Napa Valley - Wineries and Spas

    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 valley was a healing place long before the first spa was ever built. Blessed with geothermal waters rich in magnesium and calcium that burst from the earth in powerful geysers or bubbled up gently into steaming pools and rivers, the Native Americans gathered here for detoxification and purification. An ancient volcano contributed huge deposits of volcanic ash found helpful for sore injured muscles and stiff joints. They called this land Coo-lay-no-maock, the oven place. By 1831 white settlers had begun to move into the valley.
    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.
    In 1884 young Anton Nichelini, who had been working as a stonemason 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   more >>