Spanish missionaries are usually credited with the first wine grapes to Sonoma and Napa, but that may not really be correct. Russian colonists at Fort Ross apparently imported vines from Peru as early as 1817, preceding the Spanish by approximately 7 years. Father Jose Altimira, founder of Mission San Francisco Solano in Sonoma, planted 1,000 vines of mission grape, a rather coarse variety brought north from Mexico for sacramental wine.

Napa's first vineyard was planted in 1838 by Napa's first white settler George Yount. He brought mission vines east from Sonoma and made wine for his own use. It didn't take long  before the entrepreneurial spirit set in, and General Mariano Vallejo of Sonoma was the first to succumb. Vallejo became California's first commercial winemaker in 1841and eventually planted 70,000 vines. His wine sold under the name Lachryma  Montis, or "Tears of the Mountain," and became the toast of San Francisco.

 Upstaging the French

California and French wine lovers have a longtime standing love-hate relationship. California's wine makers have always aspired to the quality and reputation of Bordeaux and Burgundy wines, while the French enthusiasts ignored California. That is, until May 24, 1976.

It began with British wine merchant Stephen Spurrier, who had a taste for California wine but had a difficult tine convincing his English and European customers. Spurrier hit upon the idea of staging a blind tasting of California and French wine, using the nine greatest palates of France. It was unheard of. California had beaten French wines in past tastings, but the judges were always American, and what did they know.

Judges knew they were sampling both American and French wines, though the bottles were masked. As the tasting progressed, the tasters began to point out the wines they believed were Californian and their comments about them grew increasingly patronizing. When the sacks were removed, the judges were mortified: the wines they thought were classic Bordeaux or Burgundy were in reality Californian. Six of the eleven highest-rated wines were, in fact, from California, almost entirely from Napa. The 1973 Stag's Leap Cabernet beat 1970 vintages of Chateau Mouton-Rothchild and Chateau Haut-Brion, and a 1973 Chateau Montelena bested Burgundy finest whites. France contested the findings, of course, but was too late. California, particularly Napa, had earned it's place on the international wine map.