“Let us celebrate the occasion with wine and sweet words.” – Plautus
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – The tradition of celebrating the new year with sparkling wine spans back more than 1,500 years.
The bubbles that arise so cheerfully from the festive libation come from carbon dioxide in the wine due to fermentation.
Technically, the bubbly can own the moniker “Champagne” only if it is produced in the Champagne region of France. Other fizzy wines worldwide include Brachetto or Spumante (Italy) or Australia's Shiraz.
Here in Lake County where our wine regions are bursting at the seams with somewhere around 35 premium wineries, there are a handful who produce a bubbly, or sparkling wine: Thorn Hill, Steele Wines, Olof Cellars, according to the book, “Lake County Wine Guide.”
The fine wines for which Lake County is famous are due to the soil, climate and elevations found here. Lake County elevations range from 1,000 feet in Middletown, 1,318 feet in Clearlake, to 4,722 feet at Cobb Mountain.
The history of the grape stretches back to the Tertiary period of geologic time. Fossils of leaves and seeds have been excavated from the mounds of the pile-dwellers of the lakes located in south-central Europe.
Evidence of humankind's fondness for grapes has been shown in mosaics made during 2440 B.C, in Egypt.
Viticulture is thought to have begun in Asia Minor between, and south of the Caspian and Black Seas. It is here, where most botanists agree, that Vitis vinifera, the original grape species from which all cultivated grapes are derived, began.
It is said that grape growing then moved to the eastward and westward directions. The Phoenicians are thought to have brought winegrape varietals to Greece, then Rome and France.
By the second century A.D., vine cuttings were brought to Germany and established there. Southern California was introduced to viticulture by the missionaries in the late 1700s.
With the mission's northward movements, so followed grape growing, extending to where soil and weather conditions were extremely hospitable for the task.
Wild vines were found by the missionaries of San Diego, thought to be Vitis girdiana, native to the region. These grapes were large and sour, hence the padres introduction of the variety which they had been cultivating farther south, which was vinifera.
Grape growing and winemaking in Lake County are not new ventures. Pioneers brought in grapes and began to produce wine around the Gold Rush days. At the turn of the twentieth century there were 36 wineries in production.
Then, when prohibition struck, vines were replaced in Lake County by pears and walnuts. As the railroad never made it to isolated Lake County, this, too was a contributing factor to the disappearance of the wine trade in Lake County until 1977.
When Lillie Langtry purchased the Guenoc Ranch, outside of Middletown, in 1888, she renamed the ranch “Langtry Farms.”
Lillie Langtry (or, Lily, as she is sometimes known) was born Emilie Charlotte LeBreton on October 13, 1853, and was world famous for her great beauty, charm and acting.
There were already established fruit orchards and vineyards on the land. Lillie was highly adept at marketing, and one of her strategies was to market her wine with her likeness on the label.
She imported a French winemaker, Henry Duchelles, for her winery. Her colorful lifestyle always made Lillie's visits to Lake County an event for the local folk.
Lillie had an ongoing love affair and friendship with Prince Albert Edward of Wales, the future King of England, which spanned over 20 years.
She began her stage acting in England, and made her American debut in New York, with Oscar Wilde as her advance man in 1882. It was Oscar who introduced Lillie to Freddie Gebhard, the wealthy Baltimore playboy, who lived on the ranch with Lillie.
Freddie purchased the adjoining 3,000 acres with its hunting lodge. When Freddie wasn't living in Lillie's home, where he had his own bedroom (adjoining Lillie's) he resided in his lodge.
For up-to-the-minute information on Lake County's wineries visit these Web sites:
– Lake County Winegrape Growers: http://www.lakecountywinegrape.org/ ;
– Lake County Winery Association Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LakeCountyWineryAssociation/ ;
– Lake County Winegrape Commission: http://www.lakecountywinegrape.org/about/winegrape-commission/ .
Kathleen Scavone, M.A., is an educator, potter, writer and author of “Anderson Marsh State Historic Park: A Walking History, Prehistory, Flora, and Fauna Tour of a California State Park” and “Native Americans of Lake County.” She also writes for NASA and JPL as one of their “Solar System Ambassadors.” She was selected “Lake County Teacher of the Year, 1998-99” by the Lake County Office of Education, and chosen as one of 10 state finalists the same year by the California Department of Education.