On January 17th, 1920 the 18th Amendment (Prohibition) went into effect. When it began, there were 713 California wineries. At its end, just 40 remained active. How did they survive?
As is typical for many laws, there were a few loopholes. Some wineries found a way to exploit these to continue making wine. Drug stores were allowed to sell alcohol for medicinal purposes. You could make your own wine at home, up to 200 gallons a year, for personal consumption. And wineries could remain open if they produced only sacramental wine for Catholic religious services. Learn how two still flourishing, highly resourceful California wineries survived Prohibition with sacramental wine.
Santo Cambianica founded the San Antonio Winery in 1917, three years before Prohibition. It was his devotion to his church that saved the business by transforming ordinary table wine into the altar wine used in Mass.
The Archdiocese of Los Angeles granted Santo permission to make wines for sacramental and ceremonial purposes. Today, in addition to handcrafting award-winning wines, San Antonio Winery is still the largest supplier of sacramental wine in the country, with 15% of its annual production.
Another winery that took advantage of the loophole was Beaulieu Vineyard. Founder Georges de Latour was a practicing Catholic and a friend of the Archbishop of San Francisco. While other Napa wineries shuttered, he was actually able to increase his wine sales during prohibition. His early form of “networking” gave him an exclusive deal to sell wine to all the priests in the diocese.
The 18th Amendment was repealed on December 5th, 1933. There were many reasons it was repealed, but the most important was the stock market crash and the depression. Legalizing the alcohol business was a great opportunity to collect taxes. However, it still took decades for California’s wine industry to come back.
As you enjoy your next glass of handcrafted California wine, keep in mind that it was not always as easy to get as just visiting our wine store and then having your favorite wines delivered to your doorstep soon after.
Very interesting article. Are any the other PreProhibition wineries still operating?
Thanks for your comment, Steve. Here is a link to an article about a few more PreProhibition wineries that are still around:
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/national-trust-for-historic-preservation/four-napa-valley-wineries_b_7129280.html