1848

Year in California that the Gold Rush began—kickstarting what would become a world-famous wine industry in the northern part of the state and setting the stage for California to become an economic powerhouse. Before the Gold Rush, about 1,000 non-indigenous people lived in California. Seven years later, by the end of the Gold Rush, the state’s non-indigenous population had soared to 300,000.

Women in Wine

“By far the most important thing for me from the [Judgement of Paris tasting], apart from it being a ‘win-win’ for both France and California, as the former was resting on its laurels and needed ‘a kick up the backside’ and the latter needed recognition, was that it created a template whereby little-known wines of quality could be tasted blind alongside well-known wines of quality and if the tasters themselves were of impeccable quality, their judgements would be respected.”

—Steven Spurrier (1941-2021), on the outcome of the famous 1976 tasting of French and California wines he helped orchestrate.

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