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In the 13 years it was in effect, the 18th Amendment to the Constitution could have killed the wine industry in the Napa Valley. Instead of collapsing under the pressure of the new law, a few industrious business people decided to make the best of the hand they were dealt and found loopholes in the law.

On Jan. 16, 1920, the amendment went into effect. America banned the production, sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquors.

Prohibition grew out of the temperance movement, which had been around since the inception of the country and was born of the puritan values of some of the first settlers.

As the movement gathered steam proponents used both religious and scientific reasons to back the ban, and prohibition became a signature cause of politically active women of the era.

In October 1919 the amendment, along with a companion piece of legislation known as the Volstead Act — named for the conservative senator from Minnesota who championed the cause — was approved in Congress. Prohibition was set to take effect at the beginning of the new year.