Korbel Champagne Cellars

In the mid-1800s, America offered new hope to three brothers seeking to escape political unrest in their European homeland. Emigrating from Czechoslovakia to the United States, brothers Francis, Anton and Joseph Korbel found success in exchange for their hard work and innovation. F. Korbel & Bros. began as a manufacturing business in San Francisco that produced materials for the building industry. As their enterprise expanded, the brothers eventually acquired a sawmill and began a full-scale lumber operation near the town of Guerneville in Sonoma County.