Mission

The first Vitis vinifera variety planted in California. Originally from Spain, and brought to California by Franciscan missionaries traveling north from Mexico in the 1700s. Determined in the 1990s to be the Spanish grape listán prieto. Mission remained the mainstay of the California wine industry until the Gold Rush of 1848. There are still some 600 acres of mission planted in California, mostly in the hot San Joaquin Valley. (See listán prieto.)