Napa Valley

Napa Valley, explained

Some of the most valuable agricultural land in the US is in California's Napa Valley. Located about an hour's drive north of San Francisco, Napa has more than 400 wineries employing upward of 44,000 people and drawing in nearly 4 million annual visitors. The price per acre in the valley can exceed $500K because some of the best wines in the world are grown and produced in the roughly 30-mile-long area.

Napa's growing conditions are unique

The French term "terroir" refers to the "sense of place" that growing conditions impart on a wine. Because the Napa Valley is surrounded by mountains on three sides, the combination of cold air from the Pacific coast and warm air from inland leaves Napa's wine with a distinct terroir.

Napa produces only 4% of California's wine

Despite its reputation, the Napa Valley has a modest share of its state's annual wine production. The valley's over 400 wineries produce only 4% of the state’s wine.

Napa Valley was originally inhabited by the Indigenous Wappo people

Before the wineries, Napa was home to several Indigenous tribes, collectively called the Onasatis or Wappo, who lived and hunted on the land for generations before Spanish missionaries and settlers arrived. Some of their practices, like controlled burns of the dry brush, helped shape the fertility of the land for future agriculture.

The Gold Rush helped turn Napa into wine country

In the 1830s, the arrival of settlers carrying European rootstock grapevines to Napa kick-started the valley's wine industry. Ten years later, the Gold Rush brought scores of wine-loving Europeans and their descendants to the area. Recognizing an opportunity, Charles Krug opened the valley's first commercial winery in 1861, which produces bottles to this day.

A look inside one of Napa Valley's oldest wineries

Prussian migrant Charles Krug established a winery in Napa Valley in 1861, pioneering the growth of European rootstocks and helping legitimize the region's wine-making ambitions. Today, the estate is owned and operated by the Mondavi family, who purchased it in 1943 and helped elevate it to international renown. A dramatic, brief look at the winery illuminates its legendary past and larger-than-life present.

A root lice infestation once destroyed over 80% of Napa's vines

In the late 1860s, an infestation of root lice nearly destroyed the global wine industry. European rootstock, now planted across multiple continents, had no natural defenses against the pests, which infected the vines (as seen below). As a result, more than 80% of Napa’s vines were destroyed by 1900. It took decades for the industry to recover.

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

In 1979, the ATF created the American Viticultural Area system. Modeled on similar European systems, it delineated wine-growing regions in the United States. Napa Valley was the second AVA established—the first was in Missouri. Now, any wine labeled with the Napa Valley AVA must source 100% of its grapes from that area.

There are more than three dozen grape varieties in Napa

Cabernet sauvignon is Napa’s most popular grape, accounting for 40% of production, followed by chardonnay.

The Judgment of Paris put Napa on the world stage

Napa wines burst onto the world stage in 1976 when a British wine merchant invited nine French wine experts for a blind tasting of French and Californian wines, meaning that the tasters would not know the origin of the wines as they sampled. Unexpectedly, Napa’s wines dominated the tasting. That tasting, called the Judgment of Paris, was the catalyst for California being taken seriously by the global wine community.