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
During the 1870s and 1880s the California wine industry made a steady swing from Los Angeles to the north. The center of this burgeoning industry became San Francisco where great amounts of wine from the countryside were collected, blended, and shipped.
Pierre Hypolite Dallidet is celebrated as the first commercial winemaker in San Luis Obispo County, and he confirmed his fame when he also became the first commercial distiller in the county. His legend is one of adventure, upheaval, service to his country, viticulture, and travels abroad—from his village in southwestern France to Tahiti to Hangtown and finally to San Luis Obispo, California.
In 1878, Henry filed a government claim for 560 acres adjoining Ranchita Arroyo Grande and named it Rancho Saucelito for its many bordering willow trees, willow in Spanish is sauce. The following year, 1879, Henry cleared land and planted Zinfandel and Muscat grapevines. The vines were sent from Europe and purchased locally according to the Ditmas family. This is the first documented planting of Zinfandel in the upper Arroyo Grande Valley.
For the half-century of its modern life, most people have commonly referred to the magnificent, mammoth stone wine structure just north of St Helena in Napa Valley as Christian Bros Wine & Champagne Cellars. Historians readily call it by its birth name, Greystone. The years in between were busy years. Within a decade of its completion in 1889 by Bourn & Wise Wine Co, Greystone began its succession of property owners. In 1894 Charles Carpy, a Napa Valley wine pioneer and power in the industry, acquired it. When Carpy became a founding member of the giant California Wine Association that year, so did Greystone.
Grape growing. Viticulture. Vineyards. A complex ecosphere. How did San Luis Obispo County become an important part of the now thriving industry of wine grape growing and wine making?
Toasting is one of our oldest social customs, evolving from prehistoric ritual, to royal banquets, to conviviality and friendship, to romance and love. Though the custom is ancient, the word “toast” dates back only to 17th century England, where it was used specifically to describe drinking to the ladies.
The California Wine Industry has embraced the use of postcards since their introduction in the U.S. in 1898 as an efficient, expressive tool to publicize their wines. The postcard front picture-image could be the winery itself, or the vineyard, cellar, tasting room, bottles of wine, or any other wine scene identifying a specific winery — with room on the back for a message and the address for mailing.
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.
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