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Korbel

The Californian sparkling wine house is located in Guerneville in Sonoma County, California ( North Coast region) near the Pacific Ocean. It was founded in 1882 by South Bohemian-born Frantissek (Francis) Korbel (1830-1920) and his two brothers Anton and Joseph. They had already been farming and, on a small scale, growing grapes on the property since 1870. Now they concentrated fully on wine and planted vineyards with Pinot Noir, an unusual variety for California at that time. Initially, only still wine was produced, but from 1890 "champagne" was also produced. The business took off and by 1900 Korbel Champagne was internationally known. The company also survived Prohibition (1920-1933) and remained in the family until 1954. In that year it was bought by Adolf Heck, whose father had immigrated from the French Alsace at the turn of the century. He began to produce the products more in the "California style", i.e. fruitier and with less yeast. In 1982, Adolf Heck's son Gary took over the management of the company. In 1998, Korbel bought the Kenwood winery, but already in 2002 both businesses were taken over by the beer company Anheuser-Busch.

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