The Franciscan monk Fra Junipero Serra (1713-1784) was born Miguel Serra y Abram in Petra on Mallorca and joined the order at the age of 16. His spiritual name Junipero means "juniper bush". He studied and preached in Palma de Mallorca. In 1747, he embarked on a missionary journey with a group of friars, travelling to Mexico and later to what is now California. The Spanish variety Listán Prieto had already been introduced to Mexico by Franciscan fathers around 1540 and was called Misión there. Serra took cuttings from there and planted the first vineyard in California in 1769. Here it was now called Mission or Mission's Grape.
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Technischer Lehrer, staatl. geprüfter Sommelier, Hotelfachschule Heidelberg