California & Grapes

Spanish missionaries brought grapes and the art of wine making to California in the 18th century. With the flood of European immigration and the beginnings of the California Gold Rush in the early 1850s, many who flocked to the area were Italian immigrants use to drinking red wine with their meals. So the center of California Grapes moved from the southern missions to the northern counties of Sonoma, Napa, and Mendocino.