During Prohibition (1920–1933), California’s wineries faced a dramatic shift as the nationwide ban on alcohol threatened their survival. Many vineyards were forced to close, while others found creative ways to stay afloat — some legally, others through underground operations. Loopholes in the Volstead Act, such as the allowance for sacramental wine and home winemaking, provided lifelines for certain vintners, while others turned to bootlegging or producing “grape bricks” that conveniently transformed into wine with a little water and time. These tales of resilience, ingenuity, and defiance highlight a fascinating chapter in California’s wine history, shaping the industry into what it is today.
Prohibition, in the name of temperance, was more aimed at reducing the flow of hard liquor than wine. The underground black market grew stronger, and those with connections to the Catholic church prospered. Interesting coincidence? Most wineries in California at that time, however, ceased to exist, victims not only of Prohibition but of the Great Depression (1929—1941). Of the 700 wineries that were in business in 1919, only 40 remained in 1933.
Selling sacramental wine proved a blessing for those granted special religious exemptions from the Catholic church. Among them were Beaulieu Vineyard, Concannon Vineyards, and Wente Winery in Livermore. “Well before Prohibition went into effect, the owner and founder of Beaulieu Vineyard Georges de Latour secured a warrant to produce sacramental wine, thanks in part to his wife Fernande’s close ties to the Church,” said Megan Twitchell, Beaulieu Vineyard Winemaker. “Through this, Beaulieu Vineyard became the first-ever wine distributor to the Catholic church. The winery even grew production fourfold during this period, at a time when most other wineries were shuttering or left for dead. Georges de Latour’s foresight into the political landscape kept the winery thriving throughout the 13-year federal alcohol ban.
Beringer Vineyards cleverly made a wine brick that enabled consumers to make their own. “The ‘Beringer Grape Brick,’ was a box of concentrated grape juice sold for non-alcoholic juice production,” according to Claire Wilkins, Director of Hospitality for Beringer Vineyards. “These boxes were sold with a clever warning that stated, ‘After dissolving the brick in a gallon of water, do not place the liquid in a jug away in the cupboard for twenty days, because then it would turn into wine.’” After Prohibition, Beringer Vineyards was the first winery to offer public tours, which ignited wine tourism in Napa.
Jim Rickards of J. Rickards Winery says that before Prohibition, most vineyards sold grapes to big crush houses. “Mr. Pastori, down the road, told me how small wineries really survived,” says Rickards. “They loaded up lugs of grapes and took them to the cities and towns with a crusher/destemmer on the back of the truck. People would fill their jugs. Wineries made a ton of money selling direct to consumer.” He says this led to a boom in grapes, and more vineyards were planted, leading to a glut.
“Toward the end of Prohibition, you started seeing pears and prunes interplanted with vines,” says Rickards. At the Osborne vineyard in Alexander Valley, which dates to 1880, they pulled out every other row and put in plums. “When I first saw the vineyard, which is 6x6' spacing to accommodate a horse, I thought ‘what?! This spacing is so wasteful.’ The owner then explained what happened.”
Winemaker Dave Nitali of Robert Biale Vineyards in Napa, says it’s a common misperception that Biale made wine during Prohibition: they did not. The Black Chicken story, and the wine that commemorates it, came about when Aldo Biale was secretly making wine as a teenager in 1942, to earn a few extra bucks. Back then, everyone was on a party line, where few secrets could be kept. “He developed a code word to mean a jug of Zinfandel wine,” says Nitali. “It was ‘black chicken’ because everyone knew that the Biale’s only had white leghorn chickens.” A typical order might include eggs, walnuts and a black chicken. Today, ordering a “Black Chicken” will get you a smooth Zinfandel.
After Aldo lost his father in 1942, he realized that he could earn more grapes in their fermented state, and he discreetly began putting up extra barrels of Zinfandel in his barn. The enterprising Aldo became popular among Napans with a yen for Zin and fresh eggs. He delivered jugs of his bootleg Zinfandel on Fridays –in a blue 1940 Studebaker. Photos courtesy of Robert Biale Vineyards.
Julie Pedroncelli St. John, third generation winegrower, remembers the incredible prune orchards throughout the Alexander Valley when she was growing up. Her grandparents’ vineyard, purchased in 1925, survived on selling grapes, otherwise, it easily could have been ripped out and planted to prunes. “When Prohibition ended, my grandfather, who was an Army veteran, applied for and was grandfathered the original Bond #113 that had belonged to the prior owner,” says St. John. “He slowly built the brand (Pedroncelli Winery) and produced wine in barrel only, until the 1940s, when we started bottling. The Health Department came along and said ‘this is not sanitary.’”
August 15, 1926, Langhart Photo, courtesy of Foppiano Vineyards
The Foppiano Vineyards Prohibition story might be the most oft-told in these parts. Founded in 1896 when Giovanni Foppiano bought the 80-acre winery property in Healdsburg known as Riverside Farm. Louis Foppiano took over in 1900, selling wine primarily in San Francisco. In 1926, Federal Treasury agents raided Foppiano Vineyards, dumping 100,000 thousand gallons of wine down the winery drains. It flowed out of doors and down the streets and into the creek. Locals rushed to fill bottles and buckets of wine from the red waters. Foppiano sells wine named in honor of this incident called “Revenuers Red,” which includes Carignane.
Damy Tamburino, Tasting Room Manager at Foppiano, has worked in the business for many years, including V. Sattui Winery and Oakville Grocery. He shared a story about Simi Winery, a brand now owned by Gallo. During Prohibition, they kept making wine so they would be ready for its surely inevitable end. Isabelle Simi Hague took over the winery when her dad and uncle passed in 1904. She and her husband, a banker named Fred Hague, ran a big land company, and sold grapes to Asti and on the bulk market. During Prohibition, Isabelle made wine for sacramental and medicinal purposes, as well as for winemaking kits. Additionally, she had arranged to sell 100k gallons of wine to Mexico, but President Hoover blocked the deal. Thereafter, they stacked the wine in the wall, waiting for Prohibition to end.
Other wineries shifted focus altogether. According to Ludovic Dervin, General Manager and Senior Winemaker for Stags’ Leap Winery, “When wine production ceased during Prohibition, owner Frances Grange converted the house into a hotel and its basement into a popular speakeasy that could only be accessed through a hidden trap door in the floor behind the hotel’s check-in counter. To this day, the old trap door can be seen on the ground floor of the Manor House, and visitors are always delighted to realize that they’re standing over a speakeasy preserved in time.”
In the Santa Cruz Mountains, Sheriff Amos Beauregard, great grandfather of Ryan, 4th generation vintner of Beauregard Vineyards, arrested his neighbors, the Bargetto brothers of Bargetto Winery in Soquel, for illegally making wine. It was unceremoniously dumped into Soquel Creek. Beauregard, who to this day buys grapes from the Bargetto Family, says, “We’re all still friends.”
Guglielmo Winery, the oldest operating winery in Santa Clara County, just celebrated its 100th year in business. The family survived Prohibition by making wine in giant redwood casks in a secret cellar, accessed by a well-concealed door, out of which wine found its way to an appreciative clientele all the way to San Francisco. Now over 100 years old, those casks, still in use today, could tell many tales.
