Article Surfing Archive

History of Napa Wine:

"Napa" means a land of plenty. This part of world is full of rivers, migrating birds especially waterfowls and the valley of greeneries with plenty of wildcats, elk, black bear and grizzlies. But the most precious asset of this valley is the winegrapes.The early visitors like George Calvert found the valley's wine grape productivity skill. He took the initiative to harvest wine grapes in this valley in 1836.The other main pioneers of this project were John patchett the first person to plant vineyard commercially along with Hamilton Walker Crabb,who researched with over 400 species of grape.

The wine grape revolution was further carried by Charles Krug who started the winery business in 1861 and according to the statistics there were almost 150 wineries working commercially by 1889.Some earlier wineries were Schramsberg (founded in 1862), Beringer (1876) and Inglenook (1879).As the life is not always the bed of roses, the rapid growth of wine industry faced the prices crash problem and the phylloxera - a North American species of insects gave a stunning blow to the vintners by attacking the wide areas of wine grape.

Wine Prohibition and its after effect:

The bigger threat faced by the Napa Valley's wine business in 1920, with the enactment of Prohibition. All vineyards were

Dissipated by the owners and winemakers switched to other businesses for next 14 years. Some surviving wineries were operating on Sacramental wine production. As a whole, the wine market of Napa Valley was flopped down. With the withdrawal of prohibition in 1933, the renaissance of Napa wine commenced with an era of recovery and followed by fabulous growth.

Early Vintners in Napa Valley:

The wine history of Napa Valley witnessed another turning point in early 1940; when a band of vintners meet together to share their own concepts on grape harvesting and wine marketing under a friendly atmosphere with some good food and wine. This group established an association of Napa Valley Vintners, a driving chamber of commerce devoted for the advancement of Napa wine both in the country and abroad.

Napa Wine Growers:

The grape growers of Napa Valley were not so organised before mid-70's.But things were changed in 1975 when Napa Valley growers joined their hands with the vintners to reach the common goal of advancing the Napa Wine throughout the world.

Charity:

A new face of Napa wine revealed in early 1980's when the Napa Valley auction was first time sponsored in Meadowood resort. Since then, this vintner's fraternity-sponsored Napa Valley wine and food festival has become the most successful charity wine event. Participants from different part of the world used to come here and celebrate the fest. More than $60 million fund has been raised for the benefit of health, social affairs and youth programmes.

These days' total 300 wineries are operating in Napa Valley and both the growers and vintners are implementing all the contemporary technologies blended with age-old methods.

Roles played by the Vintners to make Napa Wine popular:

The vintners are a local business group with an effective participation of more than 290 wineries, presenting the heritage of vintners and grape growers - working and wooing for the development of this wine producing region.

The vineyards have been part of the Napa Valley for over 160 years. The first vineyards was planted in 1836 and the Napa town was established in 1848,at that time there were 70,000 vineyards which enhanced to 2,00,000+ by 1860.Wines from Inglenook, Charles Krug, Beringer and others received the international fame in the late 19th century.

The original activists of Napa Valley vintner's fraternity often called themselves as a "food-loving and drinking society'. They set their focus more in hospitality and marketing services of Napa wine across the world. It gives the Napa wine a unique face throughout the world.

Problems and Threats faced by the Napa Wine:

In addition to phylloxera attack and Prohibition in 1929 there were some other problems faced by the Napa wine industries; such as the after war effects on the market. That time the industry was running out of capital, human resources and raw materials. These problems were the reason behind the establishment of Vintners association in 1943.

Official Target of Vintners fraternity:

1. Commitment to the future development of Napa Valley's land, wine and society.

2. Providing a common and unified voice to uphold the interests of the vintners.

3. Meeting challenges threats more actively and invent new ideas to make Napa Wine popular.