How Prohibition affected America’s wine palate

(WP) - The two curators from the Smithsonian were asking a lot of questions, but Julie Pedroncelli St. John wasn’t taken aback until one of them said, “We’d like some of your stuff.” After more discussion, Pedroncelli Winery, located in Sonoma County’s Dry Creek Valley, agreed to donate a copper polenta pot used by St. John’s grandmother; a stencil for marking barrel heads; a grape box used for harvest during the 1950s; and a sign that had welcomed visitors to the winery during the ’50s and ’60s.

St. John, 53, and her father, Jim Pedroncelli, 81, are scheduled to be at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History next week for events marking the 80th anniversary of the repeal of Prohibition on Dec. 5, 1933. The events — subject to cancellation if the government shutdown has not ended — include a fundraising dinner and a public oral history session featuring representatives of California wineries whose histories extend to Prohibition or earlier.

Paula Johnson, director of the museum’s Food and Wine History Project, said the events will highlight family-owned and -operated wineries that survived Prohibition and thrived after repeal. In addition to Pedroncelli, participating wineries include Gundlach Bundschu, Wente Family Estates, E&J Gallo and Louis M. Martini. (Martini is now owned by Gallo but still run by Mike Martini, Louis’s grandson.) Johnson’s team developed the exhibit “Food: Transforming the American Table, 1950-2000,” which opened in November 2012, and is compiling an extensive oral history of wine in the United States.