5 Fantastic ways to Celebrate the Anniversary of the Repeal of Prohibition with Wine!
You shouldn’t need an excuse to celebrate! But here’s one anyway.
Celebrate what?
The end of prohibition.
Now?
Never pass up a reason to celebrate! With wine!
Let’s talk about it!!
For those who slept through American History classes, the 18th Amendment of the Constitution prohibited the "manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquors. It was ratified on January 16, 1919.
The social experiment that was known as Prohibition lasted 13 years and ended with the passage of the 21st Amendment on December 5, 1933.
There are history books and movies and tons of information on what was basically the epic fail of Prohibition. It may also explain the love-hate relationship each state has with alcohol.
However…
Let’s just celebrate the anniversary of the end of it!!
You could do this with any liquor, of course.
However…
This is a wine blog, though. Let’s celebrate the rebirth of wine in the United States after Prohibition.
You could also do it on any day you want.
Here are five fantastic ways to do that:
1) Learn something:
If you want to learn about the destruction and rebuilding of the wine industry, the Smithsonian National Museum of American History has some fantastic exhibits about it.
I’ve seen them in person, but you don’t need to travel.
Click here for a great exhibit that deals with the Prohibition period and the wine industry, mostly in California. It’s called “Grape gluts and mother clones.” It is definitely worth a look.
Here is a quote from this exhibit. “Prohibition snarled industries, expanded crime, and upended social life. Yet in nearly 13 years as the law of the land, Prohibition failed to convert the United States to a nation of teetotalers.”
This leads me to another great exhibit:
Click here for the one that looks back over 100 years and discusses whether Prohibition was a good idea.
You sort of get a sense from the quote above that a look back over 100 years will tell you Prohibition was not a good idea. You be the judge however.
Then there is one that briefly touches on Prohibition. Click here for an exhibit about participation in America and striving to form a perfect union.
A quote from that exhibit: In that process of striving, things do fail. In American Enterprise, we tell the story of Prohibition. Today we ask, "How could that possibly have seemed like a good idea?"
Again, you be the judge after you read about these exhibits.
2) Have a wine party with wines from some of the winemakers who managed to survive and sort of thrive during this difficult period:
Start with Beaulieu Vineyard. Often referred to as BV. It has some delicious wines at all price points.
Great story from the Smithsonian Exhibits: Calling itself "The House of Altar Wines" during Prohibition, Beaulieu Vineyard obtained government permits to produce wine, shipping it inside barrels marked "FLOUR," to discourage pilferage during transit.
So check out this historic, and clever, winery. You can find out what tasting experiences they have available here.
Try some wines from Concannon Vineyards.
They survived the Prohibition by making and selling Sacramental Wine. This prevented their historic vineyards from being destroyed. Some of these historic wine bottles are on display at the Smithsonian.
Concannon Vineyards is located in Livermore, California. Click here for their website. It is east of San Francisco, and part of the Tri-Valley Wine Trails. If you want to know more about this historic, yet overlooked wine area, click here.
Pedroncelli Winery has been in Sonoma Valley since 1927. The story of their “mother clone” is highlighted at the Smithsonian. Absolutely buy a bottle from them for this celebration. They have a fantastic give back campaign. Click here for their website.
Then there is Mondavi. While the name Robert Mondavi is very well known, it was his father Cesare Mondavi who moved the family to the wine making area of California. Not sure the Robert Mondavi winery counts for the purposes of wineries that survived this time period, but feel free to grab a bottle. They are all over and at all price points.
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3) Learn to make your own wine.
During Prohibition individuals were allowed to make their own wine for personal consumption(wink, wink). Men were allowed to make up to 200 gallons of wine a year. Hmmm. Shipping grapes from California for this purpose did keep some of the vineyards afloat.
It would be a fun hobby to make your own wine, although thankfully you don’t need to.
They had to use this during Prohibition.
You can surely do better these days!
There are dozens of recipes online should this appeal to you. I can’t recommend any because I have never tried this. Let me know how this works out for you if you do.
4) Travel to places where you can stomp the grapes to make wine.
In case you don’t want to make your own wine, but you just like the idea of stomping grapes with your feet there are actually many places you can travel to for just that.
In California you can go to Grgich HIlls estate in Napa. Click here for info about it.
Carlos Creek Winery in Minnesota actually has competitive grape stomping. Read about it here. (Hint, hint. Click on the here.)
Head to Sonoma
In Sonoma at the Valley of the Moon vintage festival you may also have the opportunity to do some grape stomping.
There are many places to go outside the United States for grape stomping. However, they didn’t have to suffer through Prohibition. That doesn’t fit into our celebration of the repeal of the law.
5) Appreciate and savor any wine you have!!!
We are so fortunate that we have access to delicious wines!
As the saying goes, “you don’t know what you’ve got until it’s gone.”
Do not take good fortune for granted!!
Celebrate anything you want when you want to!
Fireworks for the celebration!
