Author: Cindy Lambert

It was illegal to sell wine in bottles for centuries. There were so many different bottle types...

Gallon stills, bottles, malt syrup, corn sugar, corn syrup, hops, yeast, bottle cappers, and concentrated grapes were legally sold in hardware and grocery stores. Licensed doctors were permitted to prescribe distilled spirits, wine, and whiskey as treatments for ailments, with a limitation of one pint every ten days.

In the 1920s, the formation of associations and co-ops was widespread in America. Many voluntary citizen cooperatives banded together to solve the problems of crime and lobbying for legislation. Agricultural publishing organizations created membership groups that kept farmers informed and connected them with a larger community

Fruit Industries, Ltd. was a non-profit, co-operative agricultural association organized in 1929 with the merger of several winemaking concerns, including the California Wine Association, into a single organization in an effort to bring order to the then chaotic California grape industry.

The Wine History Project Collection contains several rare Prohibition and Post-Prohibition Era tools.