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
The first winery built in the Upper Arroyo Grande Valley was built by a man who grew up in a wealthy family in upstate New York but who longed for adventure. He had a style and grace that made him a legend in hospitality on the Central Coast and a beautiful English wife who owned her own cattle brand and was famous for her roses and love of English gardens.
Jacob Grandstaff was one of the earliest settlers in the York Mountain area and the first settler to be documented planting a vineyard of Mission Grapes on York Mountain.
James Anderson was a shipwreck survivor from Sydney, Australia and one of the founding viticultural pioneers of San Luis Obispo County, alongside his friend and neighbor, Andrew York. He was one of the only Australians to settle in San Luis Obispo County, and was the first Australian to settle on York Mountain and to grow Zinfandel and Burger grape varietals in the York Mountain area. He may even be the first to build a winery in the history Ascension district. He was the first to own a redwood tank with a 16,000-gallon capacity. The tank was made in San Francisco and purchased in the San Jose area. James Anderson studied winemaking and had the money to buy good equipment.
In the early 1920s, Paderewski consulted with Professor Frederic T. Bioletti at the University of California on the soils and the varietals of grapevines to plant on 200 acres at Rancho San Ignacio. He planted 35,000 Zinfandel cuttings purchased from the Borden Nursery in Riverside, California and an acre of Muscat for his wife who loved these table grapes. The California Grape Grower published an article on August 1, 1922, stating that a crop of 12 ½ tons of Mission Grapes was harvested at Madam Paderewski’s Santa Helena Ranch last fall from 1 ½ acres of full bearing grapes.
Officially, Madonna del Carmine, or El Carmelo to the parishioners, the chapel was dedicated in 1909. Before this blessed day the devoutly Catholic Asti community attended church in Cloverdale until 1893, and then fourteen years in the Asti schoolhouse. Winemaker Pietro Rossi, their beloved leader and CEO of ISC, promised them they would have a church. In 1908 work was begun on his plan to remodel the old, unused greenhouse on the property.
In 20th Century California wine lore, there is probably no winery more famous, more advertised, or more visited than Italian-Swiss Colony in northern Sonoma County, 85 miles north of San Francisco. Established in 1881, its 2500-acre site was located on the gentle slopes of the Russian River Valley between Geyserville and Cloverdale on the line of the Northwestern Pacific Railroad. They called it Asti. The agricultural colony was the brainchild of Andrea Sbarboro (1840–1923), a prosperous S.F. businessman who felt the need to help his fellow Italian immigrants in the depressed business conditions of the day.
California’s northernmost coastal county have not attracted many winegrowers in its history. There are, however, small sheltered valleys like the Smith River Valley, where such an undertaking can survive — though vineyard statistics were most often counted in number of vines rather than acres.
California history is rich with the stories of men and women arriving in busy ports on the California coast or crossing the Sierra mountains on overland travels from the east by train or Conestoga wagon during the 19th Century. California became part of the territory of the United States in 1848, and on September 9, 1850, was admitted to the union as a state. San Luis Obispo County was designated as one of the original 27 counties in February 1850 in preparation for statehood. The California gold rush brought over 300,000 people from all over the world to the state. Many began to migrate south to find a pleasant place to settle and establish a farm or a craft.
Sonoma County’s 115-mile Russian River is a vital Northern California resource and its “Russian River Valley” is a premier American Viticultural Appellation, established in 1983. Flowing from its headwaters to the north near Ukiah in Mendocino Co, it meanders in every direction through the heart of wine country to make its way to the Sonoma Coast and the Pacific Ocean. The beloved River provides essential water for residential and agricultural uses, and has been a San Francisco Bay Area popular summer vacation destination since the 1860s.
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