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. Near the little town of Cordelia, Green Valley Creek becomes a meandering slough — Suisun Marsh, the largest saltwater marsh in the Western U.S. — but to the north, the valley rises and narrows. In 1858, what was likely the first vineyard in Solano County was planted well up the slopes of Green Valley. The aspiring vineyardist was John Volypka, one of the region’s first settlers. He also built a sturdy winery using the abundant native rock. From his twenty-five-acre vineyard, he crushed a first vintage in 1863. As a result of Volypka’s pioneering efforts, Green Valley soon became the vinicultural center of Solano County. — Peninou, History of Napa Viticultural District. Napa, Solano, Contra Costa Counties. 2004, online.
Green Valley, Solano Co., Calif. c1910
This beautiful c1910 hand-colored postcard, published by Benicia photographer Frank Stumm, captures the pre-Prohibition undulating vineyards and agricultural lands of Green Valley. Vineyards and wine have been prominent in the landscape of Green Valley since the 1860s, and together with close neighbor Suisun Valley, make up the major winegrowing sector of Solano County. Today, the valleys boast their own appellations, established in 1982. Green Valley’s cooling maritime climate from nearby San Pablo Bay, coupled with the region’s rolling hills and elevations ranging from 800′ to 1,200′ has created an ideal environment for premium grape varieties. Located about 15 miles southeast of the Napa Valley AVA, Green Valley is a narrow one mile wide and four miles long. The picturesque, 5,300-acre valley has maintained much of its agricultural heritage, with 800 acres planted to thriving vineyards.
Green Valley Falls, 1905
About six miles up Green Valley from Cordelia at the lower end, the valley narrows into a gorge marked by a waterfall that drops over the steep slope of Twin Sisters Peak. This prominent landmark, visible from most points in Suisun Valley, separates the wine region in Solano Co. on the east side from the Napa Valley wine region on the west. The lower slopes and valley floor are rich in wine grapes. In 1853, young pioneer Frederick Jones arrived in San Francisco from Vermont at the age of twenty-three. In 1860, he bought 300 acres in Green Valley, set out a vineyard, and put up a fine stone winery and distillery. His 1868 vintage of 50,000 gallons was the largest in the valley. He and his son made wine up to the turn of the century at the same time they were tending their famed 140-acre cherry orchard, the largest in the world, they claimed. Today, in the shadow of Green Valley Falls, the Frederick farm is the site of the Green Valley Country Club, the old home and winery have become the clubhouse, and the ninety-acre vineyard the lush fairways.
Willotta Ranch Vineyards, Green Valley, Solano Co. c1910
In this stunning favorite, and quite rare, Frank Stumm companion postcard to “Green Valley” above, we can relish the portrait of the immense ranching, farming, and wine growing empire established in the 1850s by Lewis Pierce (1832-1885) in Lower Green Valley. Born in Maine, he was married to the young Nellie Staples (1855-1917) in 1874, the same year he was noticed in a newspaper clip as “successful and extremely wealthy … shipping grain, fine fruits, and Short-Horn cattle among other ventures.” A vineyard of one hundred acres of wine grapes was established, but a winery is not mentioned. Yearly grape and wine totals for Solano County during the 1870s averaged some 1750 acres in grapevines, but individual early wine growing numbers for the Pierce vineyard have not been located. The later 1891 Report of the California Board of Viticultural Commissioners listed “W. & L. Pierce, 100 acres bearing wine grapes, no winemaker.”
The Pierce Residence, “Willotta Ranch,” Green Valley. 1909
In 1900, following the death of Lewis Pierce in 1885, elder son William Pierce (1875-1962) and brother Lewis Jr inherited the vast estate. The fine Pierce mansion went to William, and he married Lottie Bauman the same year. He coined the name “Willotta” (he/Lotta) for their new home. The palatial residence, a three-story, twenty-room Victorian gem, was built in 1874 by patriarch Lewis Pierce just south of Rockville Road along Suisun Creek. Destroyed by fire in 1952, the neighborhood is today’s Willotta Oaks. Active in winegrowing matters, William was elected in 1905 to the Executive Committee of the California Viticultural Club with other wine notables, Twight, Swett, and Bismark Bruck. Two years later, he was appointed to the State Board of Agriculture and is credited with submitting in 1916 the first plans for constructing a dam at Devil’s Gate, providing a water supply to Green Valley, but submerging the town of Monticello under Lake Berryessa behind the dam. In the meantime, widow Nellie Pierce remarried in 1887 and moved to Menlo Park south of San Francisco. As per photos extant, Nellie was a frequent visitor to the Green Valley ranch and mansion.
The 1982 Suisun Valley appellation, which parallels Green Valley to the east, encompasses 15,000 acres of western Solano County, with a little over twenty wine grape varieties planted to 3,000 acres. As well as continuing to supply Napa and Sonoma wineries with grapes, there are more than twenty winemakers who use the Suisun Valley AVA on their wines. Wine grapes have been grown in Suisun Valley since the mid- to late 1800s. Following in the footsteps of John Volypka, in 1853, where Rockville Road climbs to the east out of Green Valley, was the 118-acre property of German-born Henry Schultz, who acquired his land about the same time that Volypka was getting established. In 1860, Schultz and his brother set out a vineyard and built a small stone winery (which, long unused, still stood in 1963). The Schultz brothers made wine here until 1880, when they sold their vineyard and winery, including cooperage and equipment, to nearby fellow winegrower Louis Mangels.
Solano Winery, Cordelia – White Oak Casks 1853 – Salesroom Entrance. c1937
When Louis Mangels (1852-1930) acquired the Schultz property in 1880, he was already one of the larger wine operations in the Valley. He had established his ranch five years earlier when he purchased 230 acres and planted a vineyard. He used the old Schultz winery until 1893, when he built his first wine cellar adjoining his home in Suisun Valley, about halfway between Cordelia and the little town of Rockville. This would become Solano Winery, Cordelia. Organized as Mangels & Sons in 1910, the winery annually produced some 500,000 gallons of wine until Prohibition. At the great 1915 San Francisco Panama-Pacific International Expo, the Mangels received a Gold Medal Certificate for their “Collective Exhibition of Wine Grapes, in Variety,” while “Louis Mangels, Cordelia” served as a delegate to the prestigious two-day International Congress of Viticulture held during the fair.
![Solano Winery on Highway 40 [now 80], Cordelia. c1940](https://i0.wp.com/winehistoryproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Solano-Winery-on-Highway-40-now-80-Cordelia.-c1940.png?resize=1080%2C675&ssl=1 "Solano Winery on Highway 40 [now 80], Cordelia. c1940")
Solano Winery On Highway 40 [Now 80], Cordelia, c1940
During the Dry years, Mangels’ Solano Winery was one of the few who received a special government permit to make sacramental and prescription medical wines. In 1921, Louis’ son Claus became sole owner and partnered with Colonial Grape Products Co. under the name Solano Grape Products Co., incorporated the next year as Solano Winery. After Repeal Claus gained back full control of his winery, and it was operated by several wine producers to the end of World War II. In 1963, the idle winery was once again owned by the Mangels family, who had in the intervening years continued to own the surrounding vineyards and to sell their crops on the open market. Today, Mangels Vineyard and Winery are in full swing. [Check their excellent website.] This superb c1940 postcard preserves a treasured view of the extensive Solano Winery plant and the magnificent gnarled old head-pruned vineyard. A classic wine country story.
Southern Pacific Ferryboat “Solano” – Largest In The World, c1910
A fine toast to Solano Co. Wine Country. Those are rail cars you see lined up on both sides of the ferry. How many tons of grapes or wine gallons in a 48-car freight train? The largest ferryboat in the world at its time, named after its county of origin, was built in 1879 and in service for fifty-one years, carrying trains back and forth across the S.F. Bay. This “monster” ferryboat was 424′ long and 116′ wide — observers say it resembled an entire city block speeding across the water. Equipped with four sets of rail tracks, it could carry a 24-car passenger train and its locomotive, or a 48-car freight train and locomotive. Highly important to not just the Bay Area, but to the commerce of the whole country, this engineering marvel performed until the first railroad bridge across the water was built in 1930. The “Solano” was scuttled a year later for service as a local breakwater. Cheers!
