The plantation of the United States vineyard goes back  to the second half of the XVIIIth century,  when Spanish Franciscans brought with them European grape varieties to their mission in San Diego, California. The viticulture extended the rate of creations of religious establishments.
The great promoter of the Californian  viticulture, the count Agoston Haraszthy, came to San Francisco in 1850, then moved into the Sonoma valley. It created an important domain " Buena Vista " with European grape varieties, particularly Zinfandel of Hungary. In 1861, he presided over the Californian farmer's association.  After him, several emigrants, German or French, began wine-growing exploitations.
In 1874, the phylloxéra destroyed Californian vineyards, but was rapidly reconstituted thanks to grafting using primarily stock of the indigenous Vitis labrusca.
On the brink of the First World War, the American viticulture was again prosperous, when the prohibition (1919 -1933) came. When laws on the prohibition were finally repealed, the Great Depression began. It diverted the population from the wine knowledge and purchases.
  Thus, in the fifties, two generations had grown in the ignorance of the viticulture. They did not know  wine other than as a sweet, strongly enriched in alcohol product, drunk to inebriate rather than to appreciate some aromas.
 The situation began to change to end of the sixties, when Robert Mondavi opened a winery in the Napa Valley. In seventies and eighties, the viticulture spread to many nearby valleys and beyond.  

United States  have adopted an eclectic grape varieties : 

Red grapes : international variety of vines; Cabernet-Sauvignon, Cabernet, Merlot, Pinot Noir, Syrah, Zinfandel and vines of standard southerner ; Grenache, Alicante, Bouschet, Barbera, Carignan, Charbono, some local varieties obtained by cross breeds; Ruby Cabernet, Gamay Beaujolais.

 

White grapes: the principal contribution is French ; Chardonnay, Pinot Blanc, Sauvignon, Chenin, Colombard then Germanic ; Riesling, Gewurztraminer. Equally some local hybrids as the Emerald Riesling.