Napa Before The Grape Vines: Three Snapshots Of The Napa Valley From The 1960s

Napa Before The Grape Vines: Three Snapshots Of The Napa Valley From The 1960s

"What was Napa like before there were grape vines?" That question was asked during a virtual tasting I led two weeks ago, and my response was embedded in two threads of the conversation: the modern agricultural developments of the Napa Valley, and the further-back history of the area before the California Gold Rush of the mid-nineteenth century. Agriculturally speaking, prior to the 1960s, you'd have seen a landscape of livestock, grains (including wheat and rice), and orchards of nut and fruit trees like walnuts and prunes. (Please visit the Napa County Historical Society for more information.) For a rich and comprehensive perspective, please also consult M. Kat Anderson's Tending the Wild: Native American Knowledge and the Management of California's Natural Resources. If I were to be asked that same question now, I'd weave another layer onto the conversation. That layer is courtesy of Mary Ann McGuire, who I met recently during a virtual tasting as she described Napa in its early days of grape growing. McGuire was a driving force behind the establishment of the Napa Valley Agricultural Preserve in 1968, and she is the mother of Oakville-based vintner Tom Gamble of Gamble Family Vineyards. Now aged 81, McGuire arrived