On November 29, 1918, President Wilson signed into effect a law upholding the emergency anti-alcohol measures he had approved back in the spring. This apparent endorsement of Prohibition paved the way for further, ever more restrictive legislation. On January 16, 1919, Congress passed Texas Senator Sheppard's "bone dry" constitutional amendment to outlaw liquor in America. The alcoholic beverage industry would thus go belly up at 12:01 AM, January 17, 1920. Its authors called it "the greatest piece of moral legislation in the history of the world."

Passage of the 18th Amendment was simply the legislative act that provided the machinery for implementing it.

On December 21, 1922, the Wright Act went into effect, a California law that mandated sheriffs, constables, DAs and other peace officers to enforce the Volstead Act [the legislation that provided for the enforcement]. Whether they wanted to or not, they now had to pursue an aggressive course against bootlegging. Napa Police Chief Otterson, who liked alcohol and disliked taking orders from anyone, quit. It was weeks before the city was able to find a replacement.

The sheriff, Berryessa's tee-totaling Joe Harris, stayed on and, with a few deputies, got to work orchestrating raids of Napa County's thriving liquor industry . . . The Napa Valley was home to many small, illegal wineries during Prohibition, but there were also many stills that mass-produced brandy and booze. Mrs. E.F. Evits was "not a bit perturbed" when Harris came upon her little hootch factory at the Oat Hill mine. She ran two stills, a 25 gallon one and a 10-gallon. One of the targets of an August 1923 bust was a major facility concealed in the bushes off Ink Grade Road in Angwin. D. Samuels of Pope Valley and Harold Stevens of Vallejo ran six stills there with inventory and equipment worth many thousands of dollars. They built the plant next to a stream, which not only gave them an excellent source of water to use in brewing, but also provided an excellent thoroughfare for moving the booze. Following the creek bed, runners could travel up and down the mountain without leaving a telltale trail in the brush.

Covering 800 square miles of largely rural, and often largely inaccessible terrain, enforcement efforts were for the most part concentrated in the more populated parts of the Valley, where all segments of the citizenry proved to be quite active in their new role as "criminals."

Most of the people snagged in Sheriff Harris' dragnets were men, but there were female bootleggers as well, like Mrs. Evits. Mrs. Gianna Brovelli had to pay $200 for selling liquor. A 13-year-old girl was taken into custody in Calistoga along with A. Acquistapace and five other men, who were transporting a load of booze. Over in Sonoma County, Emma Fetters of Fetters Hot Springs was among a dozen arrested in a bust at the US Bar on Fourth Street. There was a scuffle as one of the apprehended men tried to wrest a gun from a detective. The shock of the experience may have overwhelmed Mrs. Fetters, because she died less than two weeks later.

Other women reacted with considerably more resolve, however, and some became local legends for a time, as Prohibition continued.

The granddaddy of all Napa Valley raids occurred in September 1925 in Napa Junction at a place known to locals as "Dago Mary's," a speakeasy run by the Negri family. It was a carefully planned drama … A cluster of police cars crept into Napa Junction in the dead of night, and the officers prepared their assault. They split into two teams. Simultaneously, one team burst into the place through the front door while the other came in the back. The first team found a smoke-filled room packed with people, among them some of the Valley's leading citizens. The officers who came through the back, however, encountered Mary in the kitchen. Enraged at their invasion of her enterprise, Mary threw silverware, glassware, plates, pots and pans, small appliances and everything else she could get her hands on at the lawmen before she could be subdued.

The raid captured 35 people, including three women. Dave Cavagnaro was among those arrested. He was fined $900 and may have paid the fines of several others, as well. Special police officer Uvoldi (a Prohibition agent) was also caught in the net and dismissed from his position. Immediately afterward, Harris went to Chiles Valley and arrested his own brother, Harry Harris, who also bootlegged.

After Sheriff Harris declined to run for another term, the Prohibition wars in the Napa Valley cooled considerably. This proved to be a perfect time for the grapegrowers of the county to expand their horizons and further line their pockets.

Napa Valley vineyardists supplied bootleggers with the ingredients. The harvest's far-flung recipients squeezed grapes into juice and the juice fermented. As a result, grape growers actually profited from Prohibition. Since it was legal for heads of household to make wine for consumption by their own families, wine was the preferred beverage for many who wanted to enjoy an alcoholic drink while staying within the bounds of the law. The demand for grape juice was strong, and prices rose sharply. Unfortunately, the best wine varietals were too thin-skinned to ship well. Growers had to graft on or replant with grapes that could go long distances in refrigerated freight cars.

Georges de Latour introduced Californians to the Alicante grape, which stood up much better to traveling, although it made a very rough wine. Mission grapes also experienced a comeback, because they, too, shipped well, but the wine from the little black berries tasted no better than it had 50 years earlier. In 1923 Alicante and Petite Bouschet went for an astounding $85 a ton, because of the toughness of their skins. The more fragile Cabernet, Pinot Noir, Zinfandel, Grenache and Malvoisie sold for $55 per ton. The following year prices for everything went up an additional $5.

Nearly 1400 railroad cars left the Valley in 1923 loaded with grapes, a jump of about 40% over the previous year. The 1927 crush was the largest Napa Valley had ever experienced. That year vineyardists filled 3,500 railroad cars with the fruit of their harvest. Prices were a little lower … but the yield was enormous.
A few wineries converted their product into grape syrup or concentrate. The Montelena Orchard Company bought the Tubbs family's Hillcrest Winery in Calistoga and brewed more than 2,400 bottles of "California Sherry Wine Seasoning" a day. Other places concocted "Tokay Grape Syrup," "Riesling Syrup" and an assortment of other flavors. The syrup itself contained no alcohol, but if the handy householder added water and sugar and let it sit for 60 days, it would have an alcohol content of about 12%.

After a good deal of experimentation, Beringer Brothers developed yet another way to make wine. Using a dehydrator that they built on their property, they turned grapes into raisins and formed the raisins into bricks. The recipe for producing wine from bricks was quite simple: One brick plus one gallon of water plus one pound of sugar plus about one week would, under warm conditions, produce wine.

This lucrative venture was in addition to the wine already
being produced by various wineries for "sacramental,
industrial and medicinal" use.

Skirting the regulations regarding sacramental wine was especially popular. Catholics, Episcopalians and Jews consumed most of the altar wine in America. In New York, which had large numbers of all three faiths, sacramental wine was rationed according to the number of members registered in each church and synagogue. Head counts in the pews were greatly exaggerated, and in some cases entirely fabricated. A 600-member New York City synagogue turned out to be a laundry. A delicatessen and an East Side tenement building tried to pass themselves off as places of worship, and the "Assembly of Hebrew Orthodox Rabbis of America" consisted of an Irishman named Sullivan. Episcopalian parishes enjoyed phenomenal growth.

Prohibition was finally repealed, of course, an event that was celebrated with no more enthusiasm than in the Napa Valley. Unlike on the East Coast, where vast fortunes were made during this social experiment, Prohibition was simply an interruption. Yes, it had financial consequences, almost all detrimental, and a great deal of time and money was lost, but in the end the Napa Valley continued on as a farming community, and a percentage of those acres were devoted to grapes, most of which was made into wine, and the natural cycle continued, as it does today.