About National California Wine Month

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California Wine Month celebrates the annual harvest with tastings, festivals, concerts, and food pairings throughout the state.

California's vintners and growers enhance the state's lifestyle, economy, and culinary pleasures. This event was first declared in 2017 by Governor Brown of California, and September draws millions of tourists to California's wine regions each year.

A SHORT HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA WINES

California's first vineyard was planted in Mission San Bruno, today's Baja California Sur of Mexico, by Jesuit priest and Italian Eusebio Francisco Kino in 1683. Drought forced Kino to abandon San Bruno within two years of its establishment.

By 1768, Spain's King Charles III expelled all Jesuits from New Spain, granting administration of the missions to the Franciscan order of monks. Concurrently, Catalan Franciscan friar Junïpero Serra embarked on his historic expedition to Alta California (today's Southern California), establishing the first mission in San Diego in 1769. As with other missions, wine production assisted in supporting the operation. Within a decade, viticulture flourished.

The first winery, not part of a mission, was established at Mission San Gabriel. Californian grapes were of a hardy, disease-resistant strain that came to be known as the "mission grape," a variety still used in some fine California wines and sherries today.

During the 19th century, Americans and Europeans arriving in California expanded viticulture north and east. They brought grape varietals and winemaking traditions from various parts of the Old World. The "good pirate" Joseph Chapman, captured in a raid on Monterey in 1818, settled in California after his release from prison. He founded the territory's first commercial vineyard in Los Angeles in 1824.

Frenchman Jean-Louis Vignes introduced French vines in the 1830s, and his product quickly surpassed the mission-grape wines in quality. Credit for the incredible diversity of Vitis Vinifera Grape is attributed to the Hungarian Count Agoston Haraszthy. He introduced scores of varietals, including the Zinfandel, one of the most iconic California wines. Haraszthy founded the Buena Vista Winery, the oldest continually operating winery in the state, established in Sonoma in 1857. A former employee of Haraszthy, Charles Krug, is credited with founding the first commercial winery in Napa Valley in 1861.

Grapevine cultivation in Napa Valley began in 1836 by the early settler George Calvert Yount in today's Yountville. Native Californian grapes grew freely on his property, so Yount decided to try his hand at viticulture. His venture eventually established one of the world's most acclaimed wine-growing regions.

The Gold Rush of 1849 and subsequent population booms created a large market for wine within the young state. Foreign markets took note as the quality of California wines improved; California eventually became a top exporter of wine.

Captain Gustave Niebaum, a Frenchman, founded the Inglenook Winery in Rutherford in 1879 to produce the state's first Bordeaux. His wines won gold medals at the World's Fair of Paris within ten years. By 1900, California's viticulturists were counted among the world's best.

Prohibition between 1920 and 1933 caused tremendous hardship for California's wine industry. Growers replaced wine varietals with table grapes. Another tactic was to ship grape juice concentrate packaged with instructions outlining how to avoid fermentation (to teach home brewing.) As wine is a vital part of Christian and some Jewish observances, shipments of sacramental wine increased. Wineries producing religious wine were permitted to operate.

After the repeal of Prohibition, recovery was slow. Americans preferred beer or spirits. Fine wine remained favored by high society and those with Old World and religious traditions despite California wines becoming exceptional by the mid-twentieth century. Sales of fortified wine stymied its success, the high-alcohol versions favored by alcoholics.

Marketing changed that. Robert Mondavi and other industry leaders worked hard to change perceptions and reposition wine in American minds. Today, wine is second only to beer as a favorite alcoholic beverage, and California is its largest producer.

If you're in California this September and looking for events, see https://discovercaliforniawines.com/events. If you are not, enjoy a bottle of California wine anywhere in the world. Many resellers will have promotions.

Cheers!