The Wine History Project of SLO County preserves and presents two centuries of local viticulture through research, interviews, exhibitions, publications, talks and tastings. We work with local museums, galleries, archives, and wineries to organize events and exhibitions in venues throughout the county.
Together We Can Preserve the Story of Central Coast Winemaking
3592 Broad Street,
Suite 104,
San Luis Obispo,
CA 93401
(805) 439-4647
libbie@winehistoryproject.org
By Appointment
Archie McLaren is the man remembered for creating and sustaining the Central Coast Wine Classic, the top regional wine event, for over three decades. Over the years, this wine event raised over $3.2 million to support philanthropy for public radio station KCBX, the Healing Arts, Performing Arts and Studio Arts in Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo Counties.
The Suscol Hills to the east of Napa Valley constitute a natural boundary between Napa and Solano County. About five miles south of the city of Napa, Jameson Canyon forms a break in the hills and leads into the lower end of Solano County’s Green Valley, so named by early settlers for the abundance of a wild grass that remained green throughout the dry summers.
A History of California Wine: The David and Judy Breitstein Collection is the first, major educational exhibit to document the rich history of the California wine industry, told through actual unopened bottles.
Directly in the middle of the vast Central Valley is the San Joaquin Valley, a viticultural wonderland for growing and the production of raisins, or dried grapes. Today, on almost 100,000 acres in an area within a 60-mile radius of Fresno, raisin growers produce 100% of the U.S. raisins. Our postcard story is set here in Fresno — a major city and economic hub in the San Joaquin Valley, the largest city in the greater Central Valley, and “The Raisin Capital of the World.” Many of the following accounts of our postcard storytellers are borrowed from the 1891 published jewel, California Homes & Industries. Fresno Illustrated.
The Department of the Treasury, Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau is required to make available to the public, records by way of publishing a list of alcohol industry members who hold permits, as required under the Federal Alcohol Administration Act. These permits allow legal production, bottling, importation, or distribution of beverage alcohol products. Updates to these different listings are produced weekly by the federal government. The particular listing, an important document to the Wine History Project and the historical information we collect in our archives, lists the wine producers and blenders of San Luis Obispo County.
In 1981, Justin Baldwin purchased 160 acres of farmland from Gary and Marian Conway in a remote area west of Paso Robles known as Adelaida. His dream was to produce world-class Bordeaux wines.
Stanley Hoffman was a pioneer, the first to grow Pinot Noir in San Luis Obispo County. His winery, HMR, was the first modern winery in San Luis Obispo County in the 20th Century and brought international attention with HMR’s award-winning wines.
Arriving in California in 1852 from his home state of New York, Leland Stanford (1824–1893) was an attorney, storekeeper, Justice of the Peace, organizer of the Sacramento Library Association, industrialist, and philanthropist.
He established a major University, was a Republican Party politician, 8th Governor of California, one of the “Big Four” who built the transcontinental railroad, and U. S. Senator from 1885 until his death in 1893. He also founded three California wineries.
Since the 1850s, a myriad of irrigation canals, or ditches to the farmers, have been vital to agrarian pursuits in the many thousands of acres of diverse agricultural richness of California’s Great Central Valley — whether cotton fields, olive orchards, fruit trees, grains & rice, or vineyards.
The following is an excerpt from the exhibition Doing Good and Living Well: Archie McLaren and the Central Coast Wine Classic, which the Wine History Project designed and exhibited at the History Center of San Luis Obispo County and the offices of the Board of...
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