A 1980s soap opera helped popularize Napa Valley, broadcasting the idyllic wine country to millions of American viewers every week.

The 19th-century Gold Rush and its sudden influx of European residents helped turn California's Napa Valley into wine country.

Napa Valley became a player on the international stage in the mid 1970s, when judges in a blind taste test deemed its wine superior to France's.

California's Napa Valley, one of the wine world's most famous regions, is home to some of the most valuable agricultural land in the US.

Soap operas were especially popular in the '70s and '80s

Shows like "As the World Turns" and "Love of Life" attracted tens of millions of viewers and had many high-profile fans, including Andy Warhol, Sammy Davis Jr. and Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall. This Time cover story from 1976 explores the pop culture phenomenon.

Napa Valley was the second officially sanctioned wine-growing region in the US.

A blind taste test in 1976 determined that California produced better wine than France in a decision known as 'the Judgment of Paris' that realigned the wine world.

The adoption of modern appliances led to the soap opera's rise

Soaps grew more popular as they transitioned to television in the 1950s. At the same time, the adoption of modern appliances like the automatic dishwasher and the clothes dryer offered housewives more free time, which soaps could now occupy. By 1970, CBS, NBC, and ABC were airing 18 daytime soaps.

The Napa Valley has unique growing conditions, a quality the wine industry refers to as 'terroir.'

Mexican Americans have become a part of Napa's tradition

While the Napa wine world was largely homogenous for many decades, things are beginning to change. This short video highlights Mexican American winemakers in Napa, focusing on the story of Elias Fernandez of Shafer Vineyards. Fernandez began his wine journey as a migrant grape-picker and has been making wine for over 40 years. In 2008, his vintage won Wine Spectator’s Wine of the Year.

A root lice infestation, transported from the East Coast, once destroyed over 80% of Napa's vines.

Napa Valley is an internationally known wine destination, but it only produces only 4% of California's wine.

‘Twin Peaks’ was David Lynch’s ode to the soap opera

In the 1980s, David Lynch was primarily known as the director of art films like “Eraserhead” and “Blue Velvet.” But “Twin Peaks,” his primetime ABC show with writer Mark Frost, was a take on the soap opera, leaning into the genre’s tropes: stilted dialogue, affairs, missing person, and melodrama.

California's Napa Valley and Sonoma County both produce world-class wines, but they have key differences.

Food & Wine magazine's guide to the Napa Valley (and its next-door neighbor, Sonoma Valley) walks through the environmental and geological conditions that differentiate these two first-class wine regions from the rest of the world and from each other. It also includes in-depth explanations of what to look for in their wines, including common grapes, stylistic choices, and tasting notes.

Soaps launched the careers of countless Hollywood A-listers

Soap operas may not be considered high culture, but many actors who would go on to win television and film’s highest honors got their start with soaps. That includes Julianne Moore (“As the World Turns”), Morgan Freeman (“Another World”), Leonardo DiCaprio (“Santa Barbara”), and Michael B. Jordan (“All My Children”).

View a detail list of the Napa Valley wines, dating all the way back to the 1991 vintage.

The first nationally broadcast soap opera was 'Clara, Lu, 'n Em'

The show first aired in Chicago in 1930, but was then picked up by NBC and broadcast across the country in 1931. The show followed three women who lived in the same duplex. Listen to a 1934 episode below, including the preshow's soap-centric advertising.

The Napa Valley was originally inhabited by the Indigenous Wappo people, who built homes and villages throughout the region.

Wildfires and rising temperatures have seriously impacted Napa's winemaking in the 2020s.

Soap operas earned their name thanks to the sponsorships of soap brands

Many early 20th-century radio programs for women were sponsored by brands that introduced each new episode. Because these dramas were aimed at women, many of their sponsors were for household products, like soap. The association led some to refer to the shows as "soap operas," a title that stuck.

A 1981 wedding on 'General Hospital' drew 30 million viewers.

Experts say 2023 was a welcome year for Napa's wine

Many vintners say Napa’s 2023 vintage was a landmark year due to plentiful rain and a lack of extreme weather events, particularly extreme heat, which can stunt grapevine photosynthesis. The graph below illustrates the town of Calistoga's relatively cooler temperatures in 2023.

Soap operas are significantly less popular now than in past decades, though that might be due to a genre classification problem rather than declining viewership.