Poster, “Champagne”

Established in 1938, California’s Wine Advisory Board set out to challenge the widespread attitude—a holdover from the rhetoric of Prohibition—that wine was like all alcoholic beverages and consumed only by those wishing to get drunk. The Board organized various campaigns to convey a different message: that wine could be a positive addition to the American table. Ads and booklets produced during the 1950s and ‘60s reflected this effort, with slogans that encouraged consumers to embrace wine as part of an all-American meal. The Board also commissioned a series of colorful posters in the 1960s to promote California and its reinvigorated wine industry.

This poster produced in the 1960s was one in the “California, Wine Land of America” series based on original artwork by Amado Gonzalez, a Mexican-born artist who taught at San Francisco’s City College. It features California “Champagne,” a term that, technically, refers to a defined area in France and to a process of secondary fermentation in a closed container (hence the bubbles). Since the 1970s, California producers have used the term “Sparkling Wine” to more accurately represent their “champagne.”

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