Over the past century, American wine aficionados have celebrated the California wine industry’s rise to stardom. At the same time, many have lamented the fact that California is one of the only major world wine regions without a significant wine museum like the French Cite des Civilizations du vin or the Italian WiMu - Museo del Vino. An early twenty-first century attempt by Jim McCormick, art and antiques dealer, to create the Wineseum: The California Wine Museum failed despite the fact that California has a well-documented wine history archived at the University of California libraries at Berkeley, Davis, and Santa Barbara.
Most American wineries, unlike many of their European counterparts, greet visitors with displays of medals they have won, bottles of wine, and an odd collection of uncurated artifacts and ephemera. The French/American Boisset Collection moved to fill this museum gap when they purchased the historic Buena Vista Winery...
University of California Press