NAPA VALLEY: A SHORT HISTORY FRONTIER MEN PAST AND PRESENT
The modern history of California is one written by a few extraordinary men. In 1850, the mountain men crossed the Sierra Nevada and settled in what would become the 31st state of the Union: the Golden State of California. Napa Valley’s story was paved in a similar way. It is a story of a few men whose lives subtly intertwined with the lives of other extraordinary men: the trailblazers and mavericks that made Napa Valley what it is today. Frontier men through and through. These extraordinary men have left behind vineyards that have stood the test of time. This paper explores that history, helping us to understand the area’s meteoric rise in the world of fine wines and connect yesterday’s incredible achievements with today's exceptional vineyards and wines.
The frontier men
In 1826, after running into business difficulties in Missouri, a farmer by the name of George C. Yount left his family and made his way to California. He crossed the Sierra Nevada and found work as a carpenter for Mariano Vallejo, the Spanish General commanding the Mexican land north of San Francisco. After some time, General Vallejo made Yount the first American to be granted land in Mexican territory, Rancho Caymus, where Yountville lies today. Yount is widely recognized as Napa Valley’s first viticulturist, having planted Mission grapes on Rancho Caymus in the later 1830s for his own consumption. Yount’s neighbor was Edward Bale, a former ship surgeon on H.M.S. Harriet, who was granted Rancho Carne Humana, comprising the land from Rutherford to Calistoga. In the 1840s, Bale planted the Las Piedras vineyards west of St. Helena at the foot of Spring Mountain with Mission grapes. Today, Las Piedras vineyard is still producing exceptional fruit in what is now the St. Helena AVA, as part of Beckstoffer Vineyards’ portfolio.
In 1848, Nathan Coombs created Napa town on the land he owned between the intersection of Napa River and Napa Creek. It is here, in 1857, that English immigrant John Patchett became the first person in Napa County to produce and sell wine commercially. By 1858, Patchett had convinced Charles Krug, a Prussian refugee working for the forefather of the California wine industry, Agoston Haraszathy, to join him in Napa. Widely recognized as the father of Napa Valley viticulture and oenology, Krug eventually married Edward Bale’s daughter and acquired 20 acres of Bale’s land. In 1870, Krug asked Jacob Beringer, a 25-year-old German immigrant, to join him as his winemaker. Beringer, along with his brother Frederick, eventually developed his own land north of St. Helena. Charles Krug and the Beringer brothers’ legacies live on through what has now become St. Helena’s Highway.
The entrepreneurs
Before long, young entrepreneurs across California started to take notice of Napa Valley. William Bowers Bourn, heir to the Empire Mine Cie and one of the great California industry magnates, purchased a vineyard south west of St. Helena. Today, part of Bourn’s original vineyard is one of Beckstoffer Vineyard’s jewels. A parcel of the vineyard was recently selected by David Beckstoffer to create one of Napa Valley's newest and most anticipated creations: Kata. In 1882, Gustave Niebaum, founder of Alaska
Commercial Co., brought his friend Hamden McIntyre to St. Helena. McIntyre, a winemaker and engineer, became one of the many entrepreneurs to leave a lasting mark on Napa Valley with the creation of the still famous Inglenook winery. Later that year, San Francisco entrepreneur Alfred L. Tubbs hired McIntyre to design Chateau Montelena. McIntyre went on to create the Far Niente Winery, Eschol (today known as Trefethen Family Vineyards).
Prohibition
By 1900, there were nearly 140 wineries operating in Napa County, despite devastation due to an outbreak of Phylloxera, a grapevine pest that appeared first in 1850. From 1920 to 1933, Napa Valley faced an even greater challenge: the ratification of the 18th Amendment and the arrival of the Prohibition Era. Most wineries closed. A few started to produce sacramental and kosher wines. Incredibly, George de Latour, who converted his winery to a sacramental wine producer, faced an increasing demand during Prohibition, prompting him to purchase additional land, which became Beaulieu Winery.
As the Prohibition Era came to a close, Beaulieu brought Russian viticulturist and oenologist Andre Tchelistcheff from Bordeuax to Napa Valley, where he became one of the single most influential wine personalities of the 20th Century. A few years later, JJ Cohn, an executive at MGM Studios, rediscovered Napa Valley and purchased property bordering the Inglenook vineyards. Convinced by his neighbor, who wanted to restore Inglenook’s past glory, Cohn planted St. George vines and sold the fruits to Inglenook. Today, these ancient St. George vines, the “old men”, are part of Scarecrow wine, one of the most sought after cult wines in the world.
Napa Valley as a world class wine producing region
Robert Mondavi is another key figure of Napa Valley. His family took over Charles Krug’s winery in 1942 and created the first large-scale post-Prohibition winery in Oakville in 1966. Tchelistcheff and Mondavi were instrumental in developing Napa Valley's international reputation. The region's present-day international esteem is also the result of the establishment of the Napa Valley Agricultural Preserve in 1968 (which designed much of Napa County’s land for agriculture rather than housing), as well as the significant influx of Latino and Hispanic work expertise in the 1970s, and the 1976 Judgment of Paris, which landed Napa Valley on the map as a world-class wine producing region.
Today's frontiers
Part of Napa Valley’s fascination is the omnipresent entrepreneurial spirit of trailblazers like Yount, Bale, Patchett, Krug, and the many others that followed. Today, Pritchard Hill has become the latest frontier, attracting daring entrepreneurs unafraid of a challenging environment and looking for the rewards of a unique terroir. It is now home to some of Napa Valley’s most collectible wines. Men and women are still pushing the limits of wine creation here - at Colgin, Ovid, Brand, Gandona and Continuum.
If there has been one consistent theme throughout Napa Valley’s history it is this: it is the land of the frontier, from the 1800s all the way through to present day.