Chinese Americans’ Contributions to Wine Transport
Remembering those who laid the infrastructure to make the transcontinental journey of people and goods possible
We are lucky to be living in a moment where the entire canon of how we think and talk about wine is being challenged. The myth that the success and enjoyment of wine is something that white people own is slowly falling apart. Current generations of consumers are making demands in how we talk about and understand the history and ethics of the wine industry. What I’ve learned is that all it takes is a small shift in perspective, a glimpse into the story from another angle to begin unravelling this myth and start shedding light on the breadth of incredible people who left (and continue to leave) their mark on wine consumption as we know it today.
Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage Month (AAPIHM) was first created by the United States Congress in 1992. As of 2021 the Pew Research Center research has noted that 22 million Asian Americans trace their roots to more than 20 Asian countries, each with unique histories, cultures, and languages. According to the Asian Pacific Institute for Gender-Based Violence, the federal government defines the term AAPI to include “all people of Asian, Asian American, or Pacific Islander ancestry who trace their origins to the countries, states, jurisdictions and/or the diasporic communities of these geographic regions.” As of 2000, “Asian” and “Pacific Islander” became two separate racial categories on the U.S. Census, replacing “Asian Pacific Islander.” AAPIHM falls in May as a result of several historical milestones, including the 1843 arrival of the first Japanese immigrants, and Chinese workers’ enormous contributions to building the transcontinental railroad, which changed America as we know it.
With the recent popularity of TV series like 1883 (prequel to Yellowstone, which I highly recommend) we’re reminded of the treacherous journey hundreds of thousands of emigrants made along the Oregon Trail. Some of you may still have vivid memories of playing the infamous computer game and dying of dysentery, cholera, measles, fever, a snakebite, typhoid, you get the point… With the completion of the transcontinental railroad, it was no longer a death sentence to head west, and people could finally travel from New York to San Francisco in just one week. California was now a crucial part of the modern United States, and not only did the railroad bring more Americans out to California, but it also brought goods from California to the world, including wine.
The transportation of wine has been a part of human history for over 8,000 years and is synonymous with its success as a globally traded and enjoyed product. Many people 'travel' through the bottles of wine they drink, gaining a greater understanding of a place based on the terroir they taste in their glass. While we often focus on the enjoyment of the finished product on our table, how often do we stop to think about its journey, and those who have laid the infrastructure to make that journey possible?
The way we shop for and consume wine today is unconstrained by geography, and while it seems to have happened seamlessly, who is to credit for making this possible? While the transcontinental rail and countless more wine trade routes across the globe make our modern wine economy possible, many are riddled with a history that had negative effects on marginalized groups of people, as well as the environment. The Chinese workers who built the transcontinental railroad worked in unfair conditions, were paid minimum wages, and subjected to prejudice that led to cruel legislation such as the Exclusion Act of 1882. Indigenous groups such as the Plains Indians were forced to move away from the railroad, and their food source of Buffalo was overtaken by rail workers. When we look back at this piece of history in books and through documentaries, we typically see successful looking businessmen in suits, and glamours locomotives speeding down the tracks. What we don’t see reflected are the people who sacrificed so much for this modernity to become a reality. People who immigrated from their homes to find work, who lived a nomadic lifestyle in tents away from their family and friends in the hopes of pursuing the ‘American Dream’.
The transcontinental railroad was finished in May 1869, and as soon as 1904 we have records of the Southern Pacific Railroad being used to ship grape vine cuttings purchased in France for delivery to the Napa Valley. Shortly after, California wineries began to ship tank cars of wine to New York and other eastern states where they were bottled under local labels. Beaulieu Vineyard played a significant role in the transportation of wine, exceptionally during Prohibition as a supplier of altar wine to Catholic churches across America, even establishing offices in New York as the Distribution Company for the altar wine trade. In 1924 Federal officials seized a train shipment of their wine in Denver even though it was labelled as sacramental wine. The following day San Francisco officials analyzed paperwork and determined the wine was shipped under proper authorization, and it was ultimately allowed to carry on to its final destination in Cleveland, Ohio. By the late 1930’s, bottles of Beaulieu Vineyard “California White Wine” were specifically produced to be served aboard the Southern and Union Pacific railroad lines. In February 1948, 25 tank cars of Chateau Martin wine were shipped from the Waterford winery in California to the Bronx, NY. The trade magazine Wines & Vines reported that the record high trainload carried 200,000 gallons of wine, 15 cars of Port, 7 cars of Muscatel and 3 cars of Dry Red Wine.
Special thanks to Lynn Downey, Beaulieu Vineyard’s amazing historian, for providing me with insights into the historical BV archives. Additional thanks to Trevor Durling, chief winemaker at Beaulieu Vineyard, for generously introducing us. I had the pleasure of meeting Trevor in Napa Valley this year, which was a full circle moment for me as I previously served as a Brand Ambassador for BV early on in my wine career.
It has become increasingly common for consumers to want to understand what's in their wine, who made their wine, and it's only a matter of time before more people start to seriously consider the question of how our wine got to us, from the perspectives of workers’ rights as well as sustainability. While the construction of the transcontinental rail is an important piece of American history, we must remember the individuals who risked so much to make this dream a reality. I hope this story can serve as a small reminder to keep ethics and workers’ rights front of mind as we consider how our wine made it to our table.
Thank you for reading, subscribing, sharing, and sipping with me. If you’d like to read more about my travels to Asia and the recipes / wine-pairing they inspired, I encourage you to check out my article on Low-Waste Asian Fusion | Monarch Wine.
Please leave a comment or question below, and until next time, cheers!
Thanks for sharing that tidbit of history! The railroads today are still influencing history!