When Wine Meets The Glass...
King Jacob Winery, Since 2010
The first recorded planting of a vineyard was by the Spanish Jesuit Missionary Eusebio Francisco Kino at Misión San Bruno in Baja California in 1683 implanting the first variety named "Misionero". In 1779, Franciscan missionaries under the direction of the Spanish Father Junípero Serra planted California's first sustained vineyard at Mission San Diego de Alcalá. Father Serra founded eight other California missions. Hence, he has been called the "Father of California Wine". The variety he planted, presumably descended from Spain, became known as the Mission grape and dominated California wine production until about 1880.
Grapes were planted in Sonoma County at Fort Ross as early as 1812. Padre Jose Altimira planted several thousand grape vines at Mission San Francisco Solano in what is now the city of Sonoma, in southern Sonoma County. Cuttings from the Sonoma mission vineyards were carried throughout the northern California area to start new vineyards. By the time of the Bear Flag Revolt in Sonoma and the subsequent annexation of California by the United States in 1854, wine grapes were an established part of agriculture in the region. The vineyards of General Mariano Vallejo, military Governor of Mexican California and based in Sonoma, were producing an annual income of $20,000 at that time. The grape varietals planted would not be considered premium varietals today.
In 1855, a Hungarian named Agoston Haraszthy arrived in Sonoma Valley. Upon his arrival, he purchased the Salvador Vallejo vineyard, which he then renamed it Buena Vista. Commissioned in 1861 by the California legislature to study viticulture in Europe, he returned with more than 100,000 cuttings of premium grape varietals. Many of the immigrants to the area were Northern Italian or from other wine-growing regions of Europe. After the Civil War and before Prohibition, wineries such as Bundschu, Foppiano, Korbel, Simi, Gundlach, Quitzow and Sebastiani were established that still exist.