The Michigan wine industry began in Monroe County in the mid-1800s. However, grape rot in the 1880s and the passage of the 1920 National Prohibition Act decimated the industry. Though the state continued to produce wine after prohibition’s repeal in 1933, the establishment of the Michigan Grape and Wine Industry Council in 1985 provided the necessary funding that made it commercially successful. This, coupled with planting European vinifera and French-American hybrid grapes on the sloping hillsides of the Lake Michigan shoreline, allowed Michigan to take its place as a world-class winemaking center.