When the Rivers Ran Red: An Amazing Story of Courage and Triumph in America's Wine Country

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When the Rivers Ran Red: An Amazing Story of Courage and Triumph in America's Wine Country Pub. Date: 9/14/2010 Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan

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Overview

When Prohibition took effect in 1920, only a few months after one of the greatest California grape harvests of all time, violence and chaos descended on Northern California. Federal agents spilled thousands of gallons of wine in the rivers and creeks, gun battles erupted on dark country roads, and local law enforcement officers—sympathetic to their winemaking neighbors—found ways to stonewall the intruding authorities. For the state's winemaking families—many of them immigrants from Italy—surviving Prohibition meant facing a crucial decision—give up their idyllic way of life, or break the law to enable their livelihood to survive.

Sosnowski’s intimate history provides us with a new view into Prohibition America, away from the flappers and speakeasys of Chicago and New York, and into the lovely hills and valleys of wine country, where families hid vintages and prayed for the days when they could resume the craft that they loved. When the Rivers Ran Red tells of the extraordinary adventures of the stalwart efforts of immigrant families—the Seghesios, the Foppianos, the Nichelinis and the Cuneos—who saved one of America’s most beloved traditions.

Editorial Reviews

Library Journal

Speakeasies and Keystone Cops come to mind when we think of the Prohibition Era (1919–33). Few of us imagine what the 18th Amendment meant to families and individuals whose livelihood depended on growing grapes and making wine. Sosnowski, editorial director of the San Francisco Examiner and two other newspapers, collected meticulous research to chronicle how the banning of alcoholic beverages affected the grape growers and vintners of California's Napa and Sonoma region. Though she describes many brutal and abusive raids on farms and wineries by goverment agents, business as usual was surprisingly common. The task of preventing people from enjoying the pleasure of wine was daunting. Few agents were above corruption, and the Napa and Sonoma winemakers, compelled by economics, became very clever in disguising their product and its storage. From shipping grapes across country for "legal" home wine making to running wine to San Francisco in the middle of the night, most did whatever they could to keep from going bankrupt. VERDICT Sosnowski's reconstruction of actual events reads like a novel. This tale of a little-known aspect of American history will be enjoyed by Californians, as well as oenophiles and history buffs.—Ann Weber, Bellarmine Coll. Prep., San José, CA

—Ann Weber

Kirkus Reviews

How the Napa and Sonoma Valley wineries survived Prohibition. California's wine country is an oft-romanticized region, and newspaper executive Sosnowski, a first-time author, seems to have fallen sway to its well-advertised charms in her attempt to showcase the region's fortitude during Prohibition. While it is true that many families suffered mightily during that period (1919-33), as the entire region's economy was centered around winemaking, the author's narrative lacks the cohesive direction necessary to give the wineries' plight sufficient dramatic tension. Instead of focusing on the personalities and families behind a few key wineries and how they survived those brutal years-from such obvious dodges as bootlegging to ingenious tactics like the sale of raw grapes for fermenting in private homes-Sosnowski slows the pace with a dry rehashing of facts and figures on everything from the weekly fluctuation of grape prices to the nuances of licensing Prohibition agents. Her empathy for the winemakers-many of them Italian immigrants who brought their craft over from the old country-is evident, but she has difficulty channeling her sentiment into sufficiently energetic prose. Even stealthy midnight shipments of casks and grapes under the noses of Prohibition officials fail to ignite much suspense. While it's refreshing to read a history of Prohibition not focused exclusively on the mob and the speakeasies of New York and Chicago, the colorful personalities and dark excitement unique to this period are lost. Copiously researched, but this particular vintage lacks complexity and depth. First printing of 50,000

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780230103375
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
Publication date: 9/14/2010
Pages: 256
Sales rank: 396,438
Product dimensions: 6.94 (w) x 11.06 (h) x 0.68 (d)

Meet the Author

Vivienne Sosnowski has been an editorial director of newspapers, including the Washington, D.C., Examiner and the San Francisco Examiner. A gifted photographer whose portraits of wine country pioneers were the genesis of this book, she divides her time between a home in the vineyard county of Sonoma and another in Vancouver, Canada.

Read an Excerpt

A trickle of dark liquid began to flow, slowly at first; hesitating a little, then with a deep-throated roar it became a torrent so mighty it was as if the heavens themselves had been ripped open. When the deluge hit the ground the red liquid roiled into a fast-moving wave that churned up an angry froth. The small crowd of men, women and children who stood watching was stunned into silence. Then their eyebrows lifted in astonishment as thousands upon thousands of gallons of liquid began to stream past their feet. Moments later they gasped as the flood bubbling around them grew deeper and wilder. Instinctively they screeched a communal yell of terror and, in one great convulsion, whipped around and charged away, fathers and mothers pulling children almost out of their sweaters as they dragged them out of harm’s way. They turned to look back only when they felt they were far enough to gaze at the terrifying spectacle in safety.

As the ruby waves kept rolling past them, a vast dark stain spread wider and wider across the countryside. It soon poured into every ditch and depression in its path. Small puddles grew into red lakes. Before the deluge was over, it had poured for almost two days. But this first day was the one that took everyone by surprise.

Prologue The Land Was Sacred to These Families

'No Nation Is Drunken Where Wine Is Cheap'

'These Vines Are Like Members of My Famil

'It Was a Clamoring Mob'

'To Hell with Prohibition'

'If We Hadn't Bootlegged, We Wouldn't Have Survived'

'Moonshine Is Almost as Ubiquitous as the Radiance from the Moon Itself'

'We Never Wore Shoes in Summer,' or A Million Dollars to Go Away to France

'The Reign of Bludgeon and of Force'

'The Worst and Most Cruel Experiences to Which a Thrifty and Prosperous Rural Community Was Ever Subject'

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