Cresta Blanca Wine Exhibit, Fairmont Hotel, San Francisco – 1911
Postmark on back: San Francisco, June 1911. The 1915 Pan-Pacific International Exposition was canceled.
My long search for the story of this treasured postcard has remained elusive and inconclusive. Sadly, the sender of this very rare and unusual wine exhibit postcard did not comment on the beautiful, elaborately decorated scene: a Chinese gentleman tending a well-set table display of Cresta Blanca wines in San Francisco’s prestigious Fairmont Hotel. My research noted several California wine promotion “exhibits” held at different City venues during the years 1910 to 1913, reported in the PW&SR, but no Cresta Blanca at the Fairmont. With the postcard being stamped with the “1915 P.P.I.E.” advertising cancel, it suggests the eye-catching exhibit was installed in the Fairmont Hotel as a pre-Exposition promotion, to perhaps even remain for the duration of the Fair? Here are my thoughts.
California wines, the Fairmont Hotel, and the Chinese in California wine country play vital roles in this “untold story.” These roles were also important aspects of the 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition during its ten-month celebration of the completion of the Panama Canal and its boost to West Coast trade, while showcasing San Francisco’s robust recovery from the 1906 earthquake. At this time, Cresta Blanca wine had a highly regarded reputation; the first-class Fairmont’s grand reopening in 1907 was a symbol of resilience and rebirth, while the exotic Chinese presence reflected their invaluable worth to the California wine industry. Simply a fantastic wine promotion, preserved in a postcard.
Fairmont Hotel Atop Nob Hill, San Francisco – c1908
Under the direction of mining magnate James Graham Fair’s (1831-1894) two adult daughters, construction on the stately Fairmont Hotel began in 1902. Nearly finished and ready to open in 1906, the earthquake rattled the majestic structure, and the ensuing fires destroyed its interior. Architect Julia Morgan was promptly hired to oversee the hotel’s restoration and reconstruction. Using inspiration from the French École des Beaux-Arts tradition reflecting the grandeur of the late 19th, early 20th centuries, the highly decorated, columned structure features expansive ballrooms, sweeping staircases, and elaborately detailed interior furnishings. It is an iconic Nob Hill landmark, synonymous with Golden Age luxury.
The Fairmont, along with other famous high-end San Francisco hotels, was the fashionable center of social activities for the Pan-Pacific Exposition, the frequent setting for major banquets, important organizational luncheons, and a glass of wine with dignitaries. But a direct “inside” connection between the Fairmont Hotel, Cresta Blanca’s highly acclaimed wines, or its prominent proprietors, Wetmore and Bowen, was not discovered. The five-star Fairmont was obviously an honored and expensive promotional exhibit venue, where award-winning wines would be opened and sampled in an exquisite tasting room setting. Is the opulent Chinese postcard scene a celebration of their indispensable contributions to California wine?
Cresta Blanca Wine, Paul Masson Champagne, Grand Prize Wines, Wine Temple, P.P.I.E. – 1915
The combined Cresta Blanca–Paul Masson exhibit was singled out as one of the “most elaborate” displays in the Panama Pacific International Exposition Wine Temple. Cresta Blanca Winery received a Grand Prize for its Johannisberg Riesling, and was awarded a Medal of Honor for Sparkling Moselle, and Gold Medals for a Champagne and four other wines. On the back of this exceedingly rare P.P.I.E. postcard is printed: “Be Sure and Order Cresta Blanca Sparkling Wines. Paul Masson Champagne. Grand Prize Wines.” At this date, Mssr Paul Masson oversaw winemaking for both houses, while Wetmore-Bowen headed up sales and distribution. When I first wrote the wine country story “California Wines at the 1915 San Francisco Expo: High Honors” (Oct 2024), this postcard was lacking from my collection. It is extremely gratifying to now have this exceptionally important historical California wine image in our story.
The 1915 Exposition provided a major international platform for the growing California wine industry to showcase its world-class fine wines and their maturing prestige. Still lingering in the air was the wine world’s stunning memory of the 1889 Paris Exposition, where Cresta Blanca’s inaugural 1884 vintage brought home the Grand Prize. Famously, it was the first California wine to win the highest award at an international competition and a giant honor to the California wine industry. During the P.P.I.E.’s wine judging, the jury included both American and international experts who considered over 300 California wines and brandies from all over the state. The wines received high honors and large headlines, and the California vintners were proudly and prominently featured in the California State Building, a large five-acre complex dedicated to introducing and proclaiming the state’s industries and resources.
Grape Picking at Cresta Blanca Vineyard, Livermore. c1910.
The Wetmore-Bowen vineyards covered 500 acres, and annual production averaged some 100,000 gallons of premium wines. In this postcard harvest scene, we witness the Chinese workers’ role in our story, one of their many all-important contributions to California wine country. Wine historian Thomas Pinney apologetically wrote in his 1989 History of Wine in America, “Though it can be given only incidental mention here, the Chinese contribution to California wine deserves more than that; it is, however, largely undocumented, and so much of it is lost to history. In the thirty years between their first immigration in 1852 … and the Exclusion Act of 1882, they were widely used in the California wine industry, from vineyard to warehouse. As early as 1862, Colonel Haraszthy was employing Chinese labor at Buena Vista and defending his practice against an already strong public hostility.” Today, a little over three decades later, the Napa Valley Historical Society, on the occasion of John McCormick’s new book, The Chinese in Napa Valley), summarized this neglected wine country history: In the late 19th century throughout the valley, Chinese laborers made up the vast majority of vineyard and winery workers – comprising up to 80% – and were indispensable in the development of the early wine industry. Yet anti-Chinese sentiment and restrictive immigration policies eventually drove most of the Chinese workers out of Napa Valley by the early 1900s. With little recognition.
My conclusion: a cherished postcard of a beautiful, award-winning wine exhibit hosted by a grand Chinese gentleman was, and remains today, a brilliant reminder and tribute to a long-lost wine country story.
References
John McCormick, Chinese in Napa Valley: The Forgotten Community that Built Wine Country, History Press, 2023.
Thomas Pinney, History of Wine in America. From the Beginnings to Prohibition. UCPress, 1989.
Special thanks to my postcard friend, scholar, and author, Alice van Ommeren, for her gracious thoughts to bring this story to fruition.
