Early California Wine Trade Museum

We are dedicated to preserving the legacy of California’s pre-Prohibition wine trade. Sharing it with the public, we collect, conserve, and exhibit material produced by, for, or about the trade recreating visions of California’s first golden age of wine making with period advertising, photographs, and related treasures.

Today California’s wine trade enjoys a stellar Renaissance, but first emerged before the Gold Rush, and experienced exponential growth when treasure hunters poured into the state. The trade flourished between 1895 and 1920, but sadly ended when Prohibition reared its ugly head (1920 - 1933).

We are looking for a permanent home for the museum in the historic Napa Valley its thriving wine-centric tourist trade and concentration of top California wine makers. We are governed and operate with a volunteer board of directors, and will do so in the future with a small salaried staff assisted by a core of dedicated volunteers. Our funding will come from grants, donations, and annual events.

We need your help to move forward with important start up and operating costs. Every one of your donations, small and large, are essential to us, and help to create possibilities for other projects such as conserving important pieces in our archives.

Your contributions are tax deductible as we are a California 501c3 nonprofit corporation.

Visit our first Facebook page which was created to promote this project:

https://www.facebook.com/EarlyCaliforniaWineTradeArchive

Dean Walters, Managing Director, ECWTM