Phillip Mazzei

Philip Mazzei was an Italian merchant born in Poggio a Cannio, a town in Tuscany. Philip Mazzei became a major pusher and influencer of the new agricultural experimentation wave that was happening in Virginia. This influence manifested itself in the Philip Mazzei Agricultural Company. The Philip Mazzei Agricultural Company was a company that was focused on experimenting with various potential cash crops and, in the words of Philip Mazzei, was “for the purpose of raising and making Wine, Oil, agruminous Plants, and Silk” (Philip Mazzei d). However, wine was the definite focus of the company; in many of the letters he exchanged with Jefferson and Washington grapes were the major topic when they were discussing agriculture. The Philip Mazzei Agricultural Company was invested in by many major Virginia Plantation owners, many of whom would play a greater role in the American Revolution, such as George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, George Mason, members of the Randolph Family, and even the then-governor of Virginia, John Murray the fourth Earl of Dunmore.

The company’s focus on producing wine was in part due to the fact that Philip Mazzei was most experienced in the growing, cultivation, and nature of wine. Philip Mazzei’s experience in wine was from before he came to the colonies; he had been a wine merchant in London for eighteen years. Most of the experiments that Philip Mazzei conducted were on his Virginian farm named Colle. Colle was composed of “a tract of land on the southside of Monticello [that Jefferson gave him and] Mazzei purchased 700 more acres by 1778” (Bowman).

Unfortunately, Philip Mazzei’s work continually ended in failure as he encountered barrier after barrier. In his first year “a severe frost in May of that year ruined the vines that had been planted” (Bowman). The frost in May was extremely unexpected and was a very poor start to his wine experiment, but he continued to grow and test various types of grapes for wine. However, the May frost was not his only unexpected setback. One of the biggest moments in history impacted Philip Mazzei’s farm. This historical event was none other than the American Revolution and it had a horrible effect on Philip Mazzei’s experiments. During the American Revolution Philip Mazzei had rented out his land to detained British Officers who were originally detained at the Barracks Prison compound in Albemarle County. Unfortunately, the officers' horses ended up ripping up and destroying a large portion of the crops that Philip Mazzei was testing. The damage the horses caused was major and set Philip Mazzei extremely back. Thomas Jefferson commented on the situation saying that “General Riedesel whose horse in one week destroyed the whole labour of three or four years, and thus ended an experiment, which, from every appearance, would in a year or two more have established the practicability of that branch of culture in America” (Bowman).

In 1778 Philip Mazzei decided he could do more abroad and left America. Philip Mazzei ended up moving around becoming the Polish King’s Privy Councilor, and after that moved back to Italy, specifically Pisa, and settled down. He kept in contact with Thomas Jefferson, writing him about various topics, and also continued to supply Thomas Jefferson with grapes and advice on growing them. However, he did not continue experimenting with Virginia grapes and spent his final days as a gardener.