After running down Junípero Serra street for more than a year and a half, I decided to do a little digging into its namesake this weekend. And like most good things, it involved wine!
Junípero Serra was a Roman Catholic Franciscan priest in the 1700s who founded the first nine of the 21 Californian Missions (note: missions are a political-social-religious-agricultural unit that was used to exert Spanish control over colonized California). The original El Camino Real connected these missions, which extended from San Diego to San Francisco.
For sacramental purposes, wine was necessary. Accordingly, priests and monks in the missions planted vines and started the first California viticulture. In 1769, Franciscan missionary Father Junípero Serra planted the first California vineyard at Mission San Diego. Thus giving him the title, the "Father of California Wine".
The original Californian varietal was called "Mission Grape", and descended from Mexican plantings grown in Mexican missions for the same purpose. This grape continued as the California varietal until the 1880s.
Junípero Serra was a Roman Catholic Franciscan priest in the 1700s who founded the first nine of the 21 Californian Missions (note: missions are a political-social-religious-agricultural unit that was used to exert Spanish control over colonized California). The original El Camino Real connected these missions, which extended from San Diego to San Francisco.
For sacramental purposes, wine was necessary. Accordingly, priests and monks in the missions planted vines and started the first California viticulture. In 1769, Franciscan missionary Father Junípero Serra planted the first California vineyard at Mission San Diego. Thus giving him the title, the "Father of California Wine".
The original Californian varietal was called "Mission Grape", and descended from Mexican plantings grown in Mexican missions for the same purpose. This grape continued as the California varietal until the 1880s.
Missions were also responsible for the introduction of olives and citrus to California.
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Interesting! I'd neglected to think about wine for religious purposes all quarter. Your post made me wonder what actually constitutes a "sacramental wine." Apparently, in the Catholic Church, a sacramental wine can be "red or white, dry or sweet, even fortified, as long as the source of fortification is also grape-derived, and as long as the ABV stays between 5 and 18%"... and must be approved by a bishop before it's labeled as "sacramental" and sold.
ReplyDeletehttp://vinepair.com/wine-blog/the-popes-coming-to-town-drink-some-sacramental-wine/