Chiles Valley is a narrow, remote little valley of 6,000 acres nestled in the Vaca Mountains above the northeast side of Napa Valley, a rugged fifteen miles east of St Helena or Rutherford. Col. Joseph Ballinger Chiles (1810–1885), the enterprising trail-blazer from Kentucky, gave the valley his name. He was granted the 8500-acre Catacula Rancho in 1844 and built his home ten years later. While primarily a cattleman, by 1860, he had “planted a small vineyard, made a little wine, and had 280 gallons of wine on hand” [Peninou, Directory…1860, the earliest record available.] Col. Chiles also built here the first grist mill in Northern California and brought in the first Missouri mules, among other pioneering endeavors. The valley was not discovered viticulturally until the 1880s, when about 150 acres were planted, mainly to Zinfandel. By the mid-1890s, there were about 600 acres of vines and several small wineries with a total output of about 200,000 gallons. My introduction to Chiles Valley and its winemaking history was made by viticultural master George Husmann when he built his Oak Glen Winery here in 1889, the first commercial winery in the valley.
Road In Chiles Valley, Near St. Helena – 1906
A picturesque postcard scene of travel to Chiles Valley “near St. Helena” in 1906 was produced by Joe Galewsky, St. Helena’s celebrated publisher and purveyor of local postcards. Our sender writes, “Commenced picking, Monday last, are getting along fine, crushed 313 Box today. I am chief wine-maker. How’s that for a temperance chap E. W. Bentley.” While winemaker Bentley remains unknown to us – yet knowing the great rarity of Chiles Valley wine postcards – his postcard is a prized jewel.
Oak Glen Winery, Chiles Valley – c1900
Prof. George Husmann (1827-1902) was in his mid-fifties and a highly regarded authority on grapes and wine when he arrived in California in 1881 to manage Talcoa, the Carneros vineyard estate of James Simonton, a wealthy New York City newspaper and Associated Press tycoon. Husmann was not yet ten years old when his family left Germany for America and the new German wine-growing settlement of Hermann, Missouri, fifty miles east of St. Louis on the Missouri River bluffs. The “noble grape” became his life work. By the time he came to Napa Valley, he was an experienced viticulturist, winemaker, and nurseryman, had experimented with phylloxera-resistant root stocks, and taught horticulture at the University of Missouri. He was the author of several early treatises on grape culture and winemaking, and produced the monthly Grape Culturist, the first such journal in the U.S. Husmann spent six years at Talcoa, planting, experimenting, and educating winegrowers about phylloxera. In 1884, he purchased the Peterson ranch in Chiles Valley to begin root stock experiments and winegrowing on his own. He planted his thirty-five-acre low-lying vineyard land to premium wine grape varieties on resistant root stock. By 1889, working with his sons George C. and Frederick, the vineyard was fully bearing, and they built their 60,000-gallon capacity Oak Glen Winery of local stone, the first in the Valley. It was here at Oak Glen that George Husmann wrote his final wine book, Grape Culture and Wine-Making in California, published in 1888.
Frederick Husmann, Oak Glen Vineyard, Chiles Valley – c1907
In the spring of 1890, the S.H.Star reported: “Prof. Husmann has leased his Oak Glen vineyard in Chiles Valley to his sons George and Fred,” to enable him to spend more time writing for the well-known viticultural journal California. At this time, Husmann also became a powerful voice supporting Prof. Hilgard’s campaign to raise the standards of California wine, a crusade Husmann continued until his death in 1902. When the Husmann Brothers took over the business, they increased cooperage to 200,000 gallons. Yet, as historian Peninou relates the story of Oak Glen, “in spite of their perseverance, the thirteen-mile haul to the nearest railway at St. Helena obliged them to cease operations about 1910.” Subsequently, in late 1911, James Hardin, of the neighboring Pope Valley pioneer
farming family, rented the Husmann place. Earlier, George C. Husmann (1861-1939) had been appointed head of the viticultural section of the U.S.D.A., where he established the Experimental Stations throughout the country; Fred Husmann was put in charge of the Oakville Station in Napa Valley and moved back to the family home in Napa City. In 1968, Louis Martini Winery purchased the historic Oak Glen wine property, sans the winery, whose ruins settled under their reservoir. The postcard view of Fred Husmann in the vineyard is a historical treasure.
Lomitas Vineyards, F. Sievers & Sons, Chiles Valley – c1915
In December 1886, Oak Glen Vineyard & Winery acquired a neighbor. German-born Francis Sievers (1830-1912) arrived in California in the early 1850s, and after a brief stint in the South Bay, he settled in San Francisco to pursue a career with the Anglo-Californian Bank before he purchased 286 acres of the C. A. Boothe Ranch for his winegrowing enterprise. (Interestingly, Louis Kielmann acquired the remaining 118 acres of the ranch. Certainly, this is Husmann’s brother-in-law, who was listed in the 1893 Napa Co. Directory with eleven acres in bearing vineyard. Also at this time in Chiles Valley, the SH Star noted that an old friend of Geo. Husmann, Mr. A. Autenrieth of Missouri, purchased 440 acres of J. Boothe lands, with 100 acres in vineyard. Is there a Husmann connection in these transactions? Neither gentleman is recorded as ever leaving Hermann, MO. This reported vineyard acreage is surely a typo; the total would be more like ten acres. According to the Directories for these years, there were no vineyards in Chiles Valley anywhere close to 100 acres. In 1893, Husmann (35 vineyard acres, 23 bearing) and Sievers (25 vineyard acres, 13 bearing) were the largest winegrowers in the valley, which reported eight to twelve grape growers between the years 1888 and 1893.) Francis Sievers named his vineyard ranch for his granddaughter, Lomita Ann Sievers (1898–1972). This lovely postcard, and the following artistically designed card — each with its own arts & crafts-style lower border label, the pair presenting different dramatic views of Lomitas Vineyard — were written and posted by “Lomita” herself. An accomplished artist, she graduated from California School of Arts and Crafts in Berkeley, and enjoyed a successful career in fashion design, the Arts & Crafts movement, and as a recognized painter. These two postcards are so incredibly rare that one wonders if they weren’t created for family use only.
Lomitas Vineyard, Francis Sievers, Chiles Valley – c1915
Perhaps with a nod from George Husmann, Francis Sievers established his twenty-five-acre vineyard entirely on resistant root stock. By 1891, with thirteen acres of bearing Zinfandel and Riesling vines, he constructed his winery, outfitted with 3,000 gallons of cooperage, 2500 gallons in oak, 500 redwood. He continued to enlarge his “model vineyard,” sell resistant cuttings and rootstock, and make wine. His son Henry, the father of Lomita, was actively involved from an early age, grafting thousands of choice wine grape varieties and overseeing the planting of several thousand peach and apricot trees on the property. Ten years after Sievers built his winery, his Chiles Valley vinous activities were regular SHStar news items, as when “he was keeping several workers busy grafting some 6,000 vines,” while he was “superintending setting out James Jackson’s vineyard.” In 1896, Sievers added 10,000 more grape vines to his vineyard.
Grape Clusters, Lomitas Vineyard – c1910
Historian Chas. Sullivan salutes Francis Sievers’ Lomitas Vineyard estate as Chiles Valley’s main claim to wine fame in the nineteenth century. Sievers fell ill several years before he died at age eighty-two in 1912, and his son Henry took over until his untimely death only two years later. The family remained at Lomitas, but no newsy viticultural activities were found up to, or during, the Prohibition years. The old estate was purchased in 1974 by Volker Eisele (1937-2015), a pioneering winegrower and devoted advocate for protecting Napa County farm land who later submitted the petition for a Chiles Valley AVA established in 1999. Today, celebrating its 50th anniversary, the 400-acre Volker Eisele Family Estate has 60 acres of organically farmed vineyard grown at elevations of 900 to 1100 feet. The district, currently with a little over 1000 acres in vines, is one of the cooler areas of Napa Valley, resulting in a long growing season and a perfect Cabernet climate. The oldest Eisele Cabernet vines were planted in 1976. The original Sievers winery building, some of the tanks, and the original press still remain on the estate. In this beautifully photographed Bardell Art Print postcard of the old, staked 19th-century vine planted in its bed of shale by Francis Sievers captures the essence of Chiles Valley winegrowing.
References
St. Helena Star, digital newspaper archive, 1874–2019.
Pinney, Thomas. Makers of American Wine … Two Hundred Years, 2012. Chap.3: “George Husmann. A Pure and Lofty Faith.” Tom Pinney’s book is an invaluable history. His biographical chapter on my hero George Husmann is the best there is.
