History of California wine
[1][2] Although conflicting accounts exist, the first recorded planting of a vineyard was probably by the Spanish Jesuit Missionary Eusebio Francisco Kino at Misión San Bruno in Baja California in 1683 implanting the first variety named "Misionéro".
In 1779, Franciscan missionaries under the direction of the Spanish Father Junípero Serra planted California's first vineyard at Mission San Juan Capistrano.
Journals kept at San Juan Capistrano show that between May 1779 and 1781, the padres supervised six campesinos from Baja California in planting 2,000 grapevines at the mission.
It was the property of the Church up to 1853, when it was sold by the Archbishop of the Los Angeles Diocese to an eccentric old pioneer named James McCaffrey, who, with his sons, now cultivates the old vines, producing annually about 8,000 gallons of the best vintage.
It is unknown if Reyes was the first commercial winemaker in Los Angeles, but he appears to have supported his family solely from his role in producing wine.
Vignes's early experiments, while waiting for his own vines to mature, were with his neighbor Ysidro Reyes' newly producing vineyards.
The Mission grape grew well and yielded large quantities of wine, but Vignes was not satisfied with the results even after attempting to discern if aging it would improve the taste.
By the time Ysidro Reyes left Pueblo de Los Angeles in 1839 to plant the vineyard of his newly awarded Rancho Boca de Santa Monica, he had become a skilled vintner, with an excellent source for aging barrels and a wagon load of grafts from Vignes' European Bordeaux grapes that would flourish in the fertile Santa Monica Canyon.
[10] While Jean-Louis Vignes is recognized as California's first documented importer of European wine vines, planted on his land in Los Angeles in 1833, he was quickly followed by William Wolfskill, another major early wine maker in California, who purchased his first vineyard in 1838 in the Los Angeles area.
[14] The Gold Rush brought an influx of people to Northern California, many of whom arrived and settled in San Francisco (whose population grew from 1,000 to 25,000 between January 1848 and December 1849).
On this site, in 1852, Charles LeFranc made the first commercial planting of fine European wine grapes in Santa Clara County to found Almaden Vineyards.
In the 1850s and 1860s, Agoston Haraszthy, a Hungarian soldier, merchant and promoter, made several trips to import cuttings from 165 of the greatest European vineyards to California.
He dug extensive caves for cellaring, promoted hillside planting, fostered the idea of non-irrigated vineyards and suggested redwood for casks when oak supplies ran low.
[10][21][22] In 1861 Charles Krug who previously had worked for Agoston Haraszthy and Patchett founded his namesake winery in St. Helena and began making his own wine.
[23] Originally a Prussian political dissident, Krug learned the trade of the vintner as an apprentice to Haraszthy in the Sonoma Valley.
Finally Thomas V. Munson, a horticulturist in Texas, suggested grafting the European vinifera vines onto American riparia rootsocks.
Barrels of California wine were being regularly exported to Australia, Canada, Central America, England, Germany, Mexico and Asia.
Prices for fresh grapes shot up, because of the increased demand and a railroad shortage of refrigerated freight cars in which to ship them.
Although some wineries managed to survive by obtaining permits to make wines used for medicinal, sacramental and non-beverage additive purposes, production dropped 94% from 1919 to 1925.
Prohibition left a legacy of distorting the role of alcohol in American life and ruining a fledgling world-class wine industry, which took decades of work to overcome.
In 1965, Napa Valley icon Robert Mondavi broke away from his family's Charles Krug estate to found his own in Oakville, California.
After the judges compared ten Chardonnays (white) vintages, six Californians and four French, the California wines placed three of the top four.
[25] When ten Cabernet Sauvignons (red), six Californians and four French, were sniffed, sipped, swished and spat, Stag's Leap Wine Cellars' '73 vintage ranked number one.
[26] George Taber, the sole journalist who attended the event, penned the article Judgment of Paris in Time magazine reporting the shocking results with the California wines sweeping primer French vintages according to local judges.
[30] The pearl anniversary event organized by Steven Spurrier, on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean, was entitled, The Tasting that Changed the Wine World: 'The Judgment of Paris' 30th Anniversary, occurring simultaneously on 24 May 2006 at the Copia in Napa, California, and at Berry Bros. & Rudd, Britain's oldest wine merchant, in London, England.
He observes that "until the exploits of California's modern pioneers of the 1960s and '70's, no-one had ever before challenged the right of Europe's, and in particular, France's vineyards, to be regarded as the only source of great wine in the world."
The company's low priced Charles Shaw wine which is sold exclusively by Trader Joe's markets along with the company's other labels have attracted new entry level wine consumers to the fold but also has alienated many of the smaller vintners in the state by placing some downward pressure on pricing.
[citation needed] Newer regions, producing award-winning wines, have entered the California wine industry, including Temecula Valley county in the south, the Santa Ynez Valley in the Central Coast, and the Red Hills Lake County AVA in the north.
[citation needed] In the early 21st century, vintners have begun reviving heirloom grape varieties, such as Trousseau Gris and Valdiguié.
