In the United States, the first vineyards in California were planted in 1832 in Los Angeles by Louis Bouchet and Jean Louis Vignes eventually producing about 150,000 bottles per year. These men arrived in California during 1831 from the Gironde located near the town of Bordeaux.

Immigration to the United States from China began about mid -1800's and, as with many immigrants to the United States in the past, present, or future, they hoped to send money to their families or return to their homeland with newly acquired wealth. By 1880, 25% of California's workforce was of Chinese descent. Of particular interest was the advanced agricultural knowledge possessed by many of these first immigrants from China because developing farms of the West needed Chinese expertise along with with migrant agricultural laborers to become self-sufficient.

In 1857, Chinese workers employed by "Colonel" Agoston Haraszthy, reputed father of the modern California wine industry, dug a tunnel into a hillside on his Buena Vista vineyards in order to store some 5,000 gallons of wine. They built a second tunnel in 1858, and a third in 1862. In an article in the San Francisco daily newspaper Alta California, July 23, 1863, a reporter observed "Chinese grubbing out oak saplings" at the Buena Vista winery so the vineyards could be enlarged. In the champagne cellar, he saw "four Chinese, filling, corking, wiring, etc. champagne bottles." He also mentioned, "There are now in progress, three new cellars, close to the press house. These are all being blasted and excavated by Chinese. They are to be 26 feet wide, 13 feet in height and 300 feet long." Chinese workmen were furnished to the Buena Vista Winery by Ho Po, a San Francisco labor contractor. They often plowed the soil, pruned the vines, and excavated tunnels at night, if the heat of the day was too oppressive.

It is estimated that viticulture in California would have been set back 30 to 50 years without Chinese vineyard workers. Although grape vines are now pruned to waist height, they originally were pruned to 1-1/2 feet above the ground forcing the picker to kneel or bend his back to a painful angle. Many non-Chinese laborers could not or would not perform stoop labor. About 1890, pruning customs changed, and there was much agitation to replace Chinese workers with White laborers.

In the 1867 Gubernatorial election, Haraszthy championed the use of Chinese labor in California. He supported the proposed 14th Amendment guaranteeing "equal protection under the law" (a glimpse at "social equity") and the 15th Amendment extending the right of former slaves to vote. The political climate of Sonoma County was in overwhelming disagreement with Haraszthy.

Unfortunately, the Chinese became targets for anti-immigrant protests and riots. In 1882, Congress passed the Chinese Exclusion Act based upon the belief that, "in the opinion of the Government of the United States the coming of the Chinese laborers to this country endangers the good order of certain localities". It is the first United States law to ban a specific racial group from entering America or apply for naturalized status. In 1943 Congress repealed the Act of 1882. In 1952 Congress passed the Walter-McCarren Act allowing first-generation Chinese Americans to apply for citizenship. The 1964 Immigration and Nationality Act removed the last barriers to Chinese immigration.