Carol Shelton gets her Monga Zin from Lopez Vineyard planted in 1918. Those who live in LA can see it on the way to Vegas, near the intersection of the 15 and 205.
In Mira Loma, the Galleano vineyard was already planted when the Galleano family bought the property in 1927.
For another take on the history of California wine there is the Rancho de Philo in in Alta Loma. I’m not sure how old the vines are, but the Biane family has been making a sherry using Mission grapes since 1975.
Ya missed that one, Ken. Tollini is that very old vnyd on your left, just as you leave the last signs of civilization, just afore the dams/ponds on your right, as you’re heading
up the canyon and into hillbilly country going up to Casey’s. Don’t remember who used to do a Tollini vnyd designate, though.
And forgot the Zeni. Both Edmeades and Fetzer used that one. Back in their glory days…long/long ago.
Tom
1 Like
Tom, is the Cucamonga vineyard you are thinking of the De Ambrogio ranch? I haven’t seen that vineyard on a label in forever. Is anyone still using the grapes? I had a '97 Geyser Peak bottling from that vineyard that was really tasty.
James
Answered my own question:
Per an LA Times article, De Ambrogio Ranch was across the street from Lopez. Sold and plowed over in 2001 for a strip center. Bummer.
About half of St. Peter’s in Cloverdale has grapes from 1888. I think it’s part of the McElarney and Smith vineyard in the 1893 DeTurk survey.
I’d love to know the name of this vineyard. It’s on the west side of Highway 12 right outside Glen Ellen and the vines are obviously very old.
I think the LA Times article is wrong about the location of the Lopez vineyard, at least the one where Carol Shelton gets her grapes. The vineyards across either street from the former De Ambroglio have been gone since the at least the 80’s. The pourer at Carol Shelton showed me a photo of the Lopez vineyard, and said it was near the intersection of the 205 and the 15, almost in Fontana.
I worked in the courthouse across the street from De Ambroglio for 15 years. The area was planned to be the center of Rancho Cucamonga when it was incorporated. Old man De Ambroglio resisted offers for years to buy the place, but when he died, the kids sold it off.
He got a ton an acre, if that, from dry-farmed, head trained vines. The soil was almost as sandy as the beach.
When we moved into the courthouse (in December), one of our co-workers wondered why they didn’t pull out those dead old vines. My wife said, oh, they aren’t dead. A bet followed. My wife won a bottle of brandy when harvest came the next summer.
On my retirement, I drank a bottle of the Geyser Peak version which we had saved to celebrate.
I’d love to know the name of this vineyard. It’s on the west side of Highway 12 right outside Glen Ellen and the vines are obviously very old.
I can’t tell for sure from the photo, but the Pagani Ranch is on the West side of 12 a little north of the Glen Ellen intersection. The vines over a 100 years old, head trained zin, interplanted with petite and alicante. Ridge has made an ATP from time to time. Good stuff.
Hence the use of the word reportedly Tom. There are historians who support that date as accurate and obviously others skeptical.
Can grapevines be “ringed” like traditional trees to ascertain age?
I received dispatches from Morgan Twain-Peterson and Mike Officer. First from Morgan:
Wow, that is quite the impressive list, I am not sure if I could do much better. I did notice a few that were missing, and have included appellation, year if I know it, and the producer.
Please feel free to use this email and post as a proxy for me.
Casa Santinamaria/ Maggie’s Reserve Vineyard, Sonoma Valley, 1890’s (Saxon Brown, Rosenblum)
Mancuso/ Morse/ Lasseter Ranch, Sonoma Valley, 1919 (Bedrock Wine Co. unless it gets ripped out)
Nalle, DCV 1910’s (Nalle)
Vogensan, DCV (now belongs to Preston but was the source for the first RVWD Zin in 1976)
Mancini, RRV (across the street from Papera) (goes to Swan)
Sausal Vineyard, Alexander Valley (1890’s) (Sausal)
Rue Vineyard (next to Fanucchi and Belloni) (Robert Rue Wines and Carol Shelton)
Chelli Vineyard (ditto) (goes to Hartford)
Cullinane Vineyard (SV), 1930’s (did go to Rosenblum but now to Ledson)
Vellitini Vineyard (Sonoma Valley (Carneros really)) (Biale)
Aldo’s Vineyard, NV (Biale)
Black Chicken Vineyard, NV (Biale)
Aida, NV (Turley, Orin Swift)
Tofanelli, Turley, Orin Swift, others)
Weiss Vineyard, SV, (farmed and goes to Turley, this is the source of one of the better known old-clones of Zin and is located near Kunde’s Shaw Vineyard off of Nun’s Canyon Road)
Chauvet Vineyard (next to Stellwagen, used to go to Coturri now to Ravenswood)
Rossi Ranch, Napa Valley (not the Sonoma Valley one farmed by Carlisle), this is the base of Thackrey’s Orion
Los Chamizal Vineyard, Sonoma Valley (though only 30 years old this makes wine like old vines)
Cooke Vineyard (ditto)
Angeli Ranch (Carignane goes to RVWD, and Porter Creek, but Marietta has made a mixed-black wine from here for a long time)
Von Weidlich (Ottomino and De Loach now, though Radio Coteau’s 2007 is absolutely magnificent)
Gamba Vineyard (1930’s)
Also, Pietro’s does not exist anymore. This was one of the vineyards pulled out and planted to Pinot (and has been on the market for the last year).
If any others occur to me I will let you know! This is a fun project, I look forward to seeing what others come up with, there is a bunch in Napa that are still missing.
oh! and Wellington Vineyard (next to Pagani Ranch) some great old Grenache field-blended out there
This is indeed Pagani Ranch. The vines on the heavier soil next to the highway were planted between 1908 and 1920 and include a few blocks of Alicante (which is what the photo is of), Zinfandel, Mourvedre, and even some Chasselas Dore’ and Tocai Friulano. The oldest part of the ranch, the section by the old winery and up against the hill on the other side of the railroad tracks, was planted in the 1880’s. This fruit is split between St. Francis and Ridge.
From Mike Officer:
Hi Mike. Thanks for drawing attention to old vine vineyards in California. I think a lot of wine geeks don’t fully appreciate just how amazing and special these vineyards are.
A few corrections/additions:
Bacchi was planted in 1909 according to Doug Rafanelli, caretaker
Other old-vine Wood Rd vineyards include Hartford and Rue but along with Fanucchi-Wood Rd., Dina’s (really Chelli), Belloni, and Highwire, I think these were probably originally all one ranch that at some point got sub-divided. Maybe not though.
Caboose is just a section within Nervo Ranch
Giuseppe & Luisa is a young vineyard. So is Vigneto di Evo.
Martinelli Road Vineyard, originally part of what is now Jackass Vineyard, was planted in 1880.
Cortina is old vines in DCV but not sure when they were planted.
Other old vine vineyards in DCV are Zichichi, Guadagni, Del Carlo, Maple, Taylor, Grist, Cueno, Saini, Henderlong (goes to Nalle, planted 1927). In fact, there are dozens and dozens more.
Zampatti is a new Turley vineyard designate of old vines in the middle of Santa Rosa!
There’s Salvador Vineyard in Contra Costa County, also a new Turley vineyard designate
Another new Turley vineyard designate is Fredericks up in Nuns Canyon.
And speaking of Turley, Moore and Dogtown are old vines. And although they don’t produce from it anymore, there’s Aida.
And don’t forget Biale’s old-vine vineyard sources – Aldo’s, Falleri, Valsecchi, Old Crane, and a few other’s I’m forgetting.
There’s Black Sears on Howell Mtn. They’re old vines.
There are old-vine pet vineyards around Calistoga such as Palisades and Frediani.
Our block at Ray Teldeschi Ranch (as opposed to John Teldeschi) was planted in 1885.
Von Weidlich in the RRV is about 100 years old.
There’s Gambogi (1909) and Saitone (1895?) in RRV.
Jolene’s (locally called Maffei) was planted in 1928 according to planting records.
Also Twin Pines (c. 1900?) is the source for Battaligni’s zins in the RRV.
Ricci is on Limerick Lane. Planted between 1950 and 1962 (maybe not truly old vine?).
Casa Santinamaria in Sonoma Valley (planted 1890s) is an excellent old-vine vineyard.
Samsel Vineyard is a patchwork of old-vine bits and pieces (like Winberrie) near Casa Santinamaria.
I could probably go on and on but I’ll stop there. 
Not sure I’d include Pietro’s Ranch (aka Barbieri Ranch) since it doesn’t exist anymore. And the original Grandpère vineyard was planted much later than the 1850s according to research done.
Morgan, thanks for posting!
Could be, though I’ve looked at the Google satellite map and the place is actually closer to Kenwood.
Mike,
Another one I didn’t see mentioned: BrandlinRanch. There’s an old block on the part of the Ranch
Chester sole to Cuvaison that goes to PeterFranus. And then he kept a small block around his home
that’s a bit younger that went into Chester’sAnvil.
Tom
OK - next steps. Let me sift through all of the comments and post a revised list, hopefully by today.
Check out this video made by Morgan from his Bedrock vineyard: Our Vineyards - Bedrock Wine Co.
Thanks Tom. Speaking of Chester’s Anvil (a great Zin), I’d love to hear Carole Meredith weigh in on this topic!
Mancini Ranch and Ziegler are two Swan Zin vineyards that are very old (1920s?) and right across the street from one another … delicious stuff.
Lot’s of old vine zin in Paso Robles. Benito and Dante Dusi vineyards just to name a couple.