(Mymotherlode) - As vineyards and wineries across the Mother Lode and the state are abuzz with “Crush 2016,” the governor proclaimed his support today.

Officially declaring September 2016 as Wine Month in the State of California, Governor Jerry Brown managed to combine some colorful history while showing a deep appreciation for the enterprising pioneers and hard work behind The Golden State’s thriving wine industry. Asking residents to join him in raising a glass, he also acknowledged the millions of international visitors this month who will, literally, be pouring into local wine regions to enjoy harvest-related activities and events.

His proclamation text follows here…

The first vineyard in Spanish California was not planted within the area that would become our state, but rather at the short-lived Misión San Bruno in what is now the Mexican state of Baja California Sur. The Italian Jesuit priest Eusebio Francisco Kino established this mission in 1683 at the beginning of his long career exploring and proselytizing in the region that would become the Southwestern United States. Although a drought caused him to abandon San Bruno less than two years after its establishment, the vines that Padre Kino planted—optimistically, perhaps—speak to the great cultural and religious significance of grapes and wine in the Mediterranean cultures that produced our state’s first European settlers.

In 1768, King Carlos III expelled all Jesuits from New Spain, and administration of the Baja California missions passed to the Franciscan order. That same year, the Catalan Franciscan friar Junípero Serra, canonized by Pope Francis in 2015, embarked on his historic expedition to Alta California and established the first mission in the future Golden State at San Diego in 1769. While there is some dispute as to when and where the first vines were planted, it is clear that California viticulture was flourishing by the late 1770s. The first winery was established at Mission San Gabriel during this period. Nearly all grapes grown in California at the time were of a hardy, disease-resistant strain that came to be known as the “mission grape,” a mainstay of the early commercial industry that is still used in some fine California wines and sherries today.