Napa Valley: The turbulent history of California's prestigious wine region

It was one of the great bombshells in wine history that Steven Spurrier triggered in 1976 with his still legendary Judgement of Paris. This was the blind tasting in which two Napa Valley wines triumphed over wines from Bordeaux and wines from Burgundy. These were the 1973 Chardonnay from Chateau Montelena and the 1973 Cabernet Sauvignon from Stag's Leap Wine Cellars. The latter was only 1.5 points ahead in the red wine category. But that was enough to relegate the Grand Vin from 1970 from Château Mouton Rothschild to second place. And Chateau Montelena even beat Domaine Roulot's Meursault Charmes 1973 by 5.5 points!

That was unheard of! And a real sensation. The result: the wine world licked its fingers for the Californian growths from the Napa Valley. For many, the wine story was only just beginning there. Which is of course a big misunderstanding. Or bullshit, as the Americans like to say. Because wine has been around there for much, much longer than some wine connoisseurs might think. Let's take a trip into history.

A wine journey from Virginia to Napa Valley

Grapes were already growing in the Napa Valley long before the first settlers settled there. Although we have to be fair here. In fact, these wild grapes were widespread throughout North America. And they were not the species vitis vinifera, to which almost all the well-known grape varieties we now enjoy belong, but the two species vitis labrusca and vitis rotundifolia. And that is precisely the crux of the matter. Although both are vines, they have never made good wine. Even Thomas Jefferson, the third President of the United States, had to realise this when he, great wine lover that he was, planted the two species in the early 19th century. And failed magnificently with them, while he produced quite delicious wine from his vineyard of vitis vinifera vines, which he brought back from his travels in Europe.

Admittedly, this was not in Napa Valley, but in Virginia. But it is the best-known example of a winemaker who failed with America's original grapes. And also the best proof that vines from Europe could also produce good quality wines in North America. Which brings us to Napa Valley for good. It is astonishing that vitis vinifera vines were the last to be planted in this part of California. Although ... no, it wasn't. The area we know today as Napa Valley belonged to the Native Americans, who called it the "land of plenty". Because everything simply thrived here. While Spanish missionaries in particular gradually developed the neighbouring regions and planted the first vineyards for their fair wines, it was the white settler George Yount who was granted land by the government in what is now Napa Valley - and who planted the first vines in this extremely fertile soil in 1839. Which grape variety was involved? Unfortunately, that is no longer known today. Because Yount's farm has long since ceased to exist. And he never sold his wines commercially anyway, but only pressed them for his own use. Just like all the other settlers who quickly settled in the area due to the fertile soil. Among them: John Patchett and Hamilton Walker Crabb. They also experimented with European vines on American soil.

Napa Valley becomes wine country

German immigrant Charles Krug is often credited with founding the first commercial winery in Napa Valley. However, the winery owned by Englishman John Patchett had already been in existence for two years at the time. Patchett may have been the first - but Krug was the most successful. It was thanks to him that other settlers also began to grow wine commercially. For example, the Schramsberg vineyard was founded in 1862. And in 1876, the Beringer brothers Jacob and Frederick founded a winery that is still one of the great Napa icons today. Just like Inglenook, by the way, which was founded by the Finnish captain Gustave Niebaum in 1879.

This first wave of wine pioneers quickly made a name for themselves with the quality of the wines they sold - and the wine industry in Napa Valley grew considerably. While phylloxera was destroying hectare after hectare of vineyards in Europe, something of a vinophile gold rush began in Napa Valley. Immigrants and rich businessmen from nearby San Francisco were firmly convinced that only Californian wine would soon be able to satisfy the thirsty needs of Europe. More and more wineries sprang up. In 1880 there were just 49 wineries in Napa Valley - by 1886 there were already 175!

California visits France for the first time

And then came the coup: in 1889, the French invited Californian winegrowers to the World Exhibition in Paris so that they could present their wines there. First and foremost: the wines from Napa Valley. Well, the invitation was not surprising. Due to the phylloxera catastrophe, the French had hardly any good quality wines of their own. The Napa winegrowers, however, did. The real surprise was that their wines were not only highly praised by the guests at the world exhibition, but that they also won one award after another in the traditional competition with French wines.

By then at the latest, one could have guessed that the wines from Napa Valley had a lot going for them. But before California could rise as a new star of pleasure in the wine world, natural disasters and man-made catastrophes put an abrupt end to the imminent wine triumph.

One disaster follows the next

First, severe frosts plagued the Napa Valley at the end of the 19th century. Many vines froze to death. As if that wasn't bad enough, phylloxera also attacked the Californian vineyards. And then, during the first depression in 1893, many wineries went bankrupt because no one could afford to buy wine. And then, on 18 April 1906, San Francisco was hit by the still infamous and catastrophic earthquake, which caused enormous damage even in Napa Valley, just 100 kilometres away. More than 11 million litres of wine were lost in storage throughout California as a result of this earthquake!

Blow followed blow. The Californian wine industry simply couldn't get off the ground. And then Prohibition was introduced in the United States in 1920! For almost 14 years, commercial viticulture came to an almost complete standstill. Only here and there was it still allowed to make mass wine. Instead, more and more families planted vines for their own use - skilfully exploiting a loophole in the law. And the wineries? Well, the owners often converted them into farms. Vines were ripped out to plant plum, cherry or walnut trees, for example. The number of wineries dwindled steadily. When Prohibition finally ended on 5 December 1933, only a fraction of the businesses still existed.

Napa Valley: the fall and rise of a Californian wine region

But things got even worse. Because in the almost 14 years of Prohibition, Americans' taste in wine had changed. They now preferred either simple (and as cheap as possible) table wines and fortified wines in the style of port and sherry or really sweet wines. In 1935, no less than 81 percent of all wines from California were sweet! This new flavour trend made the Napa Valley a marginal phenomenon. Most wineries moved to the Central Valley, where it was hotter - and where such wines could simply be produced better. It didn't help that John Daniel Jr. revived Inglenook, Georges de Latour founded the later famous Beaulieu Vineyard or the Mondavi family bought the Charles Krug Winery. Napa Valley was virtually absent from the wine glasses of Americans. Tragic!

But at the end of the 1930s, salvation came from several directions. Firstly, the two professors Albert J. Winkler and Maynard Amerine from the University of California in Davis carried out soil and climate studies throughout California to find out which region was best suited to which grape variety. They published their findings in 1944. They came to the conclusion that the Napa Valley was climatically similar to Bordeaux. Accordingly, they recommended Cabernet Sauvignon for this region. In their opinion, the cooler sites in Napa Valley were also suitable for Chardonnay. This laid the foundation for the two grapes that were to cause a sensation at the Judgement of Paris in 1976.

André Tchelistcheff and the Napa Valley

Which brings us to the second Napa rescue. Because when Prohibition came, the good oenologists left. Who could blame them? In this area, salvation came in the flesh in 1937. It was then that the Russian oenologist André Tchelistcheff, who had previously worked in France, came to Napa Valley and signed on with Georges de Latour and his Beaulieu Vineyard, where he would work as cellar master for 35 years - and train or ultimately mould many later winemaking legends. Like Joe Heitz, for example, who would go on to found his own winery with his wife Alice in 1961. Tchelistcheff also briefly took Miljenko "Mike" Grgich, the future cellar master of Chateau Montelena, under his wing. He also advised the Californian winegrowing pioneer Agoston Haraszthy, who made history with his Buena Vista Winery. Tchelistcheff also advised the then young entrepreneur Robert Mondavi.

André Tchelistcheff is still regarded today as the oenologist of the century who brought quality viticulture back to the Napa Valley. It was thanks to him and his reputation that more and more talented winemakers settled in Napa Valley in the 1960s. But something else happened in this post-war period. The tastes of Americans changed again. As prosperity grew and air travel became cheaper, travelling to Europe was no longer the preserve of the elite, but was also feasible for the educated middle classes. On these journeys, this social class also got to know - and love - the wines of the Old World. They returned home with new flavour impressions and wanted to enjoy just such wines at home. Dry and elegant wines? The Napa Valley could do that! The new flight of fancy began!

Another enological legend arrives

The winegrowing renaissance triggered by André Tchelistcheff attracted another man who would later become a legend. Warren Winiarski. The young man with Polish roots arrived in Napa Valley in 1964. There he convinced Lee Stewart to take him on as an apprentice at his winery, Stewart's Souverain Cellars. In 1966, Winiarski joined Robert Mondavi as an assistant winemaker, where he also met André Tchelistcheff, who became his mentor. In 1970, Winiarski then bought the first hectares for his own vineyard. Stag's Leap Wine Cellars. Which brings us full circle to the famous Judgement of Paris.

In a way, this blind tasting in Paris, which you can watch in a very freely interpreted version in the film "Bottle Shock" or read about in a very historically accurate version in the book "Judgment of Paris" by George M. Taber, was actually something like the birth of Napa wine. Only since this event in 1976 have the wines from Napa Valley been internationally recognised. Before that, the wine world simply didn't have them on its radar. Thank you very much, Steven Spurrier!

Since then, Napa Valley has been a favourite in the glasses of wine connoisseurs around the world. This is not least due to the fact that real icons now come from there. Be it the Opus One from Robert Mondavi and Baron Philippe de Rothschild, "La Muse" from Pierre Seillan's Vérité Winery, the growths from Harlan Estate, Bryant, Shafer, Futo, Streaming Eagle or Bond and Promontory. The list of wine icons here could be continued almost endlessly. In fact, the list of great wine names here is even longer than that of Bordeaux! So it's worth taking a look at Napa Valley. And more than once!