Napa Valley Wineries by Hot Air Balloon
American Viticultural Area

This print by artist Kerne Erickson depicts Napa Valley from a hot air balloon. The Napa Valley AVA was established in 1981 and is located in the much larger North Coast AVA in Napa County north of San Francisco. Napa Valley is considered one of the premier wine regions in the world.
John Patchett established the Napa Valley's first commercial vineyard in 1858. In 1861 Charles Krug established another of Napa Valley's first commercial wineries in St. Helena. Viticulture in Napa suffered several setbacks in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, including an outbreak of the vine disease phylloxera, the institution of Prohibition, and the Great Depression. The wine industry in Napa Valley recovered, and helped by the results of the Paris Wine Tasting of 1976, came to be seen as capable of producing the best quality wine – equal to that of Old World wine regions. Napa Valley is now a major enotourism destination.