The "Taliaferro" ( ), "Robinson" or "Robertson" was a

cider Cider ( ) is an alcoholic beverage made from the Fermented drink, fermented Apple juice, juice of apples. Cider is widely available in the United Kingdom (particularly in the West Country) and Ireland. The United Kingdom has the world's highest ...

apple An apple is a round, edible fruit produced by an apple tree (''Malus'' spp.). Fruit trees of the orchard or domestic apple (''Malus domestica''), the most widely grown in the genus, are agriculture, cultivated worldwide. The tree originated ...

grown at Monticello by

Thomas Jefferson Thomas Jefferson (, 1743July 4, 1826) was an American Founding Fathers of the United States, Founding Father and the third president of the United States from 1801 to 1809. He was the primary author of the United States Declaration of Indepe ...

. This

cultivar A cultivar is a kind of Horticulture, cultivated plant that people have selected for desired phenotypic trait, traits and which retains those traits when Plant propagation, propagated. Methods used to propagate cultivars include division, root a ...

appears to be extinct, though some horticulturalists assert that the various cultivars such as 'Nelson County Crab,’ 'Highland County,' and 'Red Coat' may be related, or even the same cultivar under a different name. Jefferson called the variety "Taliaferro" in reference to a Major Richard Taliaferro, who first discovered the fruit growing in a Virginia field. Taliaferro himself claimed that the apples came from a property owned by the Robinson family. Jefferson, in a possible orthographic error, once referred to the family as the Robertson family in a letter to James Mease, adding even more confusion to the history of the Taliaferro apple. Jefferson stated the "Taliaferro" apple was very juicy and good for eating. He praised it as the best

cider apple Cider apples are a group of apple cultivars grown for their use in the production of cider (referred to as "hard cider" in the United States). Cider apples are distinguished from "cookers" and "eaters", or dessert apples, by their bitterness or ...

he had tasted, producing a hard cider similar to

wine Wine is an alcoholic drink made from Fermentation in winemaking, fermented fruit. Yeast in winemaking, Yeast consumes the sugar in the fruit and converts it to ethanol and carbon dioxide, releasing heat in the process. Wine is most often made f ...

Champagne Champagne (; ) is a sparkling wine originated and produced in the Champagne wine region of France under the rules of the appellation, which demand specific vineyard practices, sourcing of grapes exclusively from designated places within it, spe ...

. In 1835, a gentleman named William Kenrick described the fruits as being small, only 1-2 inches in diameter, with white, red-streaked skin. Kenrick claimed the apples were unfit for eating, but reaffirmed their value in cidermaking. Other contemporary accounts refer to the apple as a medium-sized, oblate apple with a straw colored skin striped with faint streaks of red on the side exposed to the sun.

Origins

Jefferson wrote that the Taliaferro apple was discovered by Richard Taliaferro, growing "alone in a large old field near Williamsburg where the seed had probably been dropped by some bird." A likely location for this field has been determined to be a property that once housed a popular local tavern, Doncastle's Ordinary. Until his death in 1766, Doncastle's was owned by John Robinson, Speaker of the Virginia House of Burgesses.

References

Sources

* * Apple cultivars Extinct cultivars Monticello {{apple-fruit-stub