Over 400 years old, the Mother Vine still bears fruit

More than a wine grape, Muscadine is also a keeper of the history of the colonial project we're currently in.

The oldest grapevine in North America is a 400+ year old Muscadine known as the Mother Vine, and it lives on Roanoke Island between the mainland of North Carolina and the Outer Banks. This is also the place of early English military expeditions to Indigenous land, and it’s where Virginia Dare, the first English child born on North American soil, was last seen in 1587. She and her mother, Eleanor Dare, were two of 117 people known as the Lost Colony, and the mystery of what happened to them and what brought them there has been bound to the lore of the Mother Vine by local historians, artists, and even wine producers.

Why? Even though the vine is dated to around the time the Lost Colony arrived, it’s not clear that they cultivated the vine. Roanoke Island was inhabited and cultivated by coastal, native tribes whose presence in the area dates to 14000 B.C. On the week of July 4th, I drove down Route 64 to visit the Mother Vine to try and make sense of the narrative connection. I brought with me my favorite witch to travel with, my friend Kennedy, and my BIL (best-friend-in-law), Emily.