Calaveras Heritage Council

In 1976, Bob Bliss, with partner Jim Riggs, bonded the first new winery in Calaveras County in 40 years; Chispa Cellars.

After the Repeal, when alcohol of all varieties again became legal, wine production in Calaveras lagged, undoubtedly also due to the oversupply of acreages planted to grapes in the Prohibition years.

The institution of the Volstead Act in 1919 produced yet another boom in the Calaveras wine industry, as wines for sacramental use and home wine making were the only alcoholic beverages allowed under

An account written in 1885 noted that the season of 1885-1886 would probably show a much greater acreage planted in vines and fruit trees than any other season in the history of the state Elliott

At this point it should be noted that not all winemaking in Calaveras County was for commercial purposes.

Very few vineyards were planted in the county in the late 1870s and early 1880s, but a substantial 49,210 gallons of wine were produced by 64 winemakers and 112 growers on 312 acres in 1880 (State Boa

In 1866 the Calaveras Chronicle noted that in each of the three previous seasons the quantity of wine produced in the county had doubled and there was widespread commercial viticulture and winemaking

By the late 1850s, an amazing variety of grapes were being grown in Calaveras County.

Zinfandel. The other early varietal to be planted in Calaveras County, Zinfandel, was imported to Long Island by George Gibbs, probably in 1829 from the Imperial Nursery in Vienna, Austria.

The Mission grape, so named because it was first propagated in California by the mission padres for sacramental and medicinal purposes, is definitely of vinifera (wine bearing) origin.