They called it "Vinland" after the wild grape vines they apparently found... but the most northernmost species of wild grape (vitis riparia) in North America stops in the northeast at around latitude 46.
That makes me think they made it up the St Lawrence to at least where Quebec City is now, or south of the gulf of St Lawrence down the coast Nova Scotia or further to Maine, etc.
FWIW Vinland is a great name for the eastern half of North America. We have dozens of wild grape species and it is the centre of diversity for the genus and so probably its place of evolutionary origin. Take that Bordeaux wine snobs!
It's my understanding that the climate at the time was at the peak of a warm cycle (basically the opposite of the little ice age) which had the effect of increasing the range of more southerly plant species. We know that the one place they did have a small settlement in Newfoundland would have been forested at the time even though it is not today. This warm period ending coincides with the abandonment of Greenland.
Also, the Norse had a somewhat different idea of what wine is; if the Norse did indeed talk about berries they could make wine from, then they probably meant currant or something similar.
This might be true, but I also think this interpretation has often been made by Europeans or others who aren't aware of just how common wild grapes are in the eastern half of North America.
Taking a boat or canoe up a river and you'd see thickets of them, climbing all over the trees.
Morphologically they're pretty much identical to European vitis sylvestris/vinifera, just a droopier growth habit. It's only once you taste them that you'd notice a difference.
It's not the presence of grapes in North America that I'm thinking of, it's more that they're absent from the Nordics. Now, obviously there were Norse who'd encountered European Grapes on their travels/raids down south, but there really weren't growing any grapes up here back then.
It's sad we'll never know for sure. For much of our history, the Nordic countries have been exceptionally bad at writing things down. :/
That makes me think they made it up the St Lawrence to at least where Quebec City is now, or south of the gulf of St Lawrence down the coast Nova Scotia or further to Maine, etc.
FWIW Vinland is a great name for the eastern half of North America. We have dozens of wild grape species and it is the centre of diversity for the genus and so probably its place of evolutionary origin. Take that Bordeaux wine snobs!