The year was 1607.

Three ships embark on a journey to the New World to establish a permanent English settlement in Virginia. Gabriel Archer, second in command, came upon land to be known as 'Archer's Hope', and was convinced that this was where they would settle. The knowledge gained from earlier expeditions told him that not only was this safe land, but well suited for agricultural purposes-  a quality that played a role throughout the history of the land. However, the party outvoted Archer, and the expediton ventured further west to where Jamestown was founded.

Archer's Hope's earliest settler, John Johnson, farmed the land in 1616, and would have been the first person to plant grapevines on the property in keeping with the Twelfth Acte of 1619, requiring landholders to plant vines for their own consumption.

Come forward 400 years to witness Patrick Duffeler consumate the purchase of 300 acres of land known as Jockey's Neck. Unbeknownst to the new owner, over the course of hundreds of years and many owners, Archer's Hope became known as Jockey's Neck.  400 years hence, the promise of a man's vision would be fulfilled: upon the land now known as Wessex Hundred, Patrick Duffeler would plant vines and build a winery.  The irony is surpassed only by the intrigue of what was to come.

The mandate of 1619 has come full circle in our Historically Significant Wines.