By the late 1850s, an amazing variety of grapes were being grown in Calaveras County. In 1857, the Beatty Ranch on Calaveritas Creek was growing several varieties characteristic of the Eastern United States. Among these were the common Eastern (Vitus labrusca), Isabella, Clinton, Catawba, and the unusual Scuppernog, a Muscadine. Louis Prevost, with a nursery in San Jose, began advertising in the San Andreas newspapers that year. The previous year Joseph Kerns had opened his Murray Creek Nursery near San Andreas, with planting stock brought in from nurseries in the Santa Clara Valley.
Soon, however, varieties imported from Europe began to take precedence over the California and Eastern United States vines. In 1859 Francis Medina. of the Bay State Ranch on the Calaveras River near San Andreas, exhibited the first Calaveras grapes at the State Fair. He displayed several varieties of European grapes, including those of the Black Hamburg and Royal Muscadine varieties. At about the same time, Mr. Dearborne from Sandy Gulch displayed the Black and White Hamburg and the Muscat of Alexandria varieties at the Union House in Mokelumne Hill.
At that same location, S.W. Brockway was growing the Los Angeles or Mission variety from cuttings planted in 1857. Others growing grapes on “the Hill” were judge Thompson, Dr. Holbrook, and attorneys William Higby and A.P. Dudley. Lewis Schraack, from Pennsylvania, planted Mission and Isabella vines on his Golden Gate Ranch in 1856 and by 1860 had planted 5,000 vines.
Certainly the premier wine growing area in Calaveras County in the early years was Mokelumne Hill, undoubtedly as it was the County Seat and had the most diverse population in the county. Settlers from Chile, Mexico, France, Germany, England, and the Eastern United States, who had long-established tastes for wine, and were familiar with the cultivation of grapes, quickly developed vineyards in the surrounding area.
First among these vineyards was that of Madame Catia at Chili Gulch, where 7,000 pounds of grapes were raised by November of 1858, most of which were to be pressed into wine. The following year, Francis Mercier’s “French Garden” Ranch in Chili Gulch planted 6,000 vines and 1,800 fruit trees, and had 15 gallons of wine in stock for his hotel. This was the earliest known large commercial wine making operation in Calaveras. When Rose De Loach Au Lion purchased the ranch from Mercier in 1864, the sale included 1,500 gallons of California wine. To the south of Mercier’s property was the vineyard of Charles Garland, a native of Maine, who had 40 gallons of wine on hand in 1860. Winemaking in Chili Gulch continued until recent years, on the McSorley Ranch, where the Garamendi family made Zinfandel wine in their cellar carved from the rhyolite hillside behind their house.
Also in Mokelumne Hill in 1860, Henry Druerson and Lemuel Root were assessed for 150 gallons and 30 gallons of wine respectively, while Adele Rogers of San Andreas was taxed for 40 gallons 1. By 1861 Root’s hillside vineyard had 10,000 vines planted, with 1,000 bearing 2.
Several vineyards were located to the west, at Salt Spring Valley, where in 1863, J.W. Woods had 1,000 vines planted. His neighbor W.D. Allen had 500 acres in orchard and vineyard, the largest in the area, with 3,000 vines; all California grapes, presumably Mission, and planted six and eight years before. Nearby, at the Madame Felix Ranch, then operated by her husband Alban Hettick, the garden boasted three or four acres of vines, planted in 1856, with an arbor of “Los Angeles” (Mission) grapes, as well as “standard grapes of foreign kinds” which produced 250 gallons of wine in 1862 3.
One of the most interesting French settlements was located on the Upper Calaveras River where the Frenchmen Eutrop Hermand, Augustine Vian, Victor Portran, and Company, planted 8,000 vines at their Esperanza Ranch. By 1870, Victor Portron was annually manufacturing 2,000 gallons of wine. Although the date of their first plantings is unknown, the company was located on the property as early as 1854 and was operating a stone store and ranch by the mid-1850s 4, 5.
By 1852, closer to Murphys, David Fausett and James B. Inks had established a vineyard on their San Domingo Ranch (now Stevenot), and Joseph Dowler had planted grapes on what became the Hahn Ranch, now known as the Vogliotti Ranch. Nearby, Manuel Silva planted grapes in 1872 on the present Styskel property, while in 1883 Lorenzo Gardella purchased the ranch that later became known as Macaroni Flat. Gardella grew grapes, made wine, and held grand balls where macaroni dinners were served in a hall on his ranch. This winemaking tradition was carried on by the Dragone family, who sold their product to many local folk during Prohibition. Even Ethel Adams, a staunch Bostonian, grew wine grapes at her Table Mountain Ranch on Pennsylvania Gulch in the early 1900s.
- Pioneer Wives and Vines of Calaveras County,
Costa, Eric
, (1990) - Unknown,
Unknown
, California Farmer, Volume Sept. 6, (1861) - Citekey: California1863 not found
- Pioneer Wives and Vines of Calaveras County,
Costa, Eric
, (1990) - A Little Bit of France on the Calaveras River,
Marvin, Judith
, Las Calaveras, Volume XLIII, Issue Number 2, (1995)
Timeline Start:
01/01/1858 - 01/01/1862
