Wine history guide
Paul Masson
Paul Masson connects several chapters of California wine history: French immigration, the Santa Clara Valley, sparkling wine, and the mountain estate now known as the Mountain Winery.
Read the guide →Research by Thomas Brenner
Follow the wine story.
People, places, businesses and the evidence connecting them. Begin with California’s Santa Clara Valley and follow the story outward.
7 public history guides
Wine history guide
Seagram’s
Seagram’s is a route into the business side of American wine history: the companies, brands, advertising and commercial decisions that shaped what people drank.
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Almaden Vineyards
Almaden Vineyards is an important subject in the wine history of San José and the Santa Clara Valley. Its story brings together vineyards, families, buildings and a wine name that reached beyond its original place.
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Charles Lefranc
Charles Lefranc is a central name in research into Almaden and the Santa Clara Valley’s wine heritage. Historical sources also use the spellings LeFranc and Le Franc.
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The Mountain Winery
The Mountain Winery in Saratoga is the historic mountain property associated with Paul Masson and La Cresta. It is a different place from Almaden’s historic valley site and from Mount Eden Vineyards.
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Santa Clara Valley wine history
The Santa Clara Valley’s wine story connects San José, valley vineyards and the surrounding mountain estates. Looking at the region through places and people reveals a much larger history than a single famous label.
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Orson Welles and Paul Masson wine
Orson Welles’s connection with Paul Masson is part of the history of wine advertising. A dated broadcast record offers a firmer starting point than an isolated clip or a story repeated without a source.
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