Washingtonian Editor Returns Home to Greenbelt and Shares 'The Wild Vine'

Todd Kliman returned to his childhood home of Greenbelt, bearing his new book, "The Wild Vine." Its main character is an earthy strange grape, the Norton, whose life and message went nearly extinct until mysterious forces brought it from an abandoned cave into the hands of a woman as singular as its wine.

Sharing book excerpts and tasting Norton in the , Sunday, Kliman, food and wine editor and restaurant critic of The Washingtonian, talked about his novel.

No other grape gave him the desire to write a book, Kliman explained. He's always been intrigued by the thing that doesn't fit, that people can't understand. That's why he chose the Norton.

"The quirkiness is what defines it," he said. "It's like there's a feral cat in the bottle."

Born in Richmond, Va., in the 1820s, from the contemplative gardening of a brilliant loner, Dr. Daniel Norton, the Norton is not far from said cat. It took a feral grape to survive and thrive in the ravages of the New World climate -- and nine lives to stick around after it fell from glory.

Though a gold medalist in Vienna and once the toast of the New World, the Norton all but disappeared from the land and its Missouri nesting ground. Yet, it lived on, in last breaths, as a neglected, forgotten vine in an abandoned wine cave after the fires of prohibition.

In an encounter as strangely improbable as the grape itself, a Norton vine cutting ended up in the hands of dot-com millionaire Jenni McCloud, who found its earthy strangeness resonated within.

There is no clear delineation between where the wine ends and the woman begins.

"The wine is her in liquid form," Kliman said, of the owner of Chrysalis Vineyards, who he sometimes calls Quixote.

Part of the Norton paradox is how difficult it is to grow. Kliman talked of pH balancing, freezing and the constant tinkering necessary to bring it to life.

That's why the Norton didn't attract a crowd of winemakers when it reemerged, he explained. It took too much work for a wine that would likely never soar in popularity.

We love success in America, Kliman said, "But what about people who do something without any hope that it's going to have any kind of payoff?" he asked.

Relaxing in the New Deal Cafe, Kliman reminisced on the similarities between his wine and his childhood world.

"Greenbelt is a singular place," he said, and as it is with the Norton, he speculated some people will never appreciate the city.

Greenbelt has a lot that people say they are looking for, with parks, greenery and a place where children can walk to school, Kliman continued, but it doesn't have a cache -- the power elite will never live here, he said.

Though he lives in Hyattsville now, Kliman still comes to Greenbelt for a monthly book club and to visit his mom, Itsy Kliman, who has lived on Crescent Road for 40 years.

He's traveled all over the world, and the more he travels, Kliman said, the more he appreciates Greenbelt. It has an utter lack of pretension, embraces the creative and is not part of the money culture, Kliman said -- traits  he felt it shared with Hyattsville, his home for the last 10 years.

Kliman's aunt, Nora Myers, and mom were on hand for the New Deal sipping and signing. Itsy provided a glimpse into where Kliman may have picked up his appreciation for literature. When Todd was growing up, she read a lot and her husband was a voracious reader, she said.

Myers, who helped Kliman with research for the book, said it was really a story about transformations. It took work to make the Norton be what it had to be, she said, and that was also reflected in the way McCloud grew to become who she needed to be.

Part grape, part mystery, the Norton's earthy wildness is not for everyone, according to Kliman, which is part of its allure.

"It provokes very strong reactions," he said. "It's the wine of love or hate -- there's no in between."