San Francisco Bay

Within just a few decades, their population was devastated. Some 60,000 died from a variety of causes. By the mid-nineteenth century, fewer than 1,000 still lived in the area. They were essentially extinct well before the beginning of the twentieth century. 

The Spanish Missions certainly gave viticulture its start in the Bay Area. However, their vines were much less important than the missions’ roles in beginning settlements and routes of travel. The Spanish, and then Mexican, governments made grants of land to various people, giving them vast tracts with the assurance that it would be tamed, farmed, ranched, and settled. 

The acreage of individual grants was high, so farming and ranching them was a significant, commercial enterprise. Many different crops would be planted, winegrapes often among them. The practice of commercial winemaking was accelerated when the United States took possession of California without breaking the granted tracts.

The population would increase greatly. In some cases, it literally did so overnight. There were so many people coming into the area by sea, that the large sailing ships they abandoned in the bay might be used as warehouses or businesses. In the end, most were either scuttled, sinking to the bottom of the bay, or covered with earth to become part of the San Francisco land mass. 

The influx of people, mostly men, meant huge demand for necessities. That included liquor and wine. So, demand for wine grew rapidly. And, with the emergence of San Francisco and Oakland as significant ports, they were well positioned to serve other markets. The phylloxera crisis in Europe meant a huge, unmet demand for wine there. Wine from the North Coast and the Bay Area sailed out of the bay to help slake that thirst. 

The gold rush waned, but the influx of immigrants did not. They came to California, either across the continent by railroad or into the bay by sea, in search of economic opportunity or to escape continental wars. Immigrants from Italy, France, and Germany were particularly important in ramping up wine production in the Bay Area and California overall.

Some of the very same vines planted then continue to make great wine today. The deep, sandy soil is both resistant to phylloxera and excellent for growing Zinfandel. And, since Zinfandel is a variety whose vines can thrive for more than a century, the area is home to some of California’s best, and most historic vineyards. Contra Costa County has more Zinfandel and Mourvèdre—which is also long-lived—than any other county in the San Francisco Bay AVA.

Having been stored in enormous brick tanks and cisterns that ruptured with the tremors, wine briefly turned some streets into intoxicating rivers. One wine source alone, the California Wine Association (CWA), a dominant syndicate of seven big wine merchants, saw 215,000 bottles burned and tanks holding 4,750,000 gallons (17,981,000 liters) destroyed.

But it lasted just a decade. Prohibition put the CWA out of business and made Winehaven obsolete. Of course, Prohibition devastated most of California’s wine business. Some Bay Area producers, such as Concannon and Wente, survived by selling grapes or making wine for sacramental purposes. Most vineyards, however, were torn out, to make way for crops that could be legally sold.

But, at the same time, focus on the area’s vineyards is increasing and wineries committed to their preservation are buying vineyards when possible. Now, the Bay Area’s urban winemaking tradition is being revitalized. There are numerous producers in San Francisco, Oakland, on the island of Alameda, and even under the Bay Bridge on Treasure Island. These make wine from San Francisco Bay AVA fruit, but also from grapes sourced elsewhere. Climate-controlled trucks make it possible to receive grapes in great condition from hundreds of miles away.