Viticulture in California
The California wine-growing region has a long history by American standards and has been able to establish itself as one of the world's leading wine-growing regions since the 1970s . Although viticulture is practiced in all 50 states of the United States, California accounts for the lion's share of American viticulture production. Estimates assume a share of over 90 percent. In contrast to viticulture on the east coast, wine from European noble grapes was pressed here very early on .
According to the American Wine Law, every state is a protected designation of origin.
history
The early years
In 1769 Gaspar de Portolá established a military post and the Franciscan Junípero Serra established the first Californian mission station , Mission San Diego de Alcala . Serra planted the first Californian vineyard in the immediate vicinity of the mission in order to have the necessary altar wine. By his death in 1784, Father Serra laid the foundation stone for a further eight mission stations in California, each with its own vine plantation. He is therefore generally considered to be the father of California wine. It is assumed that the vine material came from existing plantations in nearby Mexico. Seedlings of the Mission grape variety were planted , which was to dominate California's grape variety until the end of the 19th century.
In addition to the Mission variety, experiments have also been made with American wild grapes. Because of the distinctive Fox tone of these varieties, European immigrants looked for ways to achieve the familiar taste in California. The first written evidence of an import of European varieties reports plantings in 1833 by the officer Louis Bauchet and the French-born immigrant Jean-Louis Vignes (Béguey in the canton of Cadillac ). The plantings were on the streets and Macy Aliso in today's Los Angeles .
In the 1850s and 1860s, the Hungarian soldier and later sheriff of San Diego, Agoston Haraszthy, imported European grape varieties because he was disappointed with the wine of the Mission grape variety. In addition to an abundance of now unknown seedlings, Haraszty's assortment already included two grape varieties that were to have a lasting impact on the Californian wine world: the Muscat of Alexandria and Zinfandel varieties . During his cultivation experiments, he quickly realizes that the climate near San Diego is far too warm for quality wine- growing . He therefore established plantings near the San Francisco Bay in 1852, and in 1857 concentrated his efforts on the Sonoma Valley . There he founded the Buena Vista Winery, which still exists today. Together with the Gundlach-Bundschu Winery, the oldest still existing family business, this establishment establishes the reputation of the Sonoma Valley as the nucleus of the Californian wine industry.
In 1861, Charles Krug founded the Napa Valley's first commercial winery in St. Helena .
Due to the brisk import activity of European grape varieties, American wild grape varieties came to Europe in 1863. The seedlings were infested with phylloxera and subsequently triggered one of the greatest disasters in European viticulture history.
In the fight against phylloxera, various approaches were taken. In addition to breeding so-called hybrid vines , the well-known Californian plant breeder Thomas Munson suggested grafting the noble vines onto resistant ones. This solution finally caught on and is still practiced worldwide today.
Founded in 1879 in Rutherford, California , Inglenook Winery was the first Californian winery to develop Bordeaux- style wines . The winery in Paris was able to win its first prizes as early as 1889.
Ironically, California viticulture flourished when the phylloxera disaster brought viticulture in Europe to the brink of ruin. By 1900 international trade structures could be established and the wine was exported to Australia , Canada , Central America, Germany and Great Britain .
The time of prohibition
While phylloxera still proved beneficial, American viticulture eventually collapsed under the alcohol prohibition movement. 33 states followed this movement even before the outbreak of the First World War . Finally, in 1919, Prohibition became national law with the signing of the 18th Amendment to the United States Constitution . The additional article reads: Within one year of ratification of this addition, the manufacture, sale and transport of intoxicating liquids within, as well as the importation of the same into and the export of the same from the United States of America and all areas in which their jurisdiction applies, prohibited if they are intended for consumption.
An exemption was in the form that each household was allowed to produce 200 gallons of non-alcoholic cider and fruit juice per year. With a generous interpretation of this rule, thousands of small households were eventually illegally vinified and smuggled overland. The smugglers were later given the name "Bootlegger". The price of fresh table grapes rose noticeably due to the increasing demand. The vineyards, which were previously planted with high-quality grape varieties, have been converted to growing robust table grapes that are easy to transport . The effects of this policy were felt until the early 1970s, as the market produced a consistently high surplus of cheap, mass-produced goods.
When the national prohibition law was repealed on December 5, 1933 by the signing of the 21st Amendment to the United States Constitution, the viticulture industry was almost completely destroyed. Although a few wineries focused on wines with medicinal uses or as altar wine , production fell 94 percent between 1919 and 1925.
The time after prohibition
Despite the formal lifting of prohibition, not all states followed national law. Kansas upheld the alcohol ban until 1948, Oklahoma until 1957, and Mississippi until 1966.
After the alcohol ban was lifted, the market was first showered with inferior mass-produced goods due to a lack of functioning structures and high-quality vine material. The quality of the wine was mostly so bad that local produce was avoided by the local population. The best-selling product were alcohol-fortified dessert wines with an alcohol content of up to 20% by volume, which represented an inexpensive, tax-favored alternative to hard alcoholic beverages.
Before Prohibition, dry table wines made up almost 75% of the market. Fortified wines played a similarly dominant role after prohibition until the early 1960s. It wasn't until 1968 that their share sank to below 50 percent of American wine production.
Before 1919 there were more than 2,500 wineries in the United States. By 1933, fewer than 100 of them had survived, and in California it would be 1986 before the pre-1919 level was reached and finally exceeded.
In California, the viticulture research institutes of the University of California in Davis and the California State University of Fresno set new impulses and introduced a new generation of young winemakers and winemakers to the international quality standards of high-quality viticulture.
See also
literature
- André Dominé (Ed.): Wine . Tandem Verlag, Königswinter 2007, ISBN 978-3-8331-4344-1 .
- Bruce Cass, Jancis Robinson : The Oxford Companion to the Wine of North America . Oxford University Press, Oxford et al. 2000, ISBN 0-19-860114-X .
Web links
- Napa Valley Wine Co. History and historical documents on Charles Krug, Jacob Beringer / Beringer Bros. and Cesare / Robert Mondavi
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c Appellation America (2007). "California: Appellation Description" . Retrieved November 16, 2007
- ↑ California Wine Month 2007: General information in English. Last access to this page on July 11, 2007
- ↑ LaMar, Jim., Professional Friends of Wine, "Wine 101: History"
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