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Napa Valley wine tours and wine tasting are probably the most popular wine region tours in California. This is the first place people think of when they think of California wine tours.

Map of Napa Valley

Long before grapes were grown and wine was being made in the Napa Valley, native Americans roamed the area, living in a virtual paradise. The Napa River, running through the valley, provided fish to eat and fresh water. Deer, bear, elk and other wildlife were plentiful as were fruits nuts and berries.

The first settlers came to the Napa Valley in the 1830's, with land grants from the Mexican Governor. They brought civilization to the Napa Valley along with diseases like smallpox that nearly wiped out the native Wappo. The native American population in California dropped from 175,000 in 1848 to fewer than 30,000 in 1870, primarily due to diseases that they lacked immunity to.

Most major California historical events also impacted Napa Valley history. The California Gold rush, beginning in 1848, had almost everyone in the Napa Valley leaving to join the search for gold. Discouraged miners soon realized that growing produce to sell at high prices to the miners was a good way to make a living. Napa was one of California's original counties in 1850.

A silver rush, ten years later, brought mining to the north end of the valley and the town of Silverado City grew to 1,500 people. Meanwhile tourism flourished with families summering at Calistoga, and later Soda Springs, natural sulphur hot springs where numerous resorts were built.

The Hitchcocks, a San Francisco family, purchased 1000 acres in the upper Napa Valley between St. Helena and Calistoga in 1883. Nearby Lillie Hitchcock Coit set up a home site and named it "Larkmead."

In 1884 young Anton Nichelini, who had been working as a stone mason for wine making pioneer Joshua Chauvet in Sonoma County, applied for a homestead in Chiles Valley. He began what is now the oldest family owned winery in Napa Valley. Thus began the transition of Napa Valley agriculture to what is today an almost exclusive emphasis on a single crop — wine grapes.

While Prohibition caused many growers already discouraged by the Phylloxera epidemic and dropping wine prices to switch to walnut, olive and fig trees several vintners outlasted Prohibition and the great Depression by making sacramental and medicinal wines.

The history of wine making, wine touring and wine tasting in California's Napa Valley wouldn't be complete without mentioning the Paris Tasting of 1976, the year of the US bicentennial. In a comparative blind wine tasting that pitted French wines against California wines, French wine experts ruled that California wines were superior to what Bordeaux and Burgundy had to offer.

The "Judgment of Paris" received lots of publicity, especially in the US, and helped to educate people about the quality and availability of premium wine from California's Napa Valley. It also shattered the belief that first-class wines could only be produced by French soil and encouraged wine makers not just in the Napa Valley but around the world.

The annual Napa Valley Wine Auction — a charity event begun in 1981 and always carefully orchestrated to promote Napa Valley wines — caps a week of fancy dinners and hospitality events. The annual auction generates tremendous publicity when astronomical prices are paid for wines by bidders/philanthropists. 1981 sales totaled $324,000. The 2001 Napa Valley Wine Auction raised $7.6 million.

Another annual event— The Napa Valley Mustard Festival — began in 1993 and promotes travel to the Napa Valley in the 'off season' with a number of events celebrating food, wine and art. The yellow mustard flowers that blanket the Napa Valley every spring set the theme for over a dozen dinners, wine tasting, art exhibits and other events.

The bright yellow flowers are said to have originated in California when Father Juniper Serra made his first exploratory trip north through the state scattering mustard seeds as he went. His return trip the following spring was then guided by a path of blooming mustard.

The 2003 Napa Valley Mustard Festival lasted through the months of February and March beginning with a Mustard Magic – Mascarade! grand opening event at the Culinary Institute at Greystone in St. Helena and culminating with The Mumm Cuvée Napa Photo Finish at the end of March. My panorama shot in Mumm Cuvée's vineyard, not fifty yards from the exhibit, was selected as the best entry in the Silverado Trail category. The photo exhibit continues through May each year.

Napa Valley Wineries

There are numerous internationally renowned wineries in the Napa Valley. Many of them have impressive European style buildings where they produce and store their wines as well as provide winery tours and wine tasting rooms. Some are made available for weddings and corporate events.

Napa Valley wineries where we have included panoramas or other pictures include; Domaine Carneros Winery, Monticello Winery and vineyards and Hakusan Sake Gardens in or near the City of Napa. Don't miss the mural panoramas.

There are many wineries along the Silverado Trail. We have included panoramas shot at Silverado Vineyards, Joseph Phelps Winery, Burgess Vineyard in both spring and summer and inside the wine storage caves at Pine Ridge Winery.

Yountville panoramas and pictures on iNeTours.com include Domaine Chandon Winery and mustard in the vineyard near the Veterans Home and the Napa Valley Museum.

The Niebaum-Coppola Winery, Robert Mondavi Vineyards and Cardinale Estate are featured in panoramas of the Oakville & Rutherford area of the Napa Valley along with pictures of Grgich Hills Cellars, Peju Province and the Oakville Grocery.

St. Helena panoramas and winery pictures include Beringer Vineyards, V. Sattui Winery, Culinary Institute of America and St. Clement Vineyards.

Sterling Vineyards Winery, Chateau Montelena Winery and lake and a Lincoln Ave. panorama can be viewed on our Calistoga page.

You will also find additional Napa Valley history details on each of the city/area pages.