| Napa
Valley is, by far, the best-know wine region in America, devoting
74,000 acres to vine growing. Although Napa's grape acreage represents
just one-tenth of California's wine-grape total, it accounts for
almost a third of the state's total, with about 250 wineries.
The Wine Road, which is
Highway 29, runs parallel to the Napa River. It follows a mix of
Vineland, and cellars/ tasting rooms that are strung along almost
continuously from Trefethen’s winery at Oak Knoll Avenue,
up through Napa.
Napa has proven to be well-suited for
growing grapes, mainly because of its superb climatic zones; and
the stone cellars along the highway remain as gracefully aging monuments,
and add to the already beautiful scenery.
Napa valleys first wine
was made around 1840, by a Missouri Indian fighter (George Youngt),
who settled at what is now Yountville in 1836; planting vines and
orchards in 1838. By the 1860’s he was making 5,000 gallons
of wine each harvest.
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Winemaking in Napa Valley before the Civil
War (1861-1965), usually went along with farming. While growing
there vegetable garden, it was not unusual for farmers to put a
few rows of grapes, where the sun would shine best. The true farming
pioneer of Napa was Prussian Charles Krug, who began making wine
in the early 1860s. He used the first mechanical winepress and built
the first commercial winery at St Helena; training many of California’s
great early winemakers- Clarence Wetmore (who founded Cresta Blanca),
Jacob Beringer, and Carl Wente.
More than 95% of the wineries in Napa
Valley today were built after Mondavi's Spanish mission-style cellars,
giving Napa character and style. Some say that the beauty of the
scenery reflects the most delicious taste of the wine, or as Robert
Louis Stevenson described wine, it is “bottled poetry”.
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