Los Angeles was once the heart of winemaking in the United States, producing 25 million bottles, with many of them coming out of downtown LA. Much of that industry withered away during Prohibition, literally and figuratively. Fields were plowed over, vineyards became citrus orchards, cities sprung up. Jason Wise became obsessed with unearthing the city's winemaking roots. The result is "The Oldest Vine," a short documentary about LA's oldest surviving grapevine, and the city's under appreciated role in vinting history.
"Koreatown exists right now in a place [that] would've been covered by vines. Malibu, a lot of the canyons in that area, would've had vines covering [it] because it's pretty much the only thing that could grow there. A lot of the flat areas going out in the San Gabriel Valley were all vines, as far as you could see," Wise says.