PHOTO: WELLCOME LIBRARY, LONDON

Almost 125 years after Father Junipero Serra planted California's first vineyard, the state touted its intoxicating industry at the 1904 Louisiana Purchase Exposition with the Golden Temple of Wine. Inside the 3,000-square-foot exhibit stood eight gold-painted stone pillars, each rising 30 feet and topped by a carved head of Bacchus tinted an ivory hue. Above the heads of the Roman god of wine, additional carvings depicted bears guzzling bottles of fermented-grape goodness. Surrounding this spectacle were elegant cabinets displaying hundreds of bottles of vino, ranging from muscatel to Madeira.