Napa County is a county north of San Pablo Bay located in the northern portion of the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 138,019. The county seat is the City of Napa. Napa County was one of the original counties of California, created in 1850 at the time of statehood. Parts of the county's territory were given to Lake County in 1861.
Wine Country is a region of California, in the northern San Francisco Bay Area, known worldwide as a premier wine-growing region. The region is famed for its wineries, its cuisine, Michelin star restaurants, boutique hotels, luxury resorts, historic architecture, and culture. Viticulture and wine-making have been practiced in the region since the Spanish missionaries from Mission San Francisco Solano established the first vineyards in 1812.
Sonoma Valley is a valley located in southeastern Sonoma County, California, in the North Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area. Known as the birthplace of the California wine industry, the valley is home to some of the earliest vineyards and wineries in the state, some of which survived the phylloxera epidemic of the 1870s and the impact of prohibition in the early 20th century. Today, the valley's wines are promoted by the U.S. federal government's Sonoma Valley and Carneros AVAs.
California wine has a long and continuing history, and in the late twentieth century became recognized as producing some of the world's finest wine. While wine is made in all fifty U.S. states, up to 90% of American wine is produced in the state. California would be the fourth largest producer of wine in the world if it were an independent nation.
Agoston Haraszthy was a Hungarian American nobleman, adventurer, traveler, writer, town-builder, and pioneer winemaker in Wisconsin and California, often referred to as the "Father of California Wine", alongside Junípero Serra, as well as the "Father of California Viticulture," or the "Father of Modern Winemaking in California". One of the first men to plant vineyards in Wisconsin, he was the founder of the Buena Vista Winery in Sonoma, California, and an early writer on California wine and viticulture.
Gustave Ferdinand Niebaum was a Finnish-American sea captain and winemaker.
David Ralph Bennion (1929–1988) was a leading California winemaker who was the founder and winemaker at Ridge Vineyards in California from 1959 to 1969. From an early period, Bennion labeled Ridge Vineyards wines by vineyard, district and appellation, a first for California Zinfandel and a practice later followed by nearly every winery in the state. Ridge's flagship wine, Monte Bello is considered one of the great wines of the world.
The Mountain Winery, formerly the Paul Masson Mountain Winery, is a winery in Saratoga, California, United States, North America. It was founded by Paul Masson, a pioneer of the California wine industry. The winery became famous for its slogan, voiced by Orson Welles in television commercials: "We will sell no wine before its time."
Sonoma County wine is wine made in Sonoma County, California, in the United States.
Santa Clara Valley is an American Viticultural Area (AVA) located mostly in Santa Clara County, California. The area served an important role in the early history of California wine and was home to the pioneer winemakers Paul Masson and Charles Lefranc. It was established on April 27, 1989 by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF), Treasury after evaluating the petition proposing a viticultural area in Santa Clara, San Benito, San Mateo and Alameda Counties that extends from lower San Francisco Bay with the cities of San Jose, Santa Clara, Menlo Park, Mountain View and Fremont toward the southern boundary near Gilroy and Morgan Hill, outlining the viticultural area named "Santa Clara Valley." It includes the historic winegrowing areas of Santa Clara County not already within the [Santa Cruz Mountains viticultural area, plus the area near Mission San José in Alameda County and a small part of San Benito County. Santa Clara Valley encompasses the established viticultural areas, Pacheco Pass and San Ysidro District.
San Francisco Bay is a multi-county American Viticultural Area (AVA) which is centered and surrounds the San Francisco Bay Area of Northern California. It was established on January 19, 1999 by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF), Treasury after evaluating the petition submitted by a consortium of nearly 75 growers and vintners led by Wente Bros. to establish the viticultural area known as "San Francisco Bay." It lies within the larger Central Coast viticultural area and includes San Francisco and counties encompassing the areas known as “South” and “East Bay.” This consists of Alameda, Contra Costa, Santa Clara, and San Mateo as well as portions of Santa Cruz and San Benito Counties. “North Bay” counties of Sonoma, Napa and Marin were excluded for they reside within the North Coast viticultural area with its distinct properties. ATF also concluded the established Santa Cruz Mountains viticultural area exhibits features and characteristics unique to its boundaries when compared to the surrounding areas, therefore, it was excluded from the "San Francisco Bay" viticultural area.
The wide variety of wild grapes in North America were eaten by the indigenous people. The first Europeans exploring parts of North America called it Vinland because of the profusion of grape vines found there. The various native grapes had flavors which were unfamiliar to European settlers and did not like using them in the initial production of American wine. This led to repeated efforts to grow familiar Vitis vinifera varieties. The first vines of Vitis vinifera origin came up through New Spain (Mexico) and were planted in Senecu in 1629, which is near the present day town of San Antonio, New Mexico.
The Sonoma Valley AVA is an American Viticultural Area in Sonoma County, California which centers on the Sonoma Valley in the southern portion of the county. The name 'Sonoma' means 'Valley of the Moon' in the local Native American dialect. The appellation is bordered by two mountain ranges: the Mayacamas Mountains to the east and the Sonoma Mountains to the west.
Gundlach Bundschu Winery is a historic winery and an outdoor concert venue located in Sonoma County. It is California's oldest continuously family-owned winery, and is the second oldest winery after Buena Vista Winery. It is still owned and operated by the founder's heirs and today led by the sixth generation, Jeff Bundschu. The winery's 320-acre (130 ha) regenerative organic certified estate vineyard, named Rhinefarm by Bavarian-born Jacob Gundlach in 1858, is located within the Sonoma Valley AVA of Sonoma County, at the crossroads of the Sonoma Valley, Los Carneros AVA and Napa Valley AVA, along the Mayacamas Mountains. They specialize in estate-driven, organically farmed Bordeaux reds and cool climate varietal wines.
California wine production has a rich viticulture history since 1680 when Spanish Jesuit missionaries planted Vitis vinifera vines native to the Mediterranean region in their established missions to produce wine for religious services. In the 1770s, Spanish missionaries continued the practice under the direction of the Father Junípero Serra who planted California's first vineyard at Mission San Juan Capistrano.
Buena Vista Winery is a winery located in Sonoma, California, United States. It is the second oldest winery in California after the D'Agostini Winery, which was founded a year prior in 1856. It was founded by Agoston Haraszthy in 1857. The winery is located on its original grounds, just east of Sonoma, California.
Rancho Huichica was a 18,704-acre (75.69 km2) Mexican land grant in present day Napa County, California given in 1841 to Jacob P. Leese. Carneros Creek forms the northeast boundary of Rancho Huichica, and the grant contains the majority of the Carneros region in Napa Valley.
Arpad Haraszthy was a pioneer California winemaker best known as the creator of Eclipse champagne, the first commercially successful sparkling wine produced in the state. He was the first president of the California State Board of Viticultural Commissioners, one of the founding members and first officers of San Francisco's world-famous Bohemian Club, and a frequent and articulate writer on wine, winemaking, and viticulture. He has been criticized by some modern wine historians for his claims that his father, Agoston Haraszthy, imported the first Zinfandel grape vines to California in the early 1850s. Zinfandel later became famous as California's best grape for the production of red table wine. Arpad Haraszthy's claims about his father's importations of Zinfandel have neither been proved nor disproved, and they remain a subject of controversy.
Cline Cellars Winery is a family owned and operated winery located in the Carneros wine appellation of Sonoma County, California that specializes in Zinfandels, Rhône-style wines, Chardonnay and Pinot Noir.
Jean-Charles Boisset is a French vintner and the proprietor of the Boisset Collection, which operates 28 wineries in California, France, and Canada.
