There are over 200 years of wine history in Sonoma County. I'll hit some highlights that helped get us where we are today.
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| Buena Vista Winery, Sonoma |
1812 First grapes in the county were planted by Russian fur trappers near their outpost of Fort Ross on the rugged northern Sonoma coast, in the current Ft Ross-Seaview appellation. The Russians never quite made good with this remote outpost, so after 20 years they headed back to Alaska.
1823 Building begins on the last California Mission in the town of Sonoma. As with other missions, they planted mission grapes to make wine -- for sacramental purposes only, I'm sure.
1857 Hungarian immigrant Agoston Haraszthy founded Buena Vista, California's first premium winery, just a couple miles from the Sonoma Mission. He was instrumental in improving grape growing and wine making in the state, making trips to Europe to learn from them. He also brought back thousands of vine cuttings. Haraszthy has the unofficial title of The Father of California Viticulture.
1920 By the time Prohibition came about, there were 200 wineries in Sonoma County; 50 survived until 1933 when Prohibition was repealed. Vineyards had been taken out and replaced with other crops. With the Great Depression and WWII, the county didn't reach 200 wineries again until 1975.
1976 The Judgement of Paris put California on the world wine map. Chardonnays and Cabernets from Napa wineries were tasted blind against the best from France by French wine judges. Napa won in both categories. The number of wineries in California skyrocketed in the 1980s.
2024 There are over 425 wineries in the county and 60,000 acres (94 sq miles) of wine grapes.
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| Chinese laborers building Buena Vista Winery in the 1850s |
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