The section of Route 76 on the eastern slopes of the Blue Ridge Mountains is also known as the Monticello American Viticulture Area, which designates thirty distinctive varieties of grapes used in making wine. The name, Monticello, recognizes that Thomas Jefferson shaped the first efforts to make wine in this region in the decades before and after the American revolution. Watts Branch, which flows down the northeastern slope of Calf Mountain and intersects with Route 76 north of Crozet, is just one of many creeks and streams in the Appalachian region that contribute to the natural conditions ideal for winemaking. In recent decades, cideries, breweries, and distilleries have further expanded the production of various forms of alcohol and now serve as tourist destinations vital to the Virginia economy. Yet the history of alcohol in Virginia is more complicated than simply an expansion in cultivation and marketing. An exploration of key moments in the years since the American Revolution illustrates how alcohol became a contested space with particular implications for the relationship between individuals, communities, and the state. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Welcome to episode 13 of the Virginia Bikecentennial Route 76 Podcast. This episode is connected to the section where Watts Branch crosses Route 76, about 210 miles from Yorktown, the starting point for the westbound route, and 340 miles from the Kentucky border, where eastbound riders enter Virginia. This podcast is a production of Virginia Tech, a public land grant university located in Blacksburg, just three miles from Route 76 in southwest Virginia. I am your host, Tom Ewing, and this podcast is produced by the digital humanities program in Virginia Tech University Libraries, under the direction of media manager Joe Forte. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Alcohol production extends back in Virginia until the early years of the English colony. In 1620, a colonist named George Thorpe distilled whiskey made from corn, which he called \u201ccorn beere.\u201d During the eighteenth century, Scottish and Irish immigrants brought traditional methods of distilling whiskey to their new settlements across Virginia. By the 1790s, George Washington owned the country\u2019s largest rye whiskey distillery at Mount Vernon. Wine making was endorsed by Thomas Jefferson, who drew on his experiences in France to encourage cultivation and consumption of high quality wine, sherry, and port. Virginia\u2019s history of wine-making is connected to the history of slavery, as the cultivation of grapes and the making of wine required intensive and skilled labor provided by enslaved African Americans. The role of slaves in the history of wine making has only gradually and partially been integrated into the stories that wineries publicize about their land and products.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The complex history of alcohol and state power captured public attention in the so-called Whiskey Rebellion in the aftermath of the American Revolution. The new United States government needed revenue to pay off debts from the war. In 1791, Congress passed a tax on distilled spirits, which became known as the \u201cwhiskey tax\u201d because this form of alcohol was most common. Along the western frontier, particularly in Pennsylvania, but elsewhere in Appalachia as well, this tax was extremely unpopular. Many farmers distilled grain into whiskey, which increased the value of the crop relative to the costs of transportation. In addition, these settlers objected to the imposition of a tax that seemed to benefit eastern elites at the expense of rural populations. Within a few years, local resistance escalated to the point of physical attacks on tax collectors. Settles in the western regions of Virginia participated in the Whiskey Rebellion, even though the focus of activity was to the north in Pennsylvania. In the city of Morgantown, which was then in Virginia but is now in West Virginia, a tax collector felt so threatened by a mob that he disguised himself, fled his home, and swam across a river to safety. The governor of Virginia, Henry Lee, demanded the arrest of every insurgent traveling south from Pennsylvania with the goal of provoking disobedience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the summer of 1794, President George Washington raised a force of 13,000 soldiers from state militias and led a campaign towards the center of resistance in western Pennsylvania. Faced with this show of force, the resistance collapsed, no shots were fired, and the twenty or so organizers who were arrested were eventually released without further punishment. In 1802, the government of the new President, Thomas Jefferson, canceled the tax, which he regarded as an excessive use of federal power.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
By the early nineteenth century, Virginia recorded more than 3,600 distilleries, at a time when the population was just under one million people. Crops from Virginia farms, including corn, rye, and wheat, were distilled into alcohol for local consumption and for sale to those in cities. Even as alcohol became an increasingly important part of the American economy, a new campaign sought the complete ban on alcohol consumption in the United States. The temperance movement began in nineteenth century America as a coalition of religious and reform groups organized to lobby state and federal governments to impose a ban on all forms of alcohol production, distribution, and consumption. The Women\u2019s Christian Temperance Union was founded in 1875 and spread across the nation, with a Virginia chapter founded in 1883. The Anti-Saloon League, led by men, joined the effort to argue for prohibition as a moral crusade. The effort was supported by Protestant ministers, women\u2019s rights advocates, and reformers concerned about the harmful effects of drinking, particularly among the urban poor and new immigrant populations. In September 1914, Virginia voters approved prohibition in the state, which went into effect in late 1916. Intoxicating beverages could not be manufactured or sold, but personal possession and consumption were allowed. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Many states, particularly in the south and midwest, passed similar laws enforcing strict restrictions on alcohol. The temperance movement aggressively pursued the goal of a national ban on alcohol during the war. The Eighteenth Amendment was passed by Congress in 1917, ratified by states in 1919, and enacted in 1920 to ban all forms of alcohol production, possession, distribution, and consumption. Prohibition lasted for thirteen years, until the passage of the twenty-first amendment abolished these restrictions, thus bringing to an end a remarkable effort by the federal government to regulate personal behaviors by American citizens.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The thirteen years of prohibition were marked by the rise of bootleggers, who produced and distributed alcohol illegally. This third example of how alcohol shaped the relationship between Americans and government power contributed to the emerging identity of Appalachia. Home-distilled alcohol, often called \u201cmoonshine,\u201d has a long history in more remote mountain regions, but this form of production became particularly lucrative when prohibition closed all forms of legal production and distribution. Alcohol produced at home was transported to cities by automobile, a new form of individual transportation that could evade surveillance at train stations or boat docks. Appalachia\u2019s proximity to major cities on the east coast and the midwest meant that this region became the center of a growing network of illegal production and distribution. The collapse of farming and widespread unemployment during the Great Depression made these illegal activities more lucrative in isolated communities. Federal agents monitored roadways seeking to arrest bootleggers, searched for distilleries in remote mountain hollows, and destroyed bottles and barrels in public demonstrations. Even after the twenty-first amendment ended Prohibition in 1933, moonshine remained a valued commodity in the Appalachian mountains, produced both for local consumption and underground distribution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
By the time the Bikecentennial riders crossed the United States in 1976, laws on alcohol consumption had reached their more expansive level. In most states, the repeal of prohibition was accompanied by laws establishing a drinking age of twenty-one, which was also the minimum age to vote in federal elections. By the 1970s, however, at a time when eighteen year old men were drafted for military service and the voting age had been reduced to eighteen by the 26th amendment, laws preventing men and women under 21 from buying alcohol seemed anachronistic and even unfair. More than half of the states lowered the drinking age to eighteen during the 1970s. In Virginia, the drinking age was lowered to eighteen in 1974. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
By the early 1980s, however, policy-makers argued that this lower drinking age was contributing to an increase in alcohol-related traffic deaths. Under pressure from lobbying organizations, law enforcement, and parents\u2019 groups, Congress passed a law in 1984 that required states to raise the legal drinking age to 21 in order to receive federal highway funds. Within a few years, all of the remaining states conformed to this requirement. Virginia raised the minimum age for buying alcohol to 21 in 1985, and it has remained at this level ever since. Although each state has jurisdiction over these laws, the United States in effect has a national drinking age of 21. Underage drinkers may still find ways to procure and consume alcohol, but this major shift in social practices produced remarkably little debate and no organized resistance. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
These four examples across two hundred years of American history share more than a common theme of alcohol production, distribution, and consumption. Each example also relates to the role of the government in regulating personal behavior. The excise tax that Washington\u2019s government imposed on whiskey production, the bans sought by the temperance movement, the resistance to prohibition by local producers, and the increase in the drinking age sought by reformers were all efforts to regulate personal behavior through taxation, law enforcement, and commercial restrictions. The fact that these efforts were constantly being renewed is testimony to the fact that alcohol production, distribution, and consumption had strong roots in American society, which fueled these efforts to resist moral guidance or legal regulation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the last few decades, Virginia has taken steps to support and expand alcohol production in order to attract tourists, support business, and increase tax revenues. Only a handful of wineries were functioning in Virginia at the time of Bikecentennial in the 1970s. By the 1990s, however, this number increased to nearly 50. Three decades later, nearly 300 wineries are scattered across Virginia, including many on Route 76 through central Virginia, across the Blue Ridge, and toward the James River headwaters. Distilleries, which produce bourbon, whiskey, and rye, have expanded in the decades since the American liquor industry was nearly eliminated during prohibition. More than fifty distilleries are located across Virginia, particularly in towns and cities serving an urbanized professional clientele. Breweries and cideries have also increased in recent years across Virginia, and often serve locally produced food along with beverages made on the premises. Most breweries are located in towns and cities, often in historically restored buildings close to commercial and tourist districts. Cideries and breweries in rural regions contribute to the tourism economy, particularly those with lodging that allow for overnight trips and special events. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Many of these sites are open to tourists, who learn about cultivation and production as well as connections with regional history. The relationship between alcohol consumption and land use is complicated, however, as these facilities require vast fields, considerable water, and intensive labor to produce goods directed primarily at an elite market. At a time when Virginia is losing considerable farm land to the spread of suburbs, office parks, and big box retail stores, the appeal of wineries, cideries, and distilleries, which sustain green space while bringing tourists (and their dollars) into rural regions is hard to resist for regional governments. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Bicycles and alcohol are now connected in Virginia through a number of cycling tours that stop at wineries, cideries, or breweries. Cycling tours last from a few hours to several days, with designated stops for meals, drinks, and views. In cities along Route 76, including Richmond and Roanoke, day trips allow cyclists to follow designated cycling trails to reach the growing number of local breweries. The alignment of winery, cidery, or brewery tours with Route 76 allows cyclists pursuing two very different itineraries into contact with each other on the roads, while observing production, or enjoying food and drinks on dining decks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
You have been listening to episode 13 of the Virginia Bikecentennial Route 76 Podcast. This episode is connected to the section where Watts Branch crosses Route 76, about 210 miles from Yorktown, the starting point for the westbound route, and 340 miles from the Kentucky border, where eastbound riders enter Virginia. This podcast is a production of Virginia Tech, a public land grant university located in Blacksburg, just three miles from Route 76 in southwest Virginia. I am your host, Tom Ewing, and this podcast is produced by the digital humanities program in Virginia Tech University Libraries, under the direction of media manager Joe Forte. To learn more about the stories in this episode, visit our website or follow us on social media, all accessible from the homepage for this podcast.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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