6 Things You Should Know About Charles Krug, Napa’s First Commercial Winery

There’s no shortage of history in Napa Valley. As the United States’s premier wine region (and the second to achieve official AVA status), it’s responsible for putting American wine on the global map. But before Napa was dominated by names like Stag’s Leap, Screaming Eagle, and Opus One, there was Charles Krug.

Located in St. Helena, Calif., Charles Krug was founded in 1861 and is widely regarded as the Napa Valley’s first commercial winery. It remained under the control of its namesake founder until his death in 1892, at which point it was purchased by James Moffitt Sr., a close friend of Krug’s who managed to keep operations afloat through the Great Depression and Prohibition. Though a real transformation occurred in 1943 when the winery was purchased by the Mondavi family, which is currently in its fourth generation of ownership.

From its immigrant origins to serving as the focal point of one of America’s most famous wine feuds, here are six things you should know about Charles Krug, Napa Valley’s first commercial winery.

Charles Krug didn’t know much about winemaking when he started making wine.

Born in Prussia, Germany, in 1825, Charles Krug first came to the U.S. in the summer of 1847 to take up a teaching position in Philadelphia. He remained in the City of Brotherly Love for approximately one year, at which point he returned to the German Confederation. There, he wrote pro-revolutionary articles for local newspapers and actively supported attempts to unify the country. In 1851, Krug returned to the States, where he was hired as an editor for a German-language newspaper based in San Francisco. Following his stint at the newspaper, Krug briefly worked as a gold and silver refiner, though he had always wanted to grow his own grapes for winemaking. So in 1858, he ventured about 45 miles northeast to Sonoma, planted 20 acres of vines, and started winemaking apprenticeships under Agoston Haraszthy and John Patchett.

The land used to establish the winery was part of a dowry.

While working as an apprentice winemaker in Sonoma, Krug was often in contact with those in the nearby Napa Valley. While traveling between the two regions, he met Carolina Bale, daughter of Dr. Edward Bale, the former surgeon-in-chief of the Mexican Army who had been granted a large swath of land in Napa Valley in 1841. Krug proposed to Carolina and the two were married in 1860. As a part of her dowry, Krug was granted 540 acres of land in St. Helena, which he used to plant grapevines and establish the Charles Krug winery. In 1861, the first grapes were pressed into wine.

Charles Krug is home to the oldest tasting room in California.

Not only is Charles Krug the oldest commercial winery in Napa Valley, but it’s also home to the oldest tasting room in the Golden State. In 1882, Krug revolutionized how the public was able to interact with wine in Napa when he opened the estate’s doors to welcome them in for a taste. Today, the tasting room and hospitality center are housed in the fully renovated Redwood Cellar and Carriage House, which date back to 1872 and 1881, respectively. In November 1974, the Carriage House at Charles Krug Winery was named to the National Register of Historic Places.

The winery’s purchase by the Mondavis marked the family’s first move into the world of fine wine.

The Mondavis might be known as America’s First Family of Wine, but before they were a big name on the block, the family ran a humble grape shipping operation. In 1906, Cesare and Rosa Mondavi immigrated from Italy to Minnesota, bringing their love of wine with them. When Prohibition started in 1919, Cesare operated at a grocery store, where he received request after request from customers to stock grapes for at-home winemaking. Encouraged by the customers, Cesare traveled to Lodi, Calif., to hunt for grapes to ship back to the Midwest — and he found them. Come 1923, Cesare, Rosa, and their two sons, Robert and Peter, had relocated to Lodi and C. Mondavi & Sons, a wholesale fruit business, was born. C. Mondavi & Sons continued to ship grapes throughout Prohibition, but winemaking was never in the picture. That was until 1943, when Robert discovered the Charles Krug winery. The brothers urged their mother and father to purchase the winery, believing fine wine to be the future of American alcohol consumption. That same year, the Mondavi family purchased Charles Krug for just $75,000.

The Mondavis introduced a number of revolutionary new techniques.

While under Mondavi tenure, several new techniques have been introduced at Charles Krug that are now industry standards. Peter Mondavi was one of the pioneering minds behind the cold fermentation technique, a slow fermentation process completed at much lower temperatures that results in crisper, fresher, and fruitier white wines and rosés. He introduced the winemaking technique in the 1960s at a time when most wines in these styles were produced at warmer temperatures. Today, Charles Krug Sauvignon Blancs, Chardonnays, and rosés are made using cold fermentation. Mondavi also introduced French oak aging at Charles Krug, making it the first winery in Napa Valley to import French oak barrels for maturation.

A disagreement about the future of the winery caused the Mondavi brothers to split ways.

For the first two decades under Mondavi ownership, Cesare’s sons Robert and Peter ran the winery together, with the patriarch of the family often acting as a moderator for any disagreements. Following his death in 1959, disagreements between the two brothers became more frequent, the majority of which were centered around what type of wine Charles Krug should be producing. In 1962, Robert and his wife Marjorie took a trip to Europe, where they traversed wine region after wine region, learning new techniques and technologies from winemakers as they went. When they returned to California, Robert wanted to take winemaking in a new direction at Charles Krug, despite the fact that Peter was the brother responsible for actually making the wine. Rather than a table wine like the one they had been producing, Robert wanted to realize the full potential of their Napa Valley land and make a premium product using these European techniques. But Peter was content with the bottles they had been putting out, and in 1965 everything came to a head. The two brothers fell into a passionate argument while at a family dinner, resulting in the two splitting ways and not speaking for several decades.

In that time, Robert went on to create his very own wine empire, the Robert Mondavi Winery, which was acquired by Constellation in 2004. The two brothers eventually reconciled and in 2005 they produced their first batch of wine together in 40 years. Just one barrel of the Cabernet blend was produced and it later sold at the 25th Auction Napa Valley for a whopping $400,000.

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