Before 1920, the United States had a genuine, growing wine culture, with thousands of wineries across California and beyond. Then, almost overnight, the entire industry was made illegal — and it took the better part of a century to fully recover.
A promising start
By the late 1800s, California's wine industry was expanding rapidly, helped by immigrant winemakers from Italy, France, and Germany who brought serious viticultural knowledge with them. Wineries around Napa and Sonoma were winning international recognition, and the state had over seven hundred wineries in operation by the early 20th century.
The 18th Amendment
In 1920, the 18th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution took effect, banning the production, transport, and sale of alcoholic beverages nationwide. Almost every winery in the country was forced to close, sell off its vineyards, or find a legal workaround. Most simply shut down for good.
The loopholes that kept vines alive
Prohibition included a narrow exception: households were permitted to make a limited amount of wine at home for personal use. This unexpectedly kept demand for wine grapes alive, and some growers survived by shipping grape concentrate or fresh grapes to home winemakers across the country, sometimes even including hopeful instructions on the box about what to avoid doing, so the grapes wouldn't accidentally ferment into wine.
A smaller number of wineries also survived by producing sacramental wine for religious use, one of the few forms of wine production still permitted under the law.
Repeal, and a long road back
Prohibition was repealed in 1933 with the 21st Amendment, but the damage to the industry was severe and lasting. Entire generations of winemaking knowledge had been lost, vineyards had been ripped out or replanted with lower-quality grape varieties suited to bulk table grapes rather than fine wine, and consumer taste had shifted toward sweeter, fortified styles. Rebuilding a serious wine industry would take decades.
The slow climb to quality
Through the mid-20th century, a small number of dedicated producers, many in Napa Valley, began painstakingly replanting quality grape varieties and relearning techniques that had nearly disappeared. Progress was slow and largely unnoticed outside the United States.
The moment everything changed
That changed dramatically in 1976, at a blind tasting in Paris now known as the "Judgment of Paris." French judges, expecting to confirm French superiority, ranked California wines above top Bordeaux and Burgundy labels in both the red and white categories. The result stunned the wine world and instantly established California, and American wine more broadly, as capable of world-class quality.
A blind tasting in 1976 did more for American wine's reputation than the previous fifty years combined.
American wine today
The United States is now one of the largest wine-producing countries in the world, with respected regions well beyond California, including Oregon's Willamette Valley, Washington State, and New York's Finger Lakes. It's a remarkable recovery for an industry that was, within living memory, made illegal overnight.