Reading the newly released "The Wild Vine: A Forgotten Grape and the Untold Story of American Wine" (Clarkson Potter, $25) a few weeks ago put me in the mood for finding some Norton wines. Although Norton is our state grape, I have to admit that I really don't drink its wines that often.

But I have a totally new perspective on the grape thanks to Todd Kliman's wonderful story of Norton's intriguing history and his descriptions of the wild, mysterious and almost exotic wine it produces.

In fact, "Sotheby's Wine Encyclopedia" states that Norton, which is also known as Cynthiana, is the only wild grape capable of producing fine wine.

I had never even heard of the grape until I moved to St. Louis. And the first time I saw it at a tasting, I thought it was a really weird name for a wine. In fact, I initially wondered if it was named after the Ed Norton character in the 1950s TV sitcom series "The Honeymooners."

But I learned from the book that the varietal — the first real American grape — is named after Daniel Norborne Norton, a Virginia physician and amateur horticulturalist, who developed it around 1821 at his farm northwest of Richmond, Va. The book traces the Norton grape's journey from Virginia to the German immigrants who settled in Hermann, Mo., and are credited with bringing the grape to prominence.

In fact, Missouri led the nation in wine production in 1870, with most of the wine coming out of Gasconade County. The largest producer at the time was Stone Hill Winery — and according to the winery's website, the winery won the first of eight World's Fair gold medals in Vienna, Austria, in 1873. A noted critic of the time said that Norton from Missouri would one day rival the great wines of Europe in quality and quantity. And perhaps that might have happened if Prohibition hadn't started in 1920, dealing a near fatal blow to Missouri's wineries.

But the wineries started a comeback in the 1960s and in 1980, Augusta became the very first federally designated American Viticultural Area (AVA) in the United States. In 1987, Hermann became the second AVA in Missouri.

I thought it would be interesting to try two Nortons, one from Augusta and one from Hermann, in the under $15 price range. I found a 2007 Augusta Winery Norton for $12.21 and a 2005 Stone Hill for $14.87 at Sam's Club in Maplewood.

If you like big, juicy red wines and haven't tried a Norton, I'd encourage you to sample either one of these. These are both voluptuous, full-bodied, jammy reds. In that regard, they reminded me a bit of Zinfandels, but unlike some of those California reds, they were well-balanced and didn't have that "hot" taste of too much alcohol. The Augusta Norton was 13 percent and the Stone Hill was 12.8 percent, while some Zinfandels can rise into the 15 percent level.

Both of these Nortons had good acidity and surprisingly soft tannins. One key difference to their tastes had to do with their age.

The Augusta, which is younger and has a screwtop, was not as complex but still bursting with raspberry and black cherry fruit and a hint of vanilla.

The Stone Hill was more refined, with layers of fruit and spice. This wine, which has a high-quality cork, has a lovely vanilla aroma from oak aging and a more pronounced black cherry flavor.

These are not casual wines to be sipped on their own. They are bold wines that need hearty foods like Brazilian churrasco grilling or other grilled beef or lamb.

Kliman, the food and wine editor of Washingtonian Magazine, recently appeared at the downtown Left Bank Books, where he also told customers that meat was a good match for Norton. However, he first paired the wine with a three-mushroom enchilada with mole sauce.

"It was perfect," he said.