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Domestic Wine. December 23, 1826 Production from the eight acres of vines Herbemont had planted at his farm, Palmyra, were sufficiently great from 1823 onward to permit the commercial production of wine. By 1826 he had mastered the craft of wine making, leading to a series of excellent-tasting vintages. This report whetted the taste of a group of planter connoisseurs in Maryland who wished to manufacture fine wine themselves. After drinking Herbemont’s samples of the 1827 vintage, George Fitzhugh, John S. C. Monkur, Henry W. Rogers, William Gibson, James Cox, John B. Morris, and William McDonnald incorporated the Maryland Society for Promoting the Culture of the Vine.1 Extract to the Editor Columbia, S.C., Dec. 23, 1826 You, no doubt, remember that I made some wine last August, which, I judged would be very good. It has turned out as I judged. It was found so good, though only three months old, as to sell readily at two dollars per gallon, at which price, I firmly believed I could have sold in three weeks time four or five thousand gallons if I had had it. I was assured by several persons the most respectable in the state, that experienced old Madeira drinkers pushed the Madeira aside to drink Palmyra. This is very flattering, and is very encouraging. I had intended to send you at least half a dozen bottles of it; but I unfortunately lost almost all I had reserved for myself. I am very respectfully, dear sir, Your obedient servant, N. H. 1. Notice, American Farmer 10, no. 28 (September 26, 1828), 223. published letters 140 N.B. Dr. R is so well satisfied with my success with the grape, that he assured me it was his firm determination to have two hundred acres planted in vines in ten years.2 2. Dr. Edmund Ravenel of Charleston, the famed conchologist. ...

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