to Texas A & M, who still had cultivated examples of the vine, and received cuttings for planting. They successfully transplanted the vine to the Robert Mills House. Now, it is a matter of slowly getting the grape back in commercial vineyards of South Carolina. In a decade, Herbemont’s Madeira may be back on tables in the Palmetto State. 

The early history of American viticulture was one of trial and a lot of error. Very few grapes that could withstand the climate, soil, and disease of the New World made aesthetically acceptable wines. When Herbemont discovered a vine that was resilient, productive, and tasty, it became an instant classic. It is a shame that the vine has been absent from South Carolina for well over 100 years.

Sources Cited:

Gordon, Andrew. “America’s Indigenous Wine Grapes.” Wine Enthusiast Magazine, 7 Nov. 2018, https://www.winemag.com/2018/11/07/americas-indigenous-wine-grapes/. Accessed 20 Apr. 2023.

“Research & Innovation.” Fairhaven Vineyards, https://fairhavenvineyards.com/about-us/research/. Accessed 20 Apr. 2023.

Shields, David S., editor. Pioneering American Wine: Writings of Nicholas Herbemont, Master Viticulturist. The University of Georgia Press, Athens, GA, 2009.

“Variety Profile: Merlot.” Foundation Plant Services, University of California, Davis, https://fps.ucdavis.edu/fgrdetails.cfm?varietyid=3269. Accessed 20 Apr. 2023.

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