It was the first day of the growing season 2007 in the Napa Valley — the day that tiny buds poked their heads out from the vines. On that same morning, when the old and rustic tasting room at Prager Winery & Port Works was as jammed as a subway car at rush hour, Peter Prager had to think that maybe — just maybe — his family’s winery, after nearly three decades, was riding the wave on the New North American Wine Revolution.

In the naturally occurring life of the Napa Valley — and in a moment when Americans seem to at last be drawn to the allure of wines of all sorts — the Pragers may be feeling vindicated and validated. It’s taken a long time, but if we staid North Americans — especially those 30- and 40-somethings — are finally eager to try Grüner Vertliners and Nero d’Avolas, and Falanghinas, and now Rieslings; one has to think that perhaps Port-style wine's time has finally come around, too.

The Pragers then, who have been making fortified wines since 1980 in their ramshackle but functional cellar — and since 1999 have begun to grow Portuguese varieties in their Calistoga vineyard — are making preparations to climb aboard the train to wine nirvana.

Prager, of course, is not the only one in California growing Touriga Nacional, Tinta Cao, Tinta Roriz, and Verdelho. In the Napa Valley, Heitz and York Creek have been producing wines from these Portuguese grapes for a long while.

In fact, there were nearly 553 tons of Touriga — the workhorse of Port wines — crushed during the ’06 harvest throughout California. That number represents an increase of 26 percent from the previous year. Actually, there is a lot more Touriga grown in the state than Charbono, Nebbiolo, and Dolcetto; and slightly less than Cinsault. Plantings of Verdelho, from which Prager makes a white Port, were up 50 percent, albeit to a mere 207 tons.