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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.
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