USA wine history

The grape variety planted came with the missionaries from Mexico and was known as the Mission grape. Commercially produced wines didn’t arrive until 1824. About 1830, the commercial era started through the efforts of a Frenchman, Jean Louis Vignes. Arriving from Bordeaux, he saw the land’s potential and soon imported cuttings of many varieties of the native European Vitis vinifera. His vineyard was in what is now downtown Los Angeles. Between 1860 and 1880, the industry grew rapidly as numerous wineries were established.

The fact that the quality of California wines improved during this period is generally attributed to Count Agoston Haraszthy who brought many vine cuttings back to California from his trips to Europe. With the completion of the transcontinental railroad system in 1869, California wines were soon well represented in the eastern United States and in many European countries. Unfortunately, around the 1890’s Phylloxera appeared in California from the east of the country. By the turn of the century it had ravaged many vineyards. Old vineyards were uprooted, and new ones planted with Vinifera varieties that had been grafted to American rootstock.

A more devastating blow to the California wine industry was the adoption of Prohibition in 1919, which banned the production and sales of alcoholic beverages. Having rebounded from Phylloxera, winemaking virtually ceased until Prohibition was repealed in 1933, with most vines ripped out or replaced with table grape varieties. After prohibition, growth was slow until the 1960’s when the industry took hold once more. By the end of the decade, California would produce some 50 million cases each year.

Although California has been harvesting grapes since the 18th century, the Golden State really became a global winemaking celebrity in 1976. That year California wines entered the infamous Judgment of Paris blind wine tasting competition, surprising the wine world by beating French wines in both red and white wine categories. In the 1970s, production and sales of California wines reached record levels. To meet growing demand, new vineyards were planted. Between 1960 and the present, total vineyard land increased from 40,500 hectares to more than 216,700 hectares and the number of wineries grew from 227 in 1966 to well over 3,400, shipping over 250 million cases to the U.S. and abroad. While the wine industry is concentrated in California, there are new and emerging regions across the United States with wine grapes now grown in every one of the 50 states.