Page 98 - WINE DINE AND TRAVEL SUMMER 2025 THAILAND

BY RON JAMES

SAN DIEGO UNCORKED: A WINE HISTORY
BY RON JAMES

While San Diego's burgeoning wine industry is celebrated
today, few realize its rich and enduring past. This first three
chapters in the book begins to uncover the captivating
history of grape growing and winemaking that has flourished
in the region's sun-drenched landscape for generations.

Chapter 1: Before the Vines – The cultures such as the La Jolla people had
Kumeyaay and the Land thrived in this land. Their time, devoid of
modern complexities, may seem idyllic to
e walked along the shimmering some. Yet for those who savor the plea-
blue bay that would one day be sures of wine, it was an era before its dis-
H called San Diego. The warm sun covery here. Wild grapes, Vitis girdiana,
embraced his back as he carried a bounti- grew throughout the region, but there is
ful catch of fish and mussels toward his no evidence that they were ever fer-
village near the mouth of the river. He was mented intentionally. Unlike the later-in-
a Kumeyaay man, one of nearly three troduced Vitis vinifera, these native
thousand people who inhabited a vast ter- grapes had lower sugar content and would
ritory stretching from the coast to the have produced a thin, unremarkable wine.
mountains and deserts beyond. The Kumeyaay lived in harmony with
Long before the Kumeyaay, ancient the land, adapting to its rhythms with sus-

98 WINE DINE & TRAVEL MAGAZINE SUMMER 2025