"Falcon Crest" and Napa Valley

There were a few big events that put American wine and specifically Napa Valley on the radar. Some of them have been mentioned in this blog several times. The 1976 Judgement of Paris wine tasting, the 1991 French Paradox on 60 Minutes, and the movie Sideways, released in 2004. There's another largely unforgotten TV show.

Starring Jane Wyman, as the evil owner

A few years after the 1976 Judgement of Paris, the Dallas soap opera hit American TV. By 1980 the show was huge. Copycats came along like Dynasty and Knots Landing. In December 1981 Falcon Crest premiered. It had a drama-filled feuding rich family that owned the fictitious Falcon Crest Winery in the fictitious Tuscany Valley just north of San Francisco.

So five years after the Paris tasting, we saw the opulence of Napa Valley on our 25-inch TV screens in prime time. Outside shots were often from Spring Mountain Winery in Napa Valley. It wasn't long before the Falcon Crest groupies descended on Napa looking for the winery, the fictitious homes of the show's stars, and probably the vineyard where the daughter of the owner got it on with a field worker.

By 1984 Napa locals were complaining about all the weekend traffic looking for Falcon Crest. The owner of Spring Mountain Winery decided to cash in the notoriety. He bought wine on the open market, labeled it Falcon Crest, and it was a big seller. He opened a tasting room and had a Falcon Crest tour showing where scenes were shot.

Years later, the owner of Spring Mountain Winery said the fame no doubt helped him, but was probably bad for Napa Valley as a whole.

Spring Mountain Vineyard

Some info for this post from an article on VinePair.com