In the fall of 1919, as Napa Valley winemakers were gathering for holiday celebrations — slicing turkey and saluting a strong harvest — a new law began to cloud their future. In late October of that year, Congress passed the Volstead Act, calling for a federal prohibition on alcohol. How would their operations survive the years to come?
The Volstead Act provided enforcement procedures and permissions for the 18th amendment’s ban on the sale, purchase and transport of alcohol. The 18th amendment was ratified on Jan. 16, 1920. At midnight on January 17, 1920 the nation went dry. Overnight, an industry was forced to adapt or dissolve.
In Northern California, there was such an excess of bottled wine that businesses began dumping reserves in the Napa River. Legend says that for a time, the waters ran red.
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A brief history of Napa Valley wine
Before Napa Valley's popular cabernet sauvignon, much of the area's wine was cultivated from the vines of Sonoma’s mission variety, brought up in 1839 from Mexico with the Spanish Franciscan missionaries. In some ways, the roots of the industry were religious.
In the 1860s, the region’s first commercial vineyards established themselves — Charles Krug first, followed by present-day legends like Jacob Beringer. In the decades immediately following, the region was attracting more European growers, many from Germany, says Lin Weber, author of "Prohibition in the Napa Valley." The industry was modest, with just 140 wineries by 1889, but it began to boast a following. The railroad completed tracks to Calistoga by 1868, ushering in wealthy tourists.
“The upper valley and in Napa Valley became kind of a European gem for people who would like to have a taste of what they felt was cultured,” says Weber. “Who knows how the wine tasted. Probably terrible.”
In 1894, a merger of seven companies formed the California Wine Association, headquartered in San Francisco through which merchants sought to stabilize wine prices. Wine was increasingly produced under their purview. By the time of Prohibition, the vertically integrated monopoly controlled around 80% of the state’s wine. Growers would send their grapes to the CWA, where the drink was mada in hefty vats of varying varietals and distributed nationally.
“It was like a big wine soup,” says Weber.
And it was successful. But come the turn of the century, the industry started to suffer unprecedented setbacks.
By 1906, the industry was gaining momentum — only to suffer a shock from the devastating impacts of San Francisco’s 1906 earthquake and fire. Not only were 30 million gallons of California wine lost in the destruction, but the region’s largest market crashed. Just eight years later, the world was at war. Then came Prohibition.
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The terms of Prohibition dictated that wine could not be sold, purchased or transported. It could still be consumed and possessed. Families were allowed up to 200 gallons of fruit juice or cider per year. People began making their own wine.
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And not without the help of the wine industry — with many converting their operations to ship grapes across the United States, said Frances Dinkelspiel, journalist and author of "Tangled Vines," an account of the seedy underbelly of California’s vineyards. On the East Coast, grapes went for high prices. Growers tore up quality roots for a heartier fruit stock that would be better suited for shipping.
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But it didn’t last.
“In the beginning of Prohibition, there were just a few people who decided to go into that business, and then more people started to go into that business and there was oversupply,” said Dinkelspiel.
And as the 13 years of Prohibition wore on, the Great Depression took hold of the nation. Many vineyards lost their businesses. By the end of the ban, 12 Napa wineries remained — primarily those that were able to secure exemptions for the sale of medical or sacramental wine.
One such business awarded a blessed bid to keep producing, was Beaulieu Vineyard. Georges de Latour, owner and founder of Beaulieu, kept his operation thriving through a lucrative business relationship with Catholic Church.
Sacramental wine production started at Beaulieu prior to Prohibition, said Trevor Durling, senior winemaker and manager of the winery. It dates back to 1906, just six years after the founding of Beaulieu. His wife, Fernande, was responsible for the connection, first sparked in San Francisco.
“By the time we entered the Prohibition era in 1920. Beaulieu was really well positioned to survive with this relationship that they had. And in fact, between 1920 and 1933, they were able to quadruple in size,” says Durling.
As neighboring vineyards left the business, de Latour expanded. “He saw a huge opportunity there,” says Durling, “Because people were unloading them for pennies on the dollar.”
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Medical wine comprised a small percentage of sales at Beaulieu, too. Beyond those means, wineries attempted to think up cunning ways to keep business afloat — wine bricks became a popular tactic.
The product was dried wine grapes, marked with a warning label that read, “Caution, do not drop in two gallons of water and add sugar and put it in a dark place because it would form alcohol,” says Weber.
Authorities didn’t seem to mind. Bootlegging, too, was rampant. It was widely acknowledged that restaurants in the Napa Valley and nearby cities would have wine to serve. There, says Weber, police would confiscate illegal bottles from tourists and offer it to establishments in the area instead for a profit.
“I think it has everything to do with connections,” says Dinkelspiel.
Underground exchange was enough to keep thirsts quenched, but not to keep industry alive. When repeal came in the form of the 21st amendment in 1933, quality winemaking had been widely decimated.
“There was nobody left who really knew how to make wine very well. None of the equipment worked anymore, it had been unused for a decade,” says Weber.
It wasn’t until the 1960s that Napa Valley would be revived — this time, with taste, quality and cabernet sauvignon.
