I thought I’d post a few photos from a day-trip from this past Friday to the Sierra Foothills - one of the visits there was with Ken Deaver of Deaver Vineyards in Amador County’s Shenandoah Valley. Ken and his family own and farm a good deal of vineyard land in the area, but I was interested in visiting one particular site. Though the old vines there are not nearly as well-known as many in more famous California growing regions like Sonoma, they are arguably California’s most historic old vines.
Here are two photos of a small (about 3-acre) block of Mission vines, believed to have been planted in 1853 or 1854 by Ken Deaver’s great-grandfather John J. Davis. As far as is known, these are the oldest continuously-producing commercial winegrape vines in California.
Here’s a photo of Ken Deaver with Bryan Harrington and Wes Barton among the old Mission vines.
After we spent awhile admiring the old Mission vines, Ken led us a few hundred yards up the dirt vineyard road to his block of old Zinfandel vines. These were also planted by John J. Davis, probably in the mid- to late 1860s. Here are a couple of photos of those vines.
Of course all of these old Deaver vines are own-rooted, head-trained, and dry-farmed.
This was a memorable visit to see these old vines, which continue to thrive. I’ve seen many old vines over the years, in Sonoma, Mendocino, Lodi, Cucamonga Valley, and elsewhere in California, but I’d say that none are as historic as the vines at Deaver Vineyard.
It’s a possibility, though all of the Mission is spoken for this year. Fortunately we’re quite happy with the old-vine Mission fruit we’ve been getting from Somers Vineyard near Lodi for our Mission wine and our Angelica. Ken Deaver told us that the old Mission and Zin vines at his vineyard produce around two tons per acre, a surprisingly good yield from such old vines.
Wow, that would be a cool wine to taste! Charles Myers, who founded Harbor Winery in West Sacramento, played a significant role in putting Deaver Vineyard (and Amador County winegrapes in general) on the map in the late 1960s. He was a home winemaker back then, and his mid-1960s Zinfandels sourced from Deaver Vineyard impressed famed Sacramento grocer/wine merchant Darrell Corti, who poured them at a picnic with Myers and Bob Trinchero of Napa’s Sutter Home Winery. Trinchero was also impressed, and his 1968 Sutter Home “Lot 2” Zinfandel from Deaver Vineyard fruit (released in 1971) has become legendary as the wine that helped re-launch the Amador County grape and wine industry.
Buena Vista has been using Mission from the Deaver vineyard for our Angelica the past several vintages (along with the Somers Vineyard in Lodi). Seems fitting to have the oldest vines going to one of the oldest wineries. We typically get about 4 tons and it ripens significantly earlier than the Lodi fruit.
Mission is the name used and recognized in the US for a grape variety that originally came from Spain and may well be the first Vitis vinifera variety brought by the Spanish to the Americas - it’s almost certainly the first Vitis vinifera variety that was planted in California, in the late 18th century. Known as Listan Prieto in Spain - where it is now rare if not extinct other than in the Canary Islands - the variety may be best known as País, as it is called in Chile.
Mission was commonly planted in California in the first half of the nineteenth century but fell out of favor and was supplanted by other varieties imported from Europe. Little acreage remains in California, but some Mission has always found favor for a few producers who make Angelica, a style that’s essentially the same as mistela in Spain or mistelle in France - fortified at the very beginning of fermentation if not before. Angelica is considered by many to be the first recognized California style of wine. In recent years, there has also been a minor revival of Mission as a table wine in California. Recent Mission wines in California (we make one at Harrington as well as a Mission Angelica) as well as País wines in Chile have shown that the variety can make fresh and light reds - certainly nothing profound, but fun, tasty, and distinctive wines nonetheless. So there continues to be a demand for Mission grapes, and that demand may well be growing though it remains tiny in comparison with many other varieties.
We tasted a couple of Mission Angelicas with Ken Deaver (they’re made by Marco Cappelli, who most likely has more experience making Angelica than any other current winemaker) and we thought they were quite similar in many respects to the Angelica we make from Somers Vineyard fruit - and different from some other Angelicas I’ve tasted in recent years. That may be in large part because Marco helped guide us on how to make our first Angelica - he was amazingly helpful in offering recommendations throughout the process. It would be cool to taste your Angelica sometime, Brian.
The Mission we get from Somers Vineyard in Lodi has been some of the last fruit we get in each year - sort of surprising coming from that area, and especially since we typically look to pick at around 22-23 brix.
Matt, that would be great! Let’s try to touch base via PM here and see if we can arrange something.
We put together an informal Mission wine tasting a few years ago at Harrington Wines - both dry wines and sweet wines - and one of our group brought a Harbor 1986 “Mission del Sol” sweet wine made from Deaver Mission fruit. The 1986 was the last vintage of that wine, bottled and released only about five years ago. I believe the Miraflores Angelica shown in the photo and made by their winemaker Marco Cappelli, was sourced from other Amador County Mission vines though upcoming bottlings will be from Deaver Mission fruit (I believe the one shown was aged for nine years in barrel).
Settlers moving into California copied what was being done. Mission became widely planted for Angelica production - the first commercial wines. It was already well established (and lucrative) in the Los Angeles basin by the time of the establishment of the German colony of Anaheim in 1857. They saw the wine’s success and produced their own.
The best aged examples are absolutely wonderful. Tawny, complex, delicate, lingering…