By the time California was admitted to the Union, grape growing was an established industry in the Sacramento Valley, where John Sutter had introduced it almost ten years earlier. Winemaking in Northern California has been a major industry ever since, and has survived everything that hindered it, even Prohibition. Colorful crate labels like this one for American River Vineyard expanded the appeal of the product by adding an image, in this case Tokay grapes and a beautiful growing region, that lingered in the mind. Flame Tokay grapes were first introduced to the area by Sacramentan Joseph Routier.
