Author: Libbie Agran

And so 30 years ago, a 30-year-old man bought 560 acres and 2,500 old grapevines in need of a lot of work. The property had no water, no electricity, no phone, no improvements, just old vines. Three years later, after restoring each individual vine, Saucelito started again producing grapes and wine as it had all those years ago.

It has been another busy summer for us; we were the featured vintners in the KCBX Central Coast Wine Classic. We participated in a vertical Zinfandel tasting with Doug Beckett, founder of Peachy Canyon Winery. We hosted the vineyard symposium to showcase our historic vineyard. We then slipped away to celebrate our 20th wedding anniversary with a trip to Big Sur and came back to find we were named Vintners of the Year by the California Mid-State Fair! This is an honor we certainly were not expecting.

The Saucelito Canyon Winery is bonded. The first harvest and commercial wine production at Saucelito Canyon winery onsite occurred in 1982. Bill completed building the winery and Nancy set up the wine lab in her kitchen in their home. The winemaking equipment included a handcranked stemmer crusher, one stainless steel fermentor and 30 whiskey barrels. Bill bottled and labeled the Zinfandel himself, and hit the street to sell his first Zinfandel. He produced 500 cases. According to Bill, “It was easy to sell. It was just damn good.”

This Legend is about a remote canyon in the upper Arroyo Grande Valley, formerly known as Rancho Saucelito. This unique place in our South County is home to the oldest vineyard, continually growing Zinfandel, in San Luis Obispo County. The terroir and ecosystem were formed thousands of years ago. It has been nurtured by two important families between 1878 and the present. It is the land that ties these people together; each family had unique backgrounds and personal challenges that brought them to San Luis Obispo County. Both families made the same discovery of land and climate creating a perfect place to grow Zinfandel