Book Excerpt: A Brief
History of Napa Valley, Part 1Driving through Napa Valley today, it’s hard to
imagine that anything other than grapes was ever grown here. Even to those
august few who remember a time when plum and walnut trees outnumbered vines, it
seems the distant and hazy recollection of a dream. This valley craves the
grape, and since its introduction in 1838 that natural affinity has been
obvious to anyone who paid attention. But Napa Valley’s modern prestige cannot
be taken for granted; the path that led here has been fraught with peril, and
more than once it seemed that the Napa wine industry had been crippled beyond
repair. Prohibition, the Great Depression, two world wars and flanking
phylloxera infestations effectively rubbed out Napa’s late-19th-century
successes. But the idyllic allure and raw oenological potential of the Valley
proved irrepressible, and the vine and its farmer persevered. Against seemingly
insuperable odds, Napa has thrived, and today it is counted among the world’s
finest wine regions.Mexico Breaks From Spain, California Breaks From
Mexico, 1821–1847America was no stranger to the grape when
Europeans appeared; indigenous vines of all sorts crept across the continent.
But to the colonizing settlers, grapes meant wine, and the native species were
quickly judged unsuitable for fermentation. As such, the various occupying
forces of Europe brought their own fine-wine-producing species of vine, known
as Vitis vinifera. In California, these cuttings came via the Spanish.Until Mexico’s War of Independence, all of
Mexico and much of what is now the western United States was considered part of
New Spain. The religious Spanish monarchy sought to convert its new population
to Catholicism. Toward this end, a series of missions were established which
brought not only religious instruction to the wilds of California, but also
formal viticulture. Overwhelmingly, the grape they cultivated was Palomino
Negro (also known as Listan Prieto), a dark-skinned cousin of Andalusia’s
primary sherry ingredient. This was a hardy variety, easy to grow, and
perfectly suited for the manufacture of sacramental wine. Over time the grape
came to be known as Mission for
the institution that propagated it.<img alt="" src="https://allgrapes.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads%2F1459873027973-Bygone.jpg"> Viticulture from a bygone eraIn 1821, Mexico won its independence from Spain,
gaining control over California and its missions. The newly sovereign nation
ordered that the missions be secularized, shifting the focus of these centers
from religion to agriculture. During this time (1834–36), the northernmost
mission, Sonoma, was in control of over 700 square miles of land, which
included all of Napa Valley. A Mexican General named Vallejo was sent to
Sonoma, charged with dispersing the mission’s vast holdings into land grants
that were meant to encourage population growth. One of the first land grants
Vallejo awarded was to George Calvert Yount, a farmer, trapper, and former
employee of Vallejo. His land grant was called Caymus Rancho and stretched
across 12,000 acres.&nbsp;The Napa that Yount inherited was a rugged,
untamed place that numbered more grizzly bears than people. Aside from the
distinction of being the first Anglo-Saxon settler, Yount set the course of
history when he planted Napa’s first vines in 1838 with cuttings taken from Vallejo’s
vineyard at the Sonoma mission. This small patch of rough Mission grapes was
the first of many to come, as the Gold Rush and California’s induction into the
United States launched an era of growth and prosperity that would forever alter
the landscape of Napa Valley.The Gold Rush to Prohibition, 1848–1919The Mexican–American war raged between 1846 and
1848, with the United States emerging as victor and proud owner of three new
states: Texas, New Mexico, and California. To Mexico’s chagrin, gold was
discovered in northern California shortly thereafter, and the mad rush west
began in earnest. But Americans weren’t the only ones migrating in the hopes of
making an instant fortune; the San Francisco Bay area saw a huge influx of
Europeans at this time. These immigrants suffused the growing city with the
cultural trappings of their native continent, and the wealth discovered in
“them thar hills” added to the aristocratic sophistication in the air. Not only
did these expatriates have a taste for fine wine, but many of them possessed
knowledge of its manufacture. And more than one of these made their way up to
Napa Valley.The roots of Napa’s wine industry began to take
hold in the 1850s, but the situation remained largely primitive. By the
mid-1850s there were around 50,000 grape vines in Napa, and by 1859 there were
over 200,000. The vast majority of these vines, however, remained the inferior
Mission variety, much of it earmarked for brandy-type wine production. A
handful of enterprising individuals began seeking vines of a higher caliber.
One such person was J.W. Osborne, who in 1851 bought a large tract of land
south of Yountville and named it Oak Knoll. He imported a significant number of
non-Mission Vitis vinifera vines from Massachusetts hothouses, among
them Zinfandel and a variety of Muscats. Osborne would go on to found the
Sonoma-Napa Horticultural Society with Agoston Harazsthy of Buena Vista Winery.
Harazsthy is credited with the introduction of a vast number of foreign grape
types into the United States through his travels to Europe in the early 1860s
and is considered by many to be the father of California viticulture.The first rumbles of serious winemaking came in
the 1860s. Wishing to improve upon his crude methods, George Yount hired young
German immigrant Charles Krug to make his wine. The talented Krug would go on
to found his own estate in 1861—Napa Valley’s first true commercial winery.
Krug was followed shortly by fellow German Jacob Schram, who founded
Schramsberg on the slopes of Diamond Mountain. Thomas Rutherford also
established his vineyard around this time, as did H.W. Crabb with his To Kalon.
Importantly, these early pioneers all shared a focus on quality varieties,
though the wines they produced were far different than the Napa Valley
hallmarks of today; the most successful early whites were often sweet
German-inspired blends built around White Riesling, and the best reds were
often Zinfandel-based “clarets.”<img alt="" src="https://allgrapes.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads%2F1459873113066-Freemark-Abbey.jpg"> The site of what is now Freemark Abbey, circa 1900In 1869 the completion of the first
transcontinental railroad through the Donner Pass in the Sierra Nevada
Mountains quickened the influx of people from the East. The wine industry
continued to swell, with two major purchases defining the decade to follow. In
1875, Jacob Beringer, who had worked for years as superintendent of the Charles
Krug winery, pooled his resources with his brother Frederick and purchased the
land directly across the street, founding Beringer Vineyards. And in 1879
Gustave Niebaum purchased the newly established Inglenook estate. These two
wineries would prevail as among the greatest in Napa’s history, and though
great changes would befall them over the years, both names continue to resonate
in Napa today.The real boom of the 19th
century came in the 1880s, when vine acreage in Napa jumped from 3,000 to over
20,000. At its height, the decade boasted around 140 wineries that produced
almost 5 million gallons of wine, figures that would not be seen again until
the 1980s. Zinfandel was king, although Napa vintners were starting to take
their first hard look at red Bordeaux varieties. Many important wineries were
founded during this period. In 1885 John Benson established his Far Niente
winery in west Oakville, planting the vineyard to Muscat of Alexandria. The
following year saw Alfred Tubbs’ construction of a winery in Calistoga; it
would achieve great fame in its later incarnation as Chateau Montelena. In
1888, Greystone (now the home of Napa’s Culinary Institute of America) was
completed; with a capacity of 2.5 million gallons, it was the largest stone
winery in the world. And in 1889, J. H. Fischer built a winery high on Mount
Veeder that would come to be known as Mayacamas.Things sobered up quickly for Napa in the 1890s,
due to the one-two punch of a national depression and the first major phylloxera
outbreak. That subterranean pest ravaged the plentiful vines, slashing them
back to the 1870s level of 3,000 acres before a “cure” was found in the form of
the St. George rootstock. Frenchman Georges de Latour made a fortune selling
the resistant plant material, and eventually established his own winery,
Beaulieu Vineyards, in 1904. Things in Napa revived slightly after the turn of
the century, especially when World War I temporarily increased domestic
consumption of California wine, but the gaining sobriety movement and looming
threat of Prohibition scared away new investors and kept the recovering wine
industry in shackles. Though the temperance movement was a reaction against the
evils of hard liquor and saloon culture, the wine industry could not shake the
stigma of its alcohol content, and winery after winery shut their doors in
anticipation of the inevitable. When the 18th
amendment was ratified in January 1919, it was nothing short of a bomb going
off in the American wine industry. This “great experiment” effectively wiped
out all the early efforts of those plucky immigrants and homesteaders, neatly
severing Napa’s past from its present. Today, only the bones of that erstwhile
glory remain, in the form of historic vineyard names and the shells of old
stone wineries.To read more about&nbsp;Napa Valley, Then &amp; Now, or to purchase a copy, go to&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="http://www.napavalleythenandnow.com/">napavalleythenandnow.com</a>. You Might Also Enjoy <a target="_blank" href="http://vinous.com/articles/ridge-monte-bello-past-present-and-future-jul-2015">Ridge Monte Bello: Past, Present and Future</a>, Antonio Galloni, July 2015 <a target="_blank" href="http://vinous.com/articles/beringer-s-private-reserve-cabernet-sauvignon-one-of-napa-valley-s-first-cult-wines-jul-2015">Beringer’s Private Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon: One of Napa Valley’s First Cult Wines</a>, Stephen Tanzer, July 2015 <a target="_blank" href="http://vinous.com/articles/forman-four-decades-of-cabernet-sauvignon-1985-2012-jul-2015">Forman: Four Decades of&nbsp;Cabernet Sauvignon 1985-2012</a>, Stephen Tanzer, July 2015 <a target="_blank" href="http://vinous.com/articles/six-decades-of-mayacamas-cabernet-sauvignon-1967-2012">Six Decades of Mayacamas Cabernet Sauvignon: 1967-2012</a>,&nbsp;Antonio Galloni,&nbsp;June&nbsp;2014 <a target="_blank" href="http://vinous.com/articles/epic-dunn-cabernet-sauvignon-howell-mountain-1979-1999-feb-2014">Epic Dunn: Cabernet Sauvignon Howell Mountain 1979-1999</a>,&nbsp;Antonio Galloni,&nbsp;February&nbsp;2014 -- Kelli White






































































This excerpt is taken from Kelli White’s book, Napa Valley, Then &amp; Now. © 2015-2016,
Kelli A. White. Used With Permission.

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