From Grapes to Extracts - Legends & Overcoming Adversity

There is an interesting legend behind the name Virginia Dare. It is the name of what is thought to have been the first child born of English parents in America.

In 1835 Garrett & Company of North Carolina named it's muscadine Scuppernong grape wine after the legendary Roanoke figure. By 1904 it was the best selling wine in America, winning a grand prize at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition in St. Louis. Garrett's five wineries had a storage capacity of ten million gallons and made North Carolina the top wine-producing state in the United States.

When prohibition was repealed in 1933, Virginia Dare was the first wine to return to market, largely because Paul Garrett had been correctly convinced that Prohibition would be temporary. He continued making non-alcoholic wine during Prohibition and as soon as it was legal again to sell alcoholic beverages, he was ready. Many states were still dry, however, and it was an uphill struggle. When Garrett died in 1940, the company lost its driving force. From 1965 to at least 2004, Constellation Brands of Canandaigua, NY (aka Canandaigua Brands, Inc.) sold Virginia Dare table wines alongside its Richards Table Wines. I don't know if the wine is still made.

The Virginia Dare brand name is far from gone, however, At the onset of prohibition in 1919, the Garrett company gave the name to a line of flavoring extracts developed by Dr. Bernard H. Smith. The venture was successful enough that in 1923 it was spun out as the Virginia Dare Extract Company that continues in operation today by Smith's heirs.

Virginia Dare, privately owned for 4 generations by the Smith family, is one of the world's largest producers of vanilla extract. It is headquartered in Brooklyn and vanilla is just one of a broad line of tea, coffee, cocoa and fruit flavoring concentrates sold around the world to a diverse list of industries. There's a good chance your taste buds are familiar with several Virginia Dare flavors.