By the time Prohibition ended in 1933, my guess would be that most drinkers had already found a way to find some booze. One interesting fact is that there were grape juice kits that came with explicit instructions on how not to let it ferment lest it become wine. The joke was that was the kit’s true intention.
My mother’s neighbors made wine, or maybe gin, in their bathtubs. In September, after they crushed the grapes, she remembered that the bugs came out in droves searching for the nectar.
 By the time Prohibition ended in 1933, my guess would be that most drinkers had already found a way to find some booze. One interesting fact is that there were grape juice kits that came with explicit instructions on how not to let it ferment lest it become wine. The joke was that was the kit’s true intention. My mother’s neighbors made wine, or maybe gin, in their bathtubs. In September, after they crushed the grapes, she remembered that the bugs came out in droves searching for the nectar. I spoke with Tom Silberkleit, the publisher and editor of The California Directory of Fine Wineries, CaliforniaFineWineries.com, and he commented, “Prohibition wiped the wine scene clean, except for the wineries that were making sacramental wine, and keeping wines ‘under the table’ for their best customers.” I figured that our California winemakers would have a thing or two to say on the subject of prohibition too, so I asked a few. California Winemaking During Prohibition Wes Hagen, Vineyard Manager/Winemaker , ClosPepe.com: Wine ruined prohibition, literally and figuratively. The Italian immigrants continued to make wine in their basements, and churches were allowed to continue fermenting the blood of their God. As long as there is one grapevine in the U.S., there will be wine. As far as distillation, I believe there should be some regulation for safety, but the States should also make the permitting process transparent, affordable and easy if they don’t want thousands of people bootlegging like they are right now. Steve Lemley, Co-Owner/Winemaker, PulchellaWinery.com: From the turn of the century to the repeal of prohibition, many vineyards were abandoned and left to die either due to phylloxera (a vine disease that devastated California) or the inability to continue producing wines legally. After repeal, the industry left the once flourishing but now devastated varieties like Alicante behind and was given a fresh start to plant varieties that suited higher quality winemaking efforts like Cabernet Sauvignon and Zinfandel. Prohibition didn’t just change the wine industry, it forced us as winemakers to rethink the old ways, allowed us to engineer disease resistant vines and gave pioneer winemakers the ability to learn from their prior mistakes and misconceptions of what California was. We wiped the slate clean and began the process of rebuilding the industry with a whole new outlook on what California wine should be and would become. Tom Kruse, thomaskrusewinery.com: When I started there were many guys who were “old timers” from winegrowing families. They had to live through it and the stories were numerous and sometimes funny. It was a time when a great many of the first generation of urban folks had grown up; their parents had moved “to town” after living on farms. I think prohibition helped to shape many attitudes about alcoholic beverages. Many people developed a dim view of anything intoxicating. The fact that it was available illegally certainly did nothing to help it achieve respectability. It was a “back door” or “under the table” transaction to get it. I believe this feeling was pervasive for at least a generation. Also, vineyards were torn out and research, vital to modernizing winemaking and improving wine, was curtailed. Europeans got an edge and we are still considered to be sort of amusing to them for the incredible stupidity of the grand experiment that went wrong.
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