The Los Angeles Connection to California Wine History

  How could Los Angeles have any influence on the wine industry? Well, it turns out that the start of California's commercial wine business was in LA.

  The California missions run from San Diego's Mission, founded in 1769, to Sonoma's Mission in 1823. BTW, there were also missions throughout Baja California. The missions were known for planting wine grapes and making mission wine for church services and to serve at their own dinners.

  You might consider the San Diego Mission as the oldest winery in the country. However, they haven't made wine there in a very long time, it was never really a commercial winery, and California wasn't part of the US at the time.

The Ramona Vine, or Mother Vine,
Planted at Mission San Gabriel in LA, circa 1770s
Oldest vine in the country that's still producing grapes

A Timeline of Related History:

• 1771  San Gabriel Mission opens a few miles NE of what is now downtown LA.
• 1830s Frenchman John-Louis Vignes plants the first European grapes in LA and builds the El Aliso Winery.
• 1840  Los Angeles estimated non-native population about is 1,600. San Francisco's estimated population about 450.
• 1848  Gold is discovered at Sutter's Mill, east of Sacramento, 350 miles north of LA.
• 1850  The LA area is the biggest producer of wine in California, with over 100 wineries.
• 1850  LA population 1,600. SF 35,000. Sacramento 9,100. 
• 1850s SF become the port-of-entry for the 49ers and the commercial hub. Wells Fargo bank, established 1852 in SF, Levi Strauss in 1853 in SF, and even Ghirardelli opened in 1850 in SF, selling chocolate and supplies to miners.
• 1857  Buena Vista Winery established in Sonoma. In 1858 Gundlach Bundschu opens nearby. Both are a short distance from the town of Sonoma's mission.
• 1860  Los Angeles population 4,400, San Francisco 57,000. Sacramento 24,000. Los Angeles County had a population of 11,000, slightly less than Sonoma County at that time.
• 1861  Charles Krug opens the first commercial winery in Napa Valley.
  
• 1869  The transcontinental railroad comes to LA and SF, beginning a population boom for LA, and a second population boom for SF (the first was the Gold Rush).
• 1890  City of Los Angeles population is 50,000. SF 299,000.

 

  The early 19th century wine production of Los Angeles was mostly mission grapes. Beginning in the 1830s, immigrants imported European grapes that gradually took over. 

  The peak for LA wine production is considered 1850, when it was known as The City of Vines. The Gold Rush was underway, with population growth and wine production shifting to the north, where the money was. In 1859 the City of L.A. made vineyard land tax free to encourage the industry.

  By the 1890s, the LA region wine industry was fading as the Northern California industry was booming. Prohibition knocked out what was left of Southern California's wine business. Today, there are a handful of urban wineries in the Los Angeles area. A couple of counties up the coast from LA, Santa Barbara County, has a thriving wine business today.

A Los Angeles vineyard and orange grove, circa 1876
Heritage Art/Getty