California wine

California wine

California wine has a long and continuing history, and in the late twentieth century became recognized as producing some of the world's finest wine. While wine is made in all fifty U.S. states, up to 90% of American wine is produced in the state...

has a long and continuing history, and in the late twentieth century became recognized as producing some of the world's finest wine. While wine is made in all fifty U.S. state

U.S. state

A U.S. state is any one of the 50 federated states of the United States of America that share sovereignty with the federal government. Because of this shared sovereignty, an American is a citizen both of the federal entity and of his or her state of domicile. Four states use the official title of...

s, up to 90% (by some estimates) of American wine

American wine

American wine has been produced for over 300 years. Today, wine production is undertaken in all fifty states, with California producing 89 percent of all US wine...

 is produced in the state. California would be the fourth largest producer of wine in the world if it were an independent nation.

Early years

The first recorded planting of a vinyard was by the Jesuit Missionary Eusebio Francisco Kino at San Bruno

San Bruno, California

San Bruno is a city in San Mateo County, California, United States. The population was 41,114 at the 2010 census.The city is adjacent to San Francisco International Airport and Golden Gate National Cemetery.-Geography:San Bruno is located at...

 in 1683, but since the mission at San Bruno was abandoned about a year and a half after its founding, the vineyard likely never matured or was harvested.
In 1779, Franciscan missionaries under the direction of Father Junípero Serra

Junípero Serra

Blessed Junípero Serra, O.F.M., , known as Fra Juníper Serra in Catalan, his mother tongue was a Majorcan Franciscan friar who founded the mission chain in Alta California of the Las Californias Province in New Spain—present day California, United States. Fr...

 planted California's first sustained vineyard

Vineyard

A vineyard is a plantation of grape-bearing vines, grown mainly for winemaking, but also raisins, table grapes and non-alcoholic grape juice...

 at Mission San Juan Capistrano

Mission San Juan Capistrano

Mission San Juan Capistrano was a Spanish mission in Southern California, located in present-day San Juan Capistrano. It was founded on All Saints Day November 1, 1776, by Spanish Catholics of the Franciscan Order...

, also the site of the first winery in 1783. Father Serra founded eight other missions

Spanish missions in California

The Spanish missions in California comprise a series of religious and military outposts established by Spanish Catholics of the Franciscan Order between 1769 and 1823 to spread the Christian faith among the local Native Americans. The missions represented the first major effort by Europeans to...

 before his death in 1784, these initially or eventually incorporating vineyards. Hence, he has been called the "Father of California Wine". The variety he planted, presumably descended from earlier Mexican

Mexico

The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...

 plantings, became known as the Mission grape and dominated California wine production until about 1880.

California's first documented imported European wine vines were planted in Los Angeles in 1833 by Jean-Louis Vignes

Jean-Louis Vignes

Jean-Louis Vignes , or as he was known to his Mexican neighbors, "Don Luis del Aliso", was a French settler to the Los Angeles area during the Mexican era. He was the first commercial wine maker in California and one of the first men to import and plant European Vitis vinifera grapes in the state...

. In the 1850s and 1860s, Agoston Haraszthy

Agoston Haraszthy

Agoston Haraszthy was a Hungarian-American traveler, writer, town-builder, and pioneer winemaker in Wisconsin and California, often referred to as the "Father of California Viticulture," or the "Father of Modern Winemaking in California"...

, a Hungarian soldier, merchant and promoter, made several trips to import cuttings from 165 of the greatest European vineyards to California. Some of this endeavor was at his personal expense and some through grants from the state. Considered one of the founders of the California wine industry, Haraszthy contributed his enthusiasm and optimism for the future of wine, along with considerable personal effort and risk. He founded Buena Vista Winery

Buena Vista Winery

Buena Vista Winery , located in Sonoma Valley, is the oldest commercial winery in California. It was founded by Agoston Haraszthy in 1857.-External links:*...

 and promoted vine planting over much of Northern California

Northern California

Northern California is the northern portion of the U.S. state of California. The San Francisco Bay Area , and Sacramento as well as its metropolitan area are the main population centers...

. He dug extensive caves for cellaring, promoted hillside planting, fostered the idea of non-irrigated vineyards and suggested redwood for casks when oak supplies ran low.

As home to both Buena Vista winery, California's oldest commercial winery, and Gundlach Bundschu

Gundlach Bundschu

Gundlach Bundschu is often credited to be California's oldest family-owned winery: it is still owned and operated by the founder's heirs and today led by the sixth generation, Jeff Bundschu...

 winery, California's oldest family-run winery, the Sonoma Valley

Sonoma Valley

Sonoma Valley is the birthplace of the California wine industry and often called The Valley of the Moon. Sonoma Valley is home to some of the earliest vineyards and wineries in the state, some of which survived the phylloxera epidemic of the 1870s and the impact of Prohibition...

 is known as the birthplace of the California wine industry.

In 1854, John Patchett

John Patchett

John Patchett was the first person to plant a commercial vineyard and build a commercial wine cellar in the Napa Valley. Patchett planted his vineyard in 1854 and started making wine in 1857. Patchett established his winery in Napa in 1858....

 planted the first commercial vineyard in Napa Valley and established the first winery there in 1858. In 1861 Charles Krug

Charles Krug

Charles Krug was among the original pioneers of winemaking in the Napa Valley, and was the founder of the winery of the same name. Krug immigrated to the United States from Prussia in 1851 and served as an apprentice winemaker for both Agoston Haraszthy and then John Patchett before establishing...

 who previously had worked for Agoston Haraszthy and Patchett founded his namesake winery in St. Helena and began making his own wine. Originally a Prussian political dissident, Krug learned the trade of the vintner as an apprentice to Haraszthy in the Sonoma Valley. The land on which Krug founded his winery was part of his wife's (Carolina Bale's) dowry. Krug became an important leader of winemaking in the Napa Valley. He was also a mentor for Karl Wente, Charles Wetmore and Jacob Beringer, all of whom became important vintners.

In 1863, species of native American grapes were taken to Botanical Gardens in England. These cuttings carried a species of root louse called phylloxera

Phylloxera

Grape phylloxera ; originally described in France as Phylloxera vastatrix; equated to the previously described Daktulosphaira vitifoliae, Phylloxera vitifoliae; commonly just called phylloxera is a pest of commercial grapevines worldwide, originally native to eastern North America...

which attacks and feeds on the vine roots and leaves. Phylloxera is indigenous to North America and native vine varieties had developed resistance. European vines had no such evolutionary protection. By 1865, phylloxera had spread to vines in Provence

Provence

Provence ; Provençal: Provença in classical norm or Prouvènço in Mistralian norm) is a region of south eastern France on the Mediterranean adjacent to Italy. It is part of the administrative région of Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur...

. Over the next 20 years, it inhabited and decimated

Great French Wine Blight

The Great French Wine Blight was a severe blight of the mid-19th century that destroyed many of the vineyards in France and laid to waste the wine industry...

 nearly all the vineyards of Europe. Many methods were attempted to eradicate phylloxera but all proved temporary and none economical.

Finally Thomas V. Munson, a horticulturist in Texas, suggested grafting

Grafting

Grafting is a horticultural technique whereby tissues from one plant are inserted into those of another so that the two sets of vascular tissues may join together. This vascular joining is called inosculation...

 the European vinifera vines onto American riparia rootsocks. So, there began a long, laborious process of grafting every wine vine in Europe over to American rootstocks. It was only in this manner that the European wine industry could be retrieved from extinction.

In 1879 Captain Gustave Niebaum

Gustave Niebaum

Gustave Ferdinand Niebaum acquired his maritime schooling in Helsinki, Finland. By the end of 1850s - now a Sea Captain - Gustave Niebaum had become the world's leading fur trader. Among his many known accomplishments Captain Niebaum founded the Alaskan Commercial Company in San Francisco,...

 established Inglenook Winery

Inglenook Winery

The Inglenook Winery produced estate bottled wines in Rutherford, California in the Napa Valley. The winery was founded in 1879 by a Finnish Sea Captain Gustave Niebaum. Niebaum died in 1908 and the winery was shut down during Prohibition...

 in Rutherford, California a small village (in Napa County, California

Napa County, California

Napa County is a county located north of the San Francisco Bay Area in the U.S. state of California. It is coterminous with the Napa, California, Metropolitan Statistical Area. As of 2010 the population is 136,484. The county seat is Napa....

). It was the first Bordeaux

Bordeaux

Bordeaux is a port city on the Garonne River in the Gironde department in southwestern France.The Bordeaux-Arcachon-Libourne metropolitan area, has a population of 1,010,000 and constitutes the sixth-largest urban area in France. It is the capital of the Aquitaine region, as well as the prefecture...

 style winery in the USA. Captain Niebaum's wines became world renowned. His Inglenook wines won gold medals at the World's Fair

World's Fair

World's fair, World fair, Universal Exposition, and World Expo are various large public exhibitions held in different parts of the world. The first Expo was held in The Crystal Palace in Hyde Park, London, United Kingdom, in 1851, under the title "Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All...

 of Paris in 1889.

During the period when the Europeans were contending with phylloxera, the American wine industry was ironically flourishing. By 1900, America had a fully developed and proud commercial wine producing business. Many California wines received medals in European competitions. Barrels of California wine were being regularly exported to Australia, Canada

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

, Central America, England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

, Germany

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

, Mexico

Mexico

The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...

 and the Orient.

Prohibition

The destruction of the American wine industry would come not from phylloxeria but from Prohibition in the United States

Prohibition in the United States

Prohibition in the United States was a national ban on the sale, manufacture, and transportation of alcohol, in place from 1920 to 1933. The ban was mandated by the Eighteenth Amendment to the Constitution, and the Volstead Act set down the rules for enforcing the ban, as well as defining which...

. Thirty-three states had gone dry at the outbreak of World War I. Wartime Prohibition was enacted in 1919, followed by the Volstead National Prohibition Act and the 18th Amendment

Eighteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution

The Eighteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution established Prohibition in the United States. The separate Volstead Act set down methods of enforcing the Eighteenth Amendment, and defined which "intoxicating liquors" were prohibited, and which were excluded from prohibition...

 to the U.S. Constitution in 1920, forbidding the "manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquors."

Through a loophole allowing each home to "make 200 gallons of non-intoxicating cider and fruit juice per year," thousands of otherwise law-abiding citizens became home winemakers and bootleggers. Prices for fresh grapes shot up, because of the increased demand and a railroad shortage of refrigerated freight cars in which to ship them.

Growers began replanting fine wine variety vineyards to juice grape varieties that shipped well. The massive plantings produced a constant surplus of low-quality grapes that persisted until 1971.

By the time of National Repeal, effective December 5, 1933, the industry was in ruins. Although some wineries managed to survive by obtaining permits to make wines used for medicinal, sacramental and non-beverage additive purposes, production dropped 94% from 1919 to 1925.

Repeal

Even after Repeal of Prohibition

Repeal of Prohibition

The Repeal of Prohibition in the United States was accomplished with the passage of the Twenty-first Amendment to the United States Constitution on December 5, 1933.-Background:...

, several states stayed dry: Kansas

Kansas

Kansas is a US state located in the Midwestern United States. It is named after the Kansas River which flows through it, which in turn was named after the Kansa Native American tribe, which inhabited the area. The tribe's name is often said to mean "people of the wind" or "people of the south...

 until 1948, Oklahoma

Oklahoma

Oklahoma is a state located in the South Central region of the United States of America. With an estimated 3,751,351 residents as of the 2010 census and a land area of 68,667 square miles , Oklahoma is the 28th most populous and 20th-largest state...

 until 1957, and Mississippi

Mississippi

Mississippi is a U.S. state located in the Southern United States. Jackson is the state capital and largest city. The name of the state derives from the Mississippi River, which flows along its western boundary, whose name comes from the Ojibwe word misi-ziibi...

 until 1966. Seventeen states

Alcoholic beverage control state

Alcoholic beverage control states, generally called control states, are those in the United States that have state monopoly over the wholesaling and/or retailing of some or all categories of alcoholic beverages, such as beer, wine, and distilled spirits....

 chose to establish monopoly liquor stores with limited selections. Today 10% of the US area and 6% of the population remain dry.

Anticipating Repeal, speculators and others soon flooded the legal market with quickly and poorly made wine. Dilettantes published books and articles warning Americans about rigid rules that must be followed to serve the proper wine with the proper food from the proper glass at the proper temperature. Faced with low quality products with which to risk committing social blunders and while remaining uncertain about the social acceptance of any alcohol, most Americans stayed away.

The only group of wines that sold well were the fortified dessert wine

Dessert wine

Dessert wines are sweet wines typically served with dessert.There is no simple definition of a dessert wine. In the UK, a dessert wine is considered to be any sweet wine drunk with a meal, as opposed to the white fortified wines drunk before the meal, and the red fortified wines drunk after it...

s. Taxed at the lower rate of wine as opposed to distilled spirits, but with 20% alcohol, this group made the cheapest intoxicant available. Before 1920, table wines accounted for 3 of every 4 gallons shipped. After 1933, fortified wines were 3 of every 4 gallons shipped. It was not until 1968 that table wine

Table wine

Table wine is a wine term with two different meanings: a wine style; and a quality level within wine classification.In the United States, table wine primarily designates a wine style - ordinary wine which is neither fortified nor sparkling....

s sales finally overtook fortified wines, regaining the status of most popular wine category.

Before 1920, there were more than 2,500 commercial wineries in the United States. Less than 100 survived as winemaking operations to 1933. By 1960, that number had grown to only 271. California had 713 bonded wineries before Prohibition; it took more than half a century, until 1986, before that many were again operating.

Prohibition left a legacy of distorting the role of alcohol in American life and ruining a fledgling world-class wine industry, which took decades of work to overcome. Research at the University of California at Davis and Fresno State University greatly assisted the new breed of vintners who arrived in California in the 1960s and who were committed to producing wine of the highest international standards.

Wine revolution

André Tchelistcheff

André Tchelistcheff

André Tchelistcheff was America's most influential post-Prohibition winemaker. Tchelistcheff is most notable for his contributions toward defining the style of California's best wines, especially Cabernet Sauvignon...

 is generally credited with ushering in the modern era of winemaking in California. Beaulieu Vineyard

Beaulieu Vineyard

Beaulieu Vineyard is a vineyard near Rutherford, California, belonging to the appellation Rutherford AVA. It was established by Georges de Latour and his wife Fernande in 1900.-History:...

s (BV) founder and owner Georges de Latour hired Tchelisticheff in 1938. He introduced several new techniques and procedures, such as aging wine in small French Oak barrels, cold fermentation, vineyard frost prevention, and malolactic fermentation

Malolactic fermentation

Malolactic fermentation is a process in winemaking where tart-tasting malic acid, naturally present in grape must, is converted to softer-tasting lactic acid. Malolactic fermentation tends to create a rounder, fuller mouthfeel. It has been said that malic acid tastes of green apples...

.

Brother Timothy; a member of Institute of the Brothers of the Christian Schools

Institute of the Brothers of the Christian Schools

The Institute of the Brothers of the Christian Schools is a Roman Catholic religious teaching congregation, founded in France by Saint Jean-Baptiste de la Salle and now based in Rome...

 was also very instrumental in the creation of the modern wine industry. After an earlier career as a teacher, he transferred to the order's Mont La Salle located on Mount Veeder in the Mayacamas Mountains west of Napa

Napa, California

-History:The name Napa was probably derived from the name given to a southern Nappan village whose people shared the area with elk, deer, grizzlies and cougars for many centuries, according to Napa historian Kami Santiago. At the time of the first recorded exploration into Napa Valley in 1823, the...

 in 1935 to become the wine chemist for the order's expanding wine operations. The Christian Brothers had grown grapes and made sacramental wine

Sacramental wine

Sacramental wine, Communion wine or altar wine is wine obtained from grapes and intended for use in celebration of the Eucharist...

 in Benicia, California

Benicia, California

Benicia is a waterside city in Solano County, California, United States. It was the first city in California to be founded by Anglo-Americans, and served as the state capital for nearly thirteen months from 1853 to 1854. The population was 26,997 at the 2010 census. The city is located in the San...

 during Prohibition, but decided to branch out into commercial production of wine and brandy

Brandy

Brandy is a spirit produced by distilling wine. Brandy generally contains 35%–60% alcohol by volume and is typically taken as an after-dinner drink...

 following the repeal of Prohibition. The science teacher was a fast learner and soon established Christian Brothers as one of the leading brands in the state's budding wine industry; Brother Timothy's smiling face in advertisements and promotional materials became one of the most familiar images for wine consumers across the country.

In 1965, Napa Valley icon Robert Mondavi

Robert Mondavi

Robert Gerald Mondavi was a leading California vineyard operator whose technical improvements and marketing strategies brought worldwide recognition for the wines of the Napa Valley in California. From an early period, Mondavi aggressively promoted labeling wines varietally rather than...

 broke away from his family's Charles Krug estate to found his own in Oakville, California. It was the first new large-scale winery to be established in the valley since before prohibition. Following the establishment of the Mondavi estate, the number of wineries in the valley continued to grow, as did the region's reputation.

Some California wine makers began to produce quality wines but still had difficulty marketing them. Frank Schoonmaker

Frank Schoonmaker

Frank Musselman Schoonmaker was an American travel guide writer, wine writer and wine merchant. He was born in Spearfish, South Dakota, and attended two years at Princeton University, after which he dropped out of in 1925 to live and travel in Europe...

, a prominent journalist and wine writer of the 1950s and 1960s introduced the German idea of labeling wines using varietal (Pinot Noir

Pinot Noir

Pinot noir is a black wine grape variety of the species Vitis vinifera. The name may also refer to wines created predominantly from Pinot noir grapes...

, Chardonnay

Chardonnay

Chardonnay is a green-skinned grape variety used to make white wine. It is originated from the Burgundy wine region of eastern France but is now grown wherever wine is produced, from England to New Zealand...

, Riesling

Riesling

Riesling is a white grape variety which originated in the Rhine region of Germany. Riesling is an aromatic grape variety displaying flowery, almost perfumed, aromas as well as high acidity. It is used to make dry, semi-sweet, sweet and sparkling white wines. Riesling wines are usually varietally...

) rather than semi-generic

Semi-generic

Semi-generic is a legal term used in by the United States Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau to refer to a specific type of wine designation. The majority of these were originally based on the names of well-known European wine-producing regions...

 names borrowed from famous European regions (Burgundy

Burgundy wine

Burgundy wine is wine made in the Burgundy region in eastern France, in the valleys and slopes west of the Saône River, a tributary of the Rhône. The most famous wines produced here - those commonly referred to as "Burgundies" - are red wines made from Pinot Noir grapes or white wines made from...

, Chablis

Chablis

Chablis is a town and commune in the Yonne department in Burgundy in north-central France.It lies in the valley of the River Serein.-Wine:The village of Chablis gives its name to one of the most famous French white wines...

, Rhine, etc.). Robert Mondavi was one of the first to label the majority of his wines by varietal names and was tireless in promoting the practice.

By the late 1960s and early 1970s, the quality of some vintners' wines was outstanding but few took notice. On May 24, 1976, a blind tasting was held in Paris with a panel made up exclusively of French wine experts. After comparing six California Chardonnays with four French Chardonnays, three of the top four were Californian. Six of the nine judges ranked Chateau Montelena

Chateau Montelena

Chateau Montelena is a Napa Valley winery most famous for winning the white wine section of the historic "Judgement of Paris" wine competition. Chateau Montelena's Chardonnay was in competition with nine other wines from France and California under blind tasting...

 the highest; Chalone Vineyard

Chalone Vineyard

Chalone Vineyard is located in the Chalone AVA south of San Francisco, California, United States, on an unusual geological formation called the Gavilan benchland. The soil is rich in limestone and calcium carbonate and also contains a significant amount of decomposed granite. Chalone is situated in...

 came in third and Spring Mountain Vineyard fourth. When reds were evaluated, Stag's Leap Wine Cellars

Stag's Leap Wine Cellars

Stag's Leap Wine Cellars is a winery established by Warren Winiarski in 1970 and based in the Stags Leap District of Napa Valley, California. The winery was sold to a joint venture by Chateau Ste...

 was ranked number one. This competition focused a great deal of attention on wines from the Napa Valley.

The red wines evaluated in 1976 were retasted in two separate blind tastings (the French Culinary Institute Wine Tasting of 1986 and the Wine Spectator Wine Tasting of 1986) and also in The Wine Rematch of the Century. In all retastings, a California red was chosen first, while the French wines lost positions in the rankings.

In Oz Clarke's New encyclopedia of Wine, Mr. Clarke writes that California "was the catalyst and then the locomotive for change that finally prised open the ancient European wineland's rigid grip on the hierarchy of quality wine and led the way in proving that there are hundreds if not thousands of places around the world where good to great wine can be made." He observes that "until the exploits of California's modern pioneers of the 1960s and '70's, no-one had ever before challenged the right of Europe's, and in particular, France's vineyards, to be regarded as the only source of great wine in the world."

Fred Franzia and his Bronco Wine Company

Bronco Wine Company

The Bronco Wine Company is a vintner that produces wines under many brands and is based in Ceres, California. It is the fourth largest producer of wine in the United States....

 has caused recent waves in the business of California wine marketing. The company's low priced Charles Shaw wine

Charles Shaw wine

Charles Shaw is a brand of "extreme value" wine . Largely made from California grapes, Charles Shaw wines currently include Cabernet Sauvignon, White Zinfandel, Merlot, Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, Shiraz, Valdiguie in the style of Beaujolais nouveau, and limited quantities of Pinot Grigio...

 which is sold exclusively by Trader Joe's

Trader Joe's

Trader Joe's is a privately held chain of specialty grocery stores headquartered in Monrovia, California. , Trader Joe's had a total of 365 stores. Approximately half of its stores are in California, with the heaviest concentration in Southern California, but the company also has locations in 30...

 markets along with the company's other labels have attracted new entry level wine consumers to the fold but also has alienated many of the smaller vintners in the state by placing some downward pressure on pricing.

Newer regions, producing award-winning wines, have entered the California wine industry, including Temecula Valley wine country in the south, the Santa Ynez valley in the central coast, and in the Red Hills Lake County in the north.

Backed by continuing research, California vintners continue to innovate in attempts to further enhance the quality and competitiveness of their products. The story of California wine continues to evolve.

Immigration and the California wine industry

The Californian wine industry has had a long history of employing migrant worker

Migrant worker

The term migrant worker has different official meanings and connotations in different parts of the world. The United Nations' definition is broad, including any people working outside of their home country...

s to tend to the vineyards and assist at harvest

Harvest (wine)

The harvesting of wine grapes is one of the most crucial steps in the process of winemaking. The time of harvest is determined primarily by the ripeness of the grape as measured by sugar, acid and tannin levels with winemakers basing their decision to pick based on the style of wine they wish to...

 time. Its close proximity to Mexico

Mexico

The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...

 has opened the possibility to some of those workers being classified as undocumented or illegal

Illegal immigration

Illegal immigration is the migration into a nation in violation of the immigration laws of that jurisdiction. Illegal immigration raises many political, economical and social issues and has become a source of major controversy in developed countries and the more successful developing countries.In...

. Karen Ross, president of the California Association of Winegrowers, has estimated that as of 2007 the number could be as high as 70% of the employees in the California wine industry may be illegal. New immigration

Immigration

Immigration is the act of foreigners passing or coming into a country for the purpose of permanent residence...

 regulations announced by the Department of Homeland Security required all employers to fire illegal workers or face paying a fine up to $10,000 for each infraction. In August, following a lawsuit by the AFL-CIO

AFL-CIO

The American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations, commonly AFL–CIO, is a national trade union center, the largest federation of unions in the United States, made up of 56 national and international unions, together representing more than 11 million workers...

 union, a federal judge

United States federal judge

In the United States, the title of federal judge usually means a judge appointed by the President of the United States and confirmed by the United States Senate in accordance with Article II of the United States Constitution....

 placed a restraining order on the enactment of the new regulations pending further review. Industry experts predict substantial changes will come in to the Californian wine industry as results of the changing labor and immigration laws which will result in higher prices for consumers in the public market.

See also

California wineries

• California cult wines
• Globalization of wine
  Globalization of wine
  "Globalization is the expansion of brands across nations and into other continents. In food and wine it refers to the whole problem of making the product global. The primary issue is scaling production while reducing the costs of goods with processes. In marketing it refers to wearing the mantle of...
  
  
• Wine Institute

External links

• The Judgment of Paris
• Californian Wine Regions Map
• Southern California Wine & Wine Industry Collection at Cal Poly Pomona University Library Special Collections
• Napa Valley Wine Co. the story and historical documents re. Charles Krug, Jacob Beringer/Beringer Bros., and Cesare/Robert Mondavi (in german)

Further reading

• Clarke, Oz., Oz Clarke's New encyclopedia of Wine. NY: Harcourt Brace, 1999