Pass out the cigars! Duplin Winery of Rose Hill has given birth to one of its newest wines that will have the southeast coast consumers scurrying for a bottle.

The Mother Vine Premium Scuppernong, a white table wine, was introduced to the world on Tuesday, July 15, on Mother Vineyard Road, Manteo, the site of the more than 400-year -old Mother Vine, reputed to be the oldest cultivated grapevine in the world. This is the first wine produced from the Mother Vine in over 100 years.

The scuppernong grape has the most health benefits, as it is a muscadine with the highest levels of resveratrol, and has been enjoyed by Native Americans and our forefathers for both its taste and health benefits.

The Fussells, owners of Duplin Winery, became involved in the proliferation of The Mother Vine in 2005. Years prior to the plantings, Tinga Nursery in Castle Hayne, specialists in scuppernong grapes, started collecting cuttings. The cuttings proved to be very challenging to cultivate, due to the vine’s advanced age. Only 104 vines took root and survived out of the 5,000 cuttings.

Propagated from cuttings taken from the vine, the grapes were harvested last September in Duplin and combined with other hybrid scuppernong grapes already in production.

David Fussell Jr. has stated that this wine has turned out to be the best wine ever made by the 36-year -old winery, the state’s oldest operating winery.

Former Senator Fountain Odom concurred. Odom and Fussell symbolically set out and blessed the cuttings of the Mother Vine during a ceremony several years back. The Brotherhood of the Knights of the Vine were there in full regalia.

The vintners knew it would take some time before their plan would come to fruition. Odom has been very involved in saving the Mother Vine and works with a preservation group, Outer Banks Conservation, a nonprofit organization founded by John Wilson, who owns the sound-front property where the Mother Vine is located.

While in office, Odom was instrumental in declaring scuppernong the state fruit in 2001. “It is one of the most delicious fruit you have ever tasted,” said Odom, the wine aficionado. “The wine produced from these grapes is magnificent, too!” He has been a great believer in the health benefits of the muscadine wine and says his health has improved since drinking Duplin wines.

The Fussells have always strived for greatness in their wines and taking this bold move to produce a wine satisfying to the palette, is another step in getting North Carolina recognized as true connoisseurs of great wine makers.

Duplin Winery has won countless awards for its wine production. No doubt, they will receive accolades for the birth of its new wine.

“Wine lovers will be treated to nearly the same sensation the early explorers experienced,” said Jonathan Fussell. “Our wine tastes like you’re under the grapevine eating the grape. Every sip explodes with the sweet fruit.” There is a limited supply. Only 224 cases came from the first pressing.

The Folklore of the Mother Vine

Virginia Dare was loved by a Native American Indian. Another Indian, also in love with her was jealous and went to a witch doctor and had him make a magic arrow. If he could not have her, no one could.

He went and found her and shot her with the arrow. She turned into a white doe and roamed the woods. Her soulmate was so distraught he went to a witch doctor and had an arrow made with a special potion that would turn her back into human form. The jealous Indian got news of this plan and went to the witch doctor to have an arrow made to end it all. He followed the “good” lover.

As the good lover shot the doe, Virginia Dare turned back into human form and the lovers embraced. As they embraced the jealous Indian shot the arrow into Virginia Dare and she died. As the lover took her across the land, her blood drops turned into red muscadine grapes. They arrived at their favorite place on Roanoke Island where the lover buried Virginia Dare. From her remains grew the only native white grape and the vine producing these grapes is the Mother Vine.

History Surrounding the Mother Vine

In 1584, Philip Amadas and Arthur Barlowe, the first explorers sent to the New World by Sir Walter Raleigh, under the auspices of Queen Elizabeth, arrived at what is now Bodie Island.

One of the first things they observed was that the land was overflowing with grapes. The English naturally thought that wine was plentiful in the region. The absence of deliberately fermented beverages by Native Americans was very common. They simply ate the grapes and never turned them into wine.

The following year, 1585, brought yet another contingent of Englishmen to Roanoke Island. These explorers, too, noticed the abundance of grapes, but knew little about fermenting them. Most of the wines in England were imported.

The settlers did, however, put Native American maize to good use in a make-shift brewery.

Nevertheless, the English settlers of 1585 never realized the potential of the Roanoke Island grapes. When they departed the Carolinas, they took with them cuttings of the scuppernong.

The plants did not make it in the wet and cold English climate.

In 1732, Peter Baum paid his arrears on His Majesty’s rent dating from 1729, of four pounds, nine shillings and eight pence. The land grant was given to Baum, the first documented family to own and occupy the Mother Vineyard.

In 1869, the title of the Mother Vine property passed to Ghauhey Meekins who had married Mahalaj Baum, late in the 1840s.

In 1957, Jack and Estelle Wilson purchased the Mother Vine property. At that time, the vine covered one-half acre. It still belongs to the Wilsons. They have worked with conservationists in earnest to keep the world’s largest and oldest scuppernong vine alive.