In 1796, the young Swiss winegrower Jean Jacques - later John James Dufour (1763-1827) emigrated from Vevey (canton of Vaud) to America and travelled through what are now the states of Pennsylvania, Illinois and Kentucky. It was in the latter that he first tried his hand at viticulture. Together with some citizens of the town of Lexington in Jessamine County, he founded the "Kentucky Wineries Association", which was reorganised in 1981 and still exists today. In 1798, Dufour acquired 1,500 cuttings of 35 different grape varieties from a Peter Legaux from Pennsylvania. He planted them in 1799 south of Lexington on an area of five acres on a loop of the Kentucky River. Among them was the Alexander, which Dufour called "Cape Grape" because Legaux had mistakenly informed him that it came from the Cape in South Africa. Most of them were European vines and died, mainly due to mildew, which is unknown to European varieties, and extremely bad weather, but Alexander was one of the few varieties to survive.
Due to these problems, the experiment failed after only three years and Dufour left the winegrowers' association. But the viticultural activities were continued by the company, which is why this vineyard can be described as the first commercially managed vineyard in the USA. Today, the "Chrisman Mill Vineyards and Winery", which exists not far from this site, is regarded as the successor to this historic location. Dufour was looking for a new location for his winegrowing activities and in 1802, not very far from his first attempt as a winegrower on the Ohio River in what is now the state of Indiana near Vevay, he planted a new vineyard, which he called "New Switzerland", in Switzerland County, named after the Swiss immigrants. He produced his first high-quality wine there in 1806 or 1807. A few barrels from the first harvest were delivered by horse-drawn carriage to the White House in Washington to Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826), who was still President at the time and who expressly praised the wine. By 1809, 1,200 gallons of wine had already been produced.
At the beginning of 1800, Dufour travelled to Switzerland, but returned to the USA. In 1826, a year before his death, he published the book "The American Vine-Dresser's Guide. Cultivation of the Vine and the Process of Wine Making in the United States" in 1826, covering vine diseases, soils and climate, grape varieties, cross-breeding and grafting, cellar work and winemaking techniques. It is an extremely interesting first account of viticulture in America at that time and was a standard work in the United States until the beginning of the 20th century. The book was reprinted in 1999. Dufour's sons and descendants produced wine on this estate until 1850, when it was discontinued due to sales problems in connection with land speculation. Since 1968, the "Swiss Wine Festival" has been held annually in August in Vevay (Indiana) in honour of the winegrowing pioneer.
