The state on the southern Atlantic coast of the USA with the capital Raleigh covers 139,391 km². It borders Virginia to the north, Tennessee to the west, South Carolina to the south and the Atlantic Ocean to the east. North Carolina is one of the 13 US founding states and was admitted to the Union as the 12th state in 1789.

North Carolina was settled by English colonists as early as the beginning of the 17th century. Around 1680, many Huguenots expelled from France settled here and in the neighbouring state of South Carolina, bringing their knowledge of viticulture with them. The first attempts were made with European grape varieties, but these failed. Sweet wines were therefore produced from the indigenous Scuppernong variety. Scuppernong was even officially named North Carolina's state fruit in 2001 and thus declared the state's landmark. With the hybrid variety Catawba, the viticultural pioneers John Adlum (1759-1836) and Nicholas Longworth (1783-1863) wrote American wine history in the first third of the 19th century. It was described as the "first great American grape".
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