5 little-known facts about the history of California wine

TangledXVinesMy forthcoming book, Tangled Vines, focuses on the largest crime involving wine in history: an arson fire that destroyed 4.5 million bottles of wine worth $250 million.

The book also traces the life one of the bottles lost in the fire. It was made in 1875 in a vineyard in Rancho Cucamonga in southern California by my great-great grandfather, Isaias Hellman.

I did a lot of research on the history of California wine for my book and found some fun things.

Here are five little-known facts about California wine:

1) The Franciscan fathers were the first to plant grapes in California. Father Junipero Serra wrote to his bosses in Baja California in the late 18th century and asked that they ship grapevines north. The grapes were planted at Mission San Juan Capistrano near Los Angeles. They were named Mission grapes and became the primary grape used for making wine throughout the 1880s, even though the wine they produced was flat and bland. Historians think the first harvest in California was in 1782.   Los Angeles vineyards

2) Southern California, not Napa or Sonoma, was the heart of the early wine industry in the 19th century. Settlers in the pueblo of Los Angeles, including Californios, Americans, and Frenchmen, planted vineyards along the banks of the Los Angeles River. In the 1870s, there were so many grapevines that Los Angeles was nicknamed the “City of Vines.” A disease had wiped out most of the grapevines by 1886. Urbanization did the rest.

The CWA turned the Kohler and Frohling building in San Francisco into its headquarters in 1894.

The CWA turned the Kohler and Frohling building in San Francisco into its headquarters in 1894.

3) The action moved to San Francisco in the 1890s, when wine houses – large operations that bought grapes, made wine, and shipped it around the world – dominated the industry. San Francisco’s temperate climate, with its summers cooled by fog, made it an ideal place to store wine. By the 1890s, there were more than 100 wine houses in the city.

4) In 1894, after the price for wine and grapes hit rock bottom, seven of these wine houses merged to form the California Wine Association to stabilize the market. After a bruising and brutal wine war, the CWA became a monopoly, eventually controlling 80% of the production and distribution of wine in California.

Winehaven was the largest winemaking facility in the world. It stood on the edge of the San Francisco Bay near the city of Richmond, CA. It still exists today.

Winehaven was the largest winemaking facility in the world. It stood on the edge of the San Francisco Bay near the city of Richmond, CA. It still exists today.

5) After the 1906 earthquake and fire in San Francisco, the California Wine Association built the world’s largest winery on Pt. Molate near Richmond. (See photo above.) Winehaven was a city-state, with housing for workers, a school, a big house for the boss, train tracks, a port, and the capacity to store 10 million gallons of wine at once. It is still there, decaying on the edge of the bay. You can see it to your left as you drive east across the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge.

Winehaven is still standing, abandoned, at the edge of San Francisco Bay

Winehaven is still standing, abandoned, at the edge of San Francisco Bay

Please check out a list of my readings for Tangled Vines: Greed, Murder, Obsession and an Arsonist in the Vineyards of California.

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7 Comments

  1. Jennifer on September 13, 2015 at 5:25 pm

    Thanks for sharing! Love these old photos, and had never heard of Winehaven. Will look for it when I drive over the Richmond bridge next.

  2. richard levin on October 7, 2015 at 3:17 pm

    Congratulations on the release of your new book! I hope to make it to one of your book signings.
    I love Galleano winery and I wish you well there with Don he is an exceptional historian on Cucamonga wine history!
    Rich Levin

  3. Michael Krajac on June 13, 2016 at 1:29 am

    I just read your book and couldn’t put it down. I finished reading it in a day. I recommend it to anyone who is interested in the history of California wine production. I remember the Wine Central fire you could see the smoke for miles.

  4. Yvette Benton on March 16, 2019 at 9:39 pm

    I have not read the book yet, but was wondering if you talk a lot about Jean Louis Vignes and his nephews?

    • Frances Dinkelspiel on March 17, 2019 at 1:58 pm

      Yes I do talk a lot about them. In fact, Jean Louis Sansevain made the 1875 Rancho Cucamonga port that I write about extensively.

  5. Gene Meier on June 21, 2020 at 12:12 pm

    I am the biographer of William Wehner (1847-1928) of Evergreen, Santa Clara County

  6. Lee on June 10, 2022 at 3:56 pm

    Serra planted California’s first vineyard at the Mission San Diego de Alcala, which is now known as the Serra Ranch.

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