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Wine Making
In California
The history of wine making in California is
a long story that continually changes and
constantly grows.
The history of wine making
in California leads to one of the
most recognized fine wine making regions in the
world and is recognized as such by consumers
and experts all over the world.
The history of wine making in
California begins before the creation of the
United States and establishes wine making in
California before the American Revolution. As
with many things in the creation of California
the history of wine making in California starts
with the story of a religious man just looking
to start a new life in
California.
The history of wine making in California
begins in 1759 with a Franciscan missionary
named Father Juniperro Serra. Father Serra
planted the first California vineyard at the
Mission San Diego de Alcala and created eight
more missions with associated vineyards before
he passed away. For all he did in the history
of wine making in California, Father Serra is
commonly referred to as the Father Of
California Wine. The father part was probably
more due to his creation of the industry in
California rather than his religious station in
life. Either way Father Serra started the
history of wine making in California and it
grew from there.
So Why
Is California Wine So
Great?
California wine gets its taste from a
combination of the climate and land of
California and the grapes native to Europe.
That is right, the grape vines used today to
make California wine were brought to California
from Europe and are not native to California.
In 1833 Jean-Louis Vignes is the first
documented person to import a European vine to
Los Angeles, California thereby starting the
influx of European vines into California. It
was this notion of bringing in European vines
that created the next great person in the
history of wine making in California. Agoston
Haraszthy was credited with being the person
that really brought California wine making to
the next level and the work he did is the
foundation for the industry.
Throughout the mid-1800’s Haraszthy had an
enthusiasm for creating a winemaking industry
in California that got him the attention of the
state government. He went on to import hundreds
of the best wine making vines from Europe to
California with some of the funding for these
expeditions coming from state grants. He would
establish vineyards in California and then
start digging caves to store the wine and
import other European methods of wine making
that helped to establish the industry of wine
making in California. It all came together in
1861 when Charles Krug established the first
commercial wine making vineyard in Napa
Valley.
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