You may wonder why we are doing this and the next wine school as California and the rest of the USA. One simple reason: California accounts for 90% of US Wine production and on its own California is the fourth largest producer in the world, behind Italy, Spain and France.
Historically, as in much of the new world, the vine was brought over by settlers, and initially Missionaries. There was initially a lack of success in many areas due to Phylloxera which we will look at next time, but one of the first vines planted in California is to this day known as Mission, the same grape as Chile’s Pais and Argentina’s Criolla Chica.