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"California Wines in the Napa Valley"California Wines - Napa Valley Even though Napa Valley California is an area that is only 30 miles long and 5 miles wide, it boasts almost 400 wineries. Located north of San Francisco Bay, it was one of the original counties of California, created in 1850, at the time of statehood. For more than 150 years, vineyards have been part of the Napa Valley landscape and it is considered one of the top wine areas in California and indeed all of the U.S.A. George Yount planted the first vineyard in Napa Valley in 1838 and the town of Napa was laid out in 1845. By the mid 1850's there were approximately 50,000 grapevines planted and by the late 1860's there were 50 vitners in the valley. Unfortunately, two major events adversely affected wine making starting in 1929. Prohibition and Phylloxera, an aphid-like insect that destroys grapevine root stock arrived in Napa. Following the second World War, the wine industry began to flourish again. In 1966 Robert Mondavi left his family's Charles Krug Estate to found his own winery. (Charles Krug had established the valley's first commercial winery in the 1860's). This was the first large scale winery built since before Prohibition. From then on, the number of wineries continued to grow, along with the region's reputation for world class wines. In fact, it is ranked with the wine regions of France and Italy for fine wine. Boutique wineries are found alongside the larger ones, also producing some of the world's best. Many grape varieties are grown here, including: Each year approximately 5 million people visit this region, making it the second most popular tourist destination in California, with Disneyland taking first place. We have included a link to the Napa website, where you can find more information about this region.
Napa Valley Wines
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