Napa County is a county north of San Pablo Bay 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.
Robert Gerald Mondavi was an American winemaker. His technical and marketing strategies brought worldwide recognition for the wines of the Napa Valley in California. From an early period, Mondavi promoted labeling wines varietally rather than generically, which became the standard for New World wines. The Robert Mondavi Institute (RMI) for Wine and Food Science at the University of California, Davis opened in October 2008 in his honor.
The Rubicon Estate Winery is located in Rutherford, California, United States. The winery sits on a portion of the historic Napa Valley property first acquired in 1879 by a Finnish Sea Captain Gustave Niebaum, founder of the Inglenook Winery.
The Culinary Institute of America at Greystone is a branch campus of the private culinary college the Culinary Institute of America. The Greystone campus, located on State Route 29/128 in St. Helena, California, offers associate degrees and two certificate programs in culinary arts and baking and pastry arts. The CIA at Greystone and the Culinary Institute of America at Copia make up the school's California branch.
The Napa Valley Opera House is a theatre in Napa, California, it opened on February 13, 1880 with a production of Gilbert and Sullivan's HMS Pinafore.
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.
Inglenook is a winery that produces estate bottled wines in Rutherford, California, in the Napa Valley.
Gustave Ferdinand Niebaum was a Finnish-American sea captain and winemaker.
Copia: The American Center for Wine, Food & the Arts was a non-profit museum and educational center in downtown Napa, California, dedicated to wine, food and the arts of American culture. The center, planned and largely funded by vintners Robert and Margrit Mondavi, was open from 2001 to 2008. The 78,632-square-foot (7,305.2 m2) museum had galleries, two theaters, classrooms, a demonstration kitchen, a restaurant, a rare book library, and a 3.5-acre (1.4 ha) vegetable and herb garden; there it hosted wine and food tasting programs, exhibitions, films, and concerts. The main and permanent exhibition of the museum, "Forks in the Road", explained the origins of cooking through to modern advances. The museum's establishment benefited the city of Napa and the development and gentrification of its downtown.
Napa Valley AVA is an American Viticultural Area located in Napa County in California's Wine Country. Napa Valley is considered one of the premier wine regions in the world. Records of commercial wine production in the region date back to the nineteenth century, but premium wine production dates back only to the 1960s.
Heidi Peterson Barrett is a winemaker and entrepreneur who has been responsible for some of California's most notable cult wines. Her career has included stints at Screaming Eagle, Dalla Valle Vineyards, Paradigm Winery, Grace Family Vineyards, Amuse Bouche, Lamborn Family, Showket Vineyards, Revana Family Vineyards, Vineyard 29 and Fantesca. Barrett is a consultant for Diamond Creek Vineyards and Niebaum-Coppola, Kenzo Estate, and has her own wine label, La Sirena.
The history of American wine began when the first Europeans explored parts of North America, which they called Vinland because of the profusion of grape vines found there. However, settlers would later discover that the wine made from the various native grapes, had flavors which were unfamiliar and which they did not like. This led to repeated efforts to grow familiar Vitis vinifera varieties. The first vines of Vitis vinifera origin were planted in Senecu in 1629, which is near the present day town of San Antonio, New Mexico.
The Oak Knoll District of Napa Valley AVA is an American Viticultural Area located within Napa Valley AVA at the southern end of the valley floor. The appellation's close proximity to San Pablo Bay results in a climate that is cooler and more moderate than any region in Napa Valley other than the Los Carneros AVA. The AVA has more vines planted to it than any other wholly contained appellation within the Napa Valley. A wide variety of wine grapes do well in this climate, including varieties not widely grown in other parts of Napa Valley, such as Riesling and Pinot noir. The district is planted largely to Merlot, Chardonnay and Cabernet Sauvignon, in that order. Oak Knoll District Chardonnay has a reputation for a restrained, delicate style. The appellation was officially designated an appellation within the Napa Valley AVA on April 26, 2004.
Gundlach Bundschu Winery is California's oldest continuously family-owned winery, and is the third 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 (1.3 km2) 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, sustainably 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.
Beringer Vineyards is a large winery in St. Helena, California. Founded in 1876, Beringer Vineyards is "the oldest continuously operating winery in the Napa Valley", and is listed under both the National Register of Historic Places and as a California Historical Landmark. In 1934 it was the first California winery to offer public tours and wine tasting following the repeal of Prohibition. In 1939, Beringer invited attendees of the Golden Gate International Exposition to visit the winery; the winery also invited Hollywood stars including Clark Gable, Charles Laughton, and Carole Lombard to visit.
Charles Krug (1825–1892) was among the pioneers of winemaking in the Napa Valley, California, and was the founder of the Charles Krug Winery.
The 2014 South Napa earthquake occurred in the North San Francisco Bay Area on August 24 at . At 6.0 on the moment magnitude scale and with a maximum Mercalli intensity of VIII (Severe), the event was the largest in the San Francisco Bay Area since the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake. The epicenter of the earthquake was located to the south of Napa and to the northwest of American Canyon on the West Napa Fault.
The Charles Krug Winery is a winery founded by Charles Krug in 1861. It was named to the National Register of Historic Places on November 8, 1974.
Gil Nickel was an American vintner. He was the owner of the historic Far Niente Winery in the Napa Valley. He also established the Dolce Winery and the Nickel & Nickel Winery.
