#31 The History of Wine Part 4 of ? (The Not Cliff’s, but Squire’s Notes Version)

October 2023

Just two hundred years after the introduction of glass wine bottles, corks to stopper those bottles, and the use of sulfur as a wine preservative, a huge breakthrough moment took place that dramatically led to the improvement of wine quality.

The breakthrough moment in wine:          

That significant moment was due to a scientist by the name of Louis Pasteur.  In 1857, under the encouragement of Napoleon III, this French chemist and microbiologist discovered and subsequently proved that living yeast cells were the cause of grapes conversion into wine.  Using a microscope, he observed the biological phenomenon of yeast naturally changing glucose (fruit sugars) into ethanol (alcohol) and carbon dioxide (CO2).  From that historic moment on, what caused “fermentation” to happen became common knowledge.  Pasteur revealed that grapes (and other fruits) containing sugars will naturally start to ferment because of the yeasts (saccharomyces) on their skins. 

This revelation, just a scant 166 years ago, resolved thousands of years of mystery and speculation about how wine somehow “made itself”.  This magical conversion of grapes into wine was no longer thought of as being caused by “divine intervention”, but this mystery became a science!

Once Pasteur had made his discovery, folks quickly began to grasp the science of wine making and began to manipulate and control the fermentation process.  Humans, for the first time, became a partner with Mother Nature and wine quality began to improve by leaps and bounds.  Advances in winemaking started to happen almost all over the civilized world. 

This was not the case, however, in our very young America.  During Pasteur’s lifetime we were a brand-new country, most of which was not-yet explored.

For the sake of space (and my fascination with wine in America) I will devote the remainder of this article on the fascinating history of wine in California, from Pasteur’s time forward.

Early wine making in America:

“America” is a relatively recent addition to the map of world geography and is still referred to by many as “The New World”.  In the 18th and 19th Centuries, we were a land filled with immigrants searching for a new home and a better life.  The vast majority of those immigrants had made the difficult voyage from Europe and, from 1880 to 1900, over 12 million of Eoropeans emigrated to the east coast of America.   Most of those folks brought their customs with them and daily wine consumption for many Europeans was commonplace.  Fortunately, a few brought not only their customs, but also brought their grape vine cuttings with them.  Naturally, some of these immigrants planted their grapevines where they settled and, as they had done in their homelands, began to make a bit of wine for their own consumption.  They soon realized that the extreme east coast weather and winter freezes did not bode well for most of their European grape varieties.  Many began looking for more land and a better climate and traveled west, beyond Virginia, North Carolina and Georgia, the border of the civilized world as they knew it.  As more and more folks moved further and further westward in wagons pulled by oxen and horses, trails like the Overland Trail, although dangerous, developed and became known routes.  Along the way, some would stop and build their homesteads.  Almost everyone planted crops for sustenance (some even planting grapevines).  Some more adventuresome folks, traveling for months at a time, made it all the way to the Pacific Ocean, some 3,000 arduous and dangerous miles over seemingly impossible mountain ranges and deep, dangerous rivers.  The hardships and loss of life is almost unfathomable….

As this slow, but ever-increasing western migration continued, a series of events happened in short order which forever changed the makeup of north America and set the stage for grape growing and winemaking on our west coast.  But first…

A little history of Alta California…

During the time those adventurous new Americans were moving west, Mexico was still part of the Spanish Empire.  Spain, being a very Catholic country, had sent Spanish Franciscan Missionaries north to begin exploring and settling the land they called “Alta California”.  As they migrated north, these missionaries built missions and attempted to convert the local Indigenous Peoples to their religion.  San Diego was the first of 21 missions (1769) and the last one was built here Sonoma in 1823.  With each of those missions, there was a need for wine for Holy Communion, so the missionaries planted vineyards, grew grapes and made both sacramental wine and wine for daily consumption with meals.  Vitis vinifera Mission grapes originally brought over from Spain were the common variety choice.  Unfortunately, the Mission grapes are not known for making very good wine, but, at least, some wine was being made by our early winemakers in early “Alta California”.  

In 1821, two years before Sonoma’s final mission was built, Mexico gained independence from Spain. At that point (drum roll please!) a series of events happened that changed the makeup and maps of both Mexico and the United States, eventually which led to the planting of other, more desirable Vitis vinifera wine grapevines, leading to the making of better and better wine in California. 

The first major event…

Because of a border dispute between Mexico and the Republic of Texas, hostilities were abundant.  Then, in 1836, some volunteer colonists from the United States decided to make a stand at the Alamo, a small Texas fort near present day San Antonio.  Despite a two-week standoff, the Mexican army of Santa Anna soundly defeated the small number of rebels.  What Mexico did not take into account was the huge backlash from across the United States as a few national heroes (Davey Crocket, William Travis and Jim Bowie) were among the dead.  Texas and America did not take defeat well and tensions steadily escalated.

And then…

Just a scant ten years later, another event took place in our Sonoma called The Bear Flag Revolt.  A small group of disgruntled American pioneers (Kit Carson among them) “occupied” Sonoma, this time proclaiming that California was no longer part of Mexico and was an independent republic.  Nary a shot was fired, but soon the U.S, Military began occupying Sonoma and that same year (1846) the rapidly expansionist United States declared war with Mexico.  After the short conflict (1846-1848) a very one-sided treaty was signed and a huge amount of Mexican territory was granted to the US.  A major part was “Alta California”, which quickly simply became “California”.  And then a new series of events dramatically changed the population spread of America.

The next events…

The year that war ended, James Marshall, while building a sawmill on the property of Johann Sutter on the American River, discovered gold!  Word spread east very quickly and the California gold rush (1848-1855) began.  For almost 100 years, America had been filling with immigrants, mostly Europeans that had come to the crowded cities of our East Coast of America looking for a better life.  “Go West, Young Man” represented the ideal place for these brave, hard-working and industrious immigrants who had risked everything to travel to the New World.  New immigration on the eastern shores increased dramatically and hundreds of those thousands of men and families left for the west to settle, build homesteads and plant crops for survival. 

Then in 1862, Congress further encouraged westward expansion by passing The Homestead Act which granted 160 acres of land in exchange for a simple registration fee.  Gold may have been the initial carrot-on-a-stick, but these innovative people were more than willing to work hard at anything to succeed.  As they moved further west, the former Europeans quickly discovered that Northern California’s climate was much like their weather in the Old Country.  Some of those enterprising immigrants brought grapevine cuttings and began growing wine grapes in their new home. 

Agoston Haraszthy!

In 1840, a charismatic and enthusiastic Hungarian by the name of Agoston Haraszthy, emigrated to America’s east coast.  Like many others, he brought grapevine cuttings, first settling in Wisconsin, where he tried growing grapevines.  After one winter, he realized that his vines could not survive the harsh cold, so he looked further west.  Initially lured by California’s gold, he made his way to the Pacific Ocean just in time for the end of the intense but short-lived gold rush.  He eventually settled in Sonoma in 1856 and immediately recognized this area’s potential for growing quality grapevines.  He purchased land that he named “Buena Vista”, built a huge winery and dug caves that are still standing today.  He eventually brought to his new land over 100,000 cuttings from 350 different Vitis vinifera grape varieties from Europe and planted grapevines over his 5,000 acres of land.  At that time, Buena Vista was declared the largest Estate in the world dedicated to growing wine grapes.  Haraszthy was also a scholar and a prolific writer and published studies and treatises on grape growing and wine making.  Haraszthy was truly “The Father of California Viticulture”.  He was followed two years later by other vintner visionaries like Jacob Bundschu and then Charles Gundlach (forming still-in-operation Gundlach Bundschu).  Other early wine pioneers like Krug, Yount, Langtry, Patchett, Wente, Niebaum, Beringer, Frohling, Koehler and LeFranc all contributed mightily to this new burgeoning industry.    

Two more events happened shortly thereafter which forever changed the population spread of our new America.  But I’m out of space, so until my next article, go have a glass of wine and celebrate those early wine pioneers!

“A day without wine is like a day without laughter”      Louis Pasteur