Chapter 5

HISTORIC VINES

Historic vineyards exist throughout California, and while these vineyards don’t offer tours, you can still sample their wines. They grow grapes in the historic areas and then sell them to winemakers who, in turn, bottle and sell them.

Fiddletown, Amador County, is home to the 1865 Rinaldi Vineyard, which is head-trained and largely dry-farmed. Thirty-eight acres were originally planted to 95 percent Zinfandel, along with mission, White Muscat and Black Muscat, and there are still vines in the original 1865 block. While the vineyard was revitalized in 2000, there are various blocks at different ages since the 1950s. The total vineyard and ranch parcel is eighty-two acres. Both Rombauer Vineyards and Terre Rouge and Easton Wines use these vines to make wine.

Napa County is home to the historic R.W. Moore Vineyard, which has survived and has been productive for more than one hundred years. In 1883, a seventy-four-acre parcel of land containing the R.W. Moore Vineyard sold for $5,000, and the value had doubled to $10,000 by 1886. Phylloxera and a bad economy brought their combined effects to bear on Napa in the late 1880s, and the price of the Moore property followed in step. Amazingly, just nine years after it sold for $10,000, the property was given away for “Love and Affection.” One month later, the property sold for $10. In 1903, the ten-acre Moore Vineyard was acquired by merchant seaman Pleasant Ashley Stevens and is recognized as one of the oldest vineyards in Napa Valley and one of the top sources for old-vine Zinfandel in California. Pleasant was a colorful character who, with the help of his daughters, planted St. George roots and grafted them to Zinfandel.

In 1983, an orthodontist named Bill Moore purchased the vineyard and over the ensuing years has lovingly preserved and restored it. Like many old Zinfandel vineyards, the Moore vineyard has small quantities of other varietals interplanted with the Zinfandel. These include Carignane, Mourvedre, Petite Sirah and Napa Gamay. These varietals represent less than 5 percent of the total. Current winemakers using grapes from the R.W. Moore Vineyard include Mike and Molly Hendry and Robert Biale Vineyards.

Sonoma County also has its share of historic vineyards. William McPherson Hill founded Old Hill Ranch in 1851. Hill is believed to be the first grower in Sonoma to plant nonmission grape varieties, which he imported from Peru. Hill was born in Hatboro, Pennsylvania, on October 22, 1822, and ventured west to California with his father, Dr. John D. Hill. The Hills arrived in San Francisco in 1849 and lived there for two years. They were engaged in the lumber and mining enterprises there. In 1851, they headed for Sonoma, where they purchased land and planted fruit trees and grapevines. Hill’s father became a California state senator in 1861 and served consecutively, except for one term, and was succeeded by his son, William. John Hill lived to be ninety-two years old.

As early as 1855, when Hill and General Vallejo owned the most extensive vineyards in Sonoma County, Hill is thought to have already planted Zinfandel. By 1860, Hill, his wife, Annie Elmer Potter-Hill, and their son, Robert, were residing with Hill’s father, John, on the land the two men purchased. Ten years later saw the Hills with more children, including Robert, Howard and Eliza. William’s brother, Humphrey, was also residing with them, as were four Chinese immigrants and an Irish lass named Mary Collins, all of whom worked for the Hills.

In December 1871, the Pacific Rural Press noted, “We sampled a bottle of wine from the cellar of Wm. McPherson Hill made from the Zinfandel grape, a new variety that is growing in favor with winemakers. The wine was pronounced by the gentlemen who tasted it to be superior to any they had seen in the state.” In 1877, Hill was a state senator representing Napa, Lake and Sonoma Counties. A writer named R.R. Parkinson wrote an article on California senators called “Pen Portraits.” In it, he described Hill as

a Democrat to the backbone, and by occupation and profession a general farmer, with the culture of the grapevine as his specialty. He is a native of Pennsylvania, and came to California in 1849, via Cape Horn, and was 202 days in making the voyage. Mr. Hill is one of Sonoma’s most prominent and honored citizens, has been one of its Supervisors for three years, and President of the Sonoma County Agricultural Society. He has also filled the position of President of the San Pablo District Pioneer Society for two years. Mr. Hill is now serving the second session of his term, which will expire December 1879. He is a dignified and social gentleman, and at the last session of the Legislature, by his consistent and manly course, gained the approbation and confidence of his constituents, and the esteem of his fellow-Senators. His watchword is, “economy and retrenchment in the government of the State,” and his votes of the present session stand a living monument to his credit, that his practices are consistent with his teachings. He is an able Senator well posted on matters of legislation, and advocates what he concedes to be right, regardless of anybody or anything else. He never bores the Senate with long speeches, but says that he means in a plain, comprehensive manner, and when he is done, and he quits. Mr. Hill is chairman of Committee on Agriculture, and a member of Committee on Counties and County Boundaries, Roads and Highways, State Prison, and Fisheries and Game.

On December 12, 1889, Hill sold 1,600 acres to the State of California so a home for “feeble-minded” children could be built. Today, it’s the Sonoma Developmental Center. While Hill sold much of his land, he kept two parcels—the southeast corner 60-acre portion, which is now Old Hill Ranch, and a 100-acre parcel on Sonoma Mountain that son Robert sold to Jack London in 1903. Upon Hill’s death on November 19, 1897, the land was passed on to his son, Robert Potter Hill, who farmed the ranch until his demise in 1940.

Otto and Anne Teller purchased Old Hill Ranch in 1981. The previous owners had not set foot on the property since their house, the original Hill House, burned down several years earlier. The overgrown vineyard was barely visible beneath the blackberry vines and poison oak. A UC-Davis farm advisor took one look and strongly recommended ripping up the vineyard and starting fresh. This was not the answer that Otto was seeking, so he turned to one of the few winemakers in the area who understood the value of old vines, Joel Peterson at Ravenswood Winery. Joel recommended selling the grapes to Ravenswood, and so Otto began the long process of bringing the vineyard back to health. In 1983, Ravenswood began its vineyard designate Old Hill Ranch Zinfandel just as the vineyard was turning one hundred years old. You can still taste wine made from these historic grapes from the Bucklin Winery. Its Zinfandel is produced from a certified organic, dry-farmed field blend planted on Old Hill in the 1880s. It’s called Old Hill Ranch Zinfandel (Ancient Vine). Ravenswood Winery also makes an old Hill Vineyard Designate.

Morgan Peterson, son of Joel Peterson of Ravenswood fame, is the caretaker for several old vineyards in the Sonoma Valley. The Bedrock Vineyard, which contains 152 acres in the heart of Sonoma Valley, was founded in 1854 by General William Tecumseh Sherman and General “Fightin’ Joe” Hooker. Following the first epidemic of phylloxera in the mid-1880s, the vineyard was replanted in 1888 by Senator George Hearst. (See page 73 for more on this.) It is from those 120-year-old vines that the Bedrock Heirloom Wine is crafted.

In 1934, the property was purchased by the Parducci family and was part of the estate vineyards of early Valley of the Moon Winery.

The Stellwagen Vineyard is only one mile away from Bedrock Vineyard in the heart of the Sonoma Valley. Morgan Peterson wrote, “It is almost as old—I suspect the vineyard was once part of the old Steiger property, probably planted in the 1890s. Though geographically close, Stellwagen lies on a soil type unseen on our ranch—Los Robles Cobbly Loams. This is a darker, more gravelly, soil also found at nearby Old Hill Ranch. The vineyard is owned by Ruth Stellwagen and her husband Robert—longtime valley folk, and part of the family that has owned Stellwagen since the 1960s.” He used grapes from the vineyard to make wine at his Bedrock Wine Company.

Also managed by Morgan Peterson is the Saitone Ranch, which, Peterson wrote, “is the oldest remaining vineyard in the Piner-Olivet area of the Russian River Valley. Located next to Papera Ranch, Saitone was planted in 1896 and features a diverse array of interplanted varieties of both red and white hue. It is a thrill to be working with the legendary Ulises Valdez who has taken over the farming of the vineyard starting with vintage 2011. Unlike the neighboring Papera, where Bedrock Wine Company will make a field-blended Heirloom wine that will be roughly 50% Zinfandel, the Saitone Ranch will be a Zinfandel.”

The Saxon-Brown and Mayo families are credited with planting the Casa Santinamaria Vineyard. Morgan Peterson wrote:

Planted in 1905, [it] is probably the coolest Zinfandel site Bedrock Wine Company works with in Sonoma Valley. Located behind the old Casa, which at one time was a local church and still possesses the bell-tower, at the intersection of Boyes Boulevard and Arnold Drive, the vineyard is composed of both old-vine Zinfandel and mixed blacks, along with two blocks of field-blended white grapes. Half of this vineyard was split of several decades ago and subdivided. Those vines have long gone to Rosenblum Winery for their famous Maggie’s Reserve. Also, the field-blended Semillon, Muscadelle, Chasselas, and Palomino, will find their way into the Cuvee Caritas and perhaps even into an Heirloom White wine from the vineyard. It is a thrill to be working with such a gorgeous piece of land!

Sometime before 1892, the Barricia Vineyard was planted, and today it contains six acres of Zinfandel. The land dates back to General Mariano Vallejo, who traded it to his children’s music teacher in exchange for lessons. In 1978, Barbara Olesen and Patricia Herron bought the vineyard and named it Barricia by combining their own first names. In 2006, Pat decided to sell the winery since she was now alone after Barbara passed away and also because she had turned eighty. Mel and Angela Dagovich bought the vineyard and still own it today. Joel Peterson from Ravenswood Winery makes a Barricia Zinfandel with their grapes.

At the urging of his fellow Hungarian Agoston Haraszthy, Louis Csomortanyi planted forty acres in Sonoma in 1860. Csomortanyi also built a small cottage and stone winey. In 1873, the property was purchased by longtime vintners and wine merchants Charles Kohler and John Frohling. They expanded the vineyards to more than two hundred acres and built a large winery capable of producing more than sixty thousand cases per year. Despite having Kohler and Frohling at the helm, the winery’s production declined, and the 1906 earthquake damaged it beyond practical repair.

Enter author Jack London. He first came to the valley to court Charmian Kittredge, and after they were married in 1905, he purchased the beautiful Hill Ranch, where his dream home, the Wolf House, was built. He wrote, “There are 130 acres in the place, and they are 130 acres of the most beautiful, primitive land to be found in California.” Over the next eight years, London purchased six adjacent properties to create his 1,400-acre Beauty Ranch. Carefully terraced under London’s supervision, the ranch produced grapes and hay and provided an inspiring view from his writing den in the cottage that became the couple’s home in 1911. Several of the author’s later books were written at Beauty Ranch, including Burning Daylight and The Valley of the Moon.

During London’s frequent travels, his stepsister, Eliza Shepard, managed Beauty Ranch. Upon his untimely death in 1916 at age forty, she took over management full time. The vineyard and hayfield were left fallow due to World War I and the advent of prohibition, but Shepard and her descendants kept Beauty Ranch largely intact until 1959, four years after Charmian London’s death, when the family donated land for the establishment of Jack London State Park.

In 1972, Eliza Shepard’s son, Irving, who had taken over responsibility for the ranch upon her death, and his son, Milo, planted Jack London Vineyard, which remains under family ownership. A substantial percentage of the vineyard was established on the old terraces that London built. The superb quality of the first Cabernet Sauvignon vintage motivated neighboring Kenwood Vineyards to enter an exclusive agreement to purchase the grapes from Jack London Vineyard. Jack London Cabernet Sauvignon, with a label featuring London’s “Wolf” bookplate logo, debuted with the 1977 vintage. Kenwood Vineyards has been producing wines made exclusively from the Jack London Vineyard for more than thirty years.

Felice Pagani was born in 1863 in Fenegrò, Italy, and was one of twelve children. Fenegrò was a tiny, poor village close to the border of Switzerland. Most residents labored in the local silk factory, described as “cold, wet, and miserable” by Norma, Felice’s granddaughter. At age twenty, hoping to improve his prospects, Felice immigrated to the United States. He spent two years in Vermont felling trees until the cold weather drove him to Sonoma Valley in the 1880s, and he found work there at the Goldstein Ranch in Glen Ellen. Before long, the hardworking Felice “became foreman of Goldstein’s vineyards. Today the property, known as Monte Rosso Vineyard, now owned by Louis M. Martini, is famed for its old-vine Zinfandel, which was tended by Felice” when both he and the vines were young.

Sometime around 1890, Felice sent back to Italy for sixteen-year-old Angela Bogani to become his wife. “The last time he’d seen Angela she was probably eight or nine,” Norma said. “But he knew she came from a good family.” Norma’s sister, Charlotte Pagani-Savinovich, said, “He’d liked her older sister…She was pretty and fun. He figured Angela would be a lot like her.” At first, the couple lived on the Goldstein Ranch. Angela soon gave birth to their first child, Rose, followed by Charles, who would grow up to be the father of Norma, Charlotte and their sister, Marie Pagani-Meursinge. Felice and Angela ultimately had seven children, although only four lived past childhood.

Louis Pagani, riding his new tractor in 1926. Courtesy of the Pagani family and Dino Amantite.

Felice sometimes brought his crew down the hill to work twenty-five acres of vines planted in the early 1880s—mostly Zinfandel with a classic field blend of varietals that included Petite Sirah, Alicante, Grand Noir and Lenoir—on land belonging to Judge Cook. In 1903, Cook sold the land, today’s “lower ranch,” to Pagani. The Pagani farm was typical for the day. “They grew everything,” says great-grandson Dino Amantite. “You name it: grapes, prunes, apples, pears, cattle, silage and hay, chickens and pigs. They had horses and plowed with them. It wasn’t until after Felice died that they bought a tractor.” Shortly before the 1906 earthquake, Felice built a two-story wooden barn. One wall had to be rebuilt after the quake, but the barn is still used today.

In 1913, the family also bought a sawmill and stone winery (today’s Jack London Village) from Henry Chauvet. They started the A. Pagani Winery, which lasted until 1969. “They had the first label that said Glen Ellen winery,” said Dino. “There was a tasting room when I was a kid. It was very informal, and they’d take it right out of the barrel. They also made brandy there.” In 1919, Felice bought an adjoining property, today’s “upper ranch,” planting it in 1921 and 1922 with thirty acres of vines. When Felice died in 1926, three of his children—Charles, Louis and Olive—took over the ranch. After Charles’s death in 1954, “the shots were called by Uncle Louie and Olive,” Dino said.

Charles’s daughters married and moved from Glen Ellen with their husbands, returning to help out when they could. The only one who yearned to return to the ranch for good was Norma, who lived in Point Richmond with her husband and three sons. “I always came up to help out at harvest,” Norma said. “I kept hoping they’d ask me to move up. But it wasn’t until 1972 that Louie, by then in his seventies, felt that he needed help. Uncle Louie asked me to move to the ranch. I said, ‘I’ve been waiting 17½ years for that offer.’” Asked what she might say to Felice if she could, Norma responded simply, “I’d just thank him for buying this property.”

Today, the Pagani Ranch is run by the third and fourth generation, with Norma as ranch manager and Dino managing the vineyard. Wineries currently making wine from the Pagani Ranch include Seghesio Family Vineyards, Ridge Vineyards, Bedrock Wine Company, Robert Biale Vineyards, Wellington Vineyards and Berthoud Vineyards and Winery.

Acorn Winery’s Alegria Vineyard in Healdsburg traces its history back to George Brumfield, who came from Virginia in 1852. But before Brumfield bought it, the vineyard was part of the 1841 Sotoyome land grant from Mexican governor Micheltorena to Captain Henry Delano Fitch. Fitch was native of New Hampshire who married Josefa Carrillo, sister-in-law of General Mariano Vallejo. Fitch had come to the area in about 1833. George Brumfield and his family, who migrated from Virginia, settled on the land in 1852. Like all of the residents of the Healdsburg area at that time, they were squatters on Fitch’s land and did not get title until 1857.

Their 850-acre property also included the present Ponzo Vineyards. George Brumfield transferred the property to his son, Summers Brumfield, in 1867. The California Board of State Viticultural Commissioners’ 1891 Directory of Grape Growers shows Summers Brumfield as having 18 acres of Zinfandel and mission grapes in 1889, producing 1.67 tons/acre, which would indicate planting in 1886 or earlier, but those vines were probably not on phylloxera-resistant rootstock. Brumfield sold 85 acres, including Alegria, in 1895 to George Davis, who sold the vineyard in 1896 to Elizabeth Moes. Moes got the western half of the Davis parcel; the eastern half later became the Pedroncelli Winery, which is no longer there. Moes built a small winery on her property, and when she died in 1924, her daughter, Ernestine, and son-in-law, Adolph DiNucci, maintained the vineyard during prohibition and until 1943. The vineyard then passed through a series of owners, including Reynaud, Pavone, Mericone and Mohr. It was then purchased in 1947 by Americo Rafanelli, who replanted part of the vineyard in 1950. Rafanelli sold in 1951 to Arnold Bruschera, who sold in 1973 to the Allens, who sold to Betsy and Bill Nachbaur in 1990.

You can experience the varied history with the Heritage Vines Zinfandel, which are blocks of a mixed planting that include Zinfandel, Petite Sirah and Alicante Bouschet. The remaining includes Carignane, Trousseau, Sangiovese, Petit Bouschet, Negrette, Syrah, Plavac Mali, Tannat, Muscat Noir, Peloursin, Beclan, Mataro, Cinsaut, Grenache and a few white grapes of Palomino and Monbadon. The unique blend of interplanted varieties evolved over the years; as a vine died, it was replaced, but not necessarily with the same variety. Today, Acorn Winery, DeLoach Vineyards and Rock Wall Wine Company all make wine with the Alegria Vineyard grapes.