Wine Wanderers #6

Toogood Estate Zin Chic Old Vine Zinfandel

Veins and Vines: A Historical Perspective of Winemaking in the Sierra Foothills

Part 1: Gold and the First Wine Makers of the Sierra Foothills.

Eureka!

Gold mining and wine making. The two professions may seem utterly alien to each other, but a decade before the American Civil War in Northern California’s Sierra Foothills, they not only were two occupational mainstays that have defined the area’s historical legacy, they have also contributed to California’s rich cultural identity.

The news of James Marshall discovering gold at Sutter’s Mill in the late 1840s electrified the nation, if not the world. By the 1850s, the golden Sierra Foothills were teeming with fortune seekers ardently striving to stake a claim and make a name for themselves. Images of the Sierra Foothills in the early 1850s suggest those of crusty miners zealously panning streams, and creeks for nuggets of golden fortune, bearded curmudgeons duking it out after swilling whiskey at the local saloon and rickety horse-drawn carriages plodding into dusty towns, commandeered by pistol-packing pioneers and other eager entrepreneurs. Amongst this rugged, ragtag treasure-seeking mob, a handful of vintners also arrived, planting grapes in the Sierra Foothills as early as 1848, and creating a new viticultural area that, over time, has produced some of California’s best wines.

In 1849, a man named Stevens planted 32 vines in Rescue, El Dorado County. During the boom of the 1850s, other “orchardists” entered the scene, planting fruit that was sustainable in the warm climate of the Foothills. Arguably drawing from Stevens’ success, they too began cultivating grapes, and (not surprisingly) began making wine. However, the few gallons produced were for private consumption only, since generating an income from wine in the 1850s was a virtually impossible plight. They made their money by overseeing ditch systems, owning surface placer mines and operating hotels. By the end of the 1850s, and at the advent of the 1860s, more and more vineyards began to emerge in Amador County, dotting small parts of the grassy foothills with small emerald carpets of wine.

Two varietals that were first grown were the Mission and Catawba grapes: neither of which would be considered world-class wines by modern standards. The Mission, first introduced by Franciscan missionaries in the late 1700s and early 1800s, was heavy, cloyingly sweet, and contained little varietal character. It was typically used in making ports and Angelica, a fortified wine (like port, with brandy), which did no more than give the local mining population a terrible hangover the next day. The Catawba (which grew well in the country’s most successful wine district of Hamilton, Ohio), was, conversely, tart and overly spicy, requiring cooler climes and faring poorly in the Foothills.

By the end of the 1850s, however, experimentation was the order of the day. A noted orchardist by the name of Dr. Samuel Page included such varietals as the Black Humburg, the White Muscat of Alexandria, and something called the “Black St. Peter’s Grape,” that many believe to have been another moniker for the first Zinfandel grapes (which would become a staple of the Shenandoah Valley). It wouldn’t be until the 1860s that wine making as a profession would flourish. Nevertheless, we raise a glass to the pioneer winemakers of the 1850s. If it weren’t for them, the landscape of the Sierra Foothills would contain nothing more than a handful of dusty, abandoned mining structures: skeletons of a bygone era.

Thankfully, a few relics of the old wine era have endured the long day’s journey into night (and back into day again). One winery, Toogood Estates in El Dorado County, courts the historical muse in this zaftig, full-fleshed zinfandel. The vines, at 150 years old (1859), are the oldest in the county. It’s big, sassy, brassy, and will belt out a tune on your tongue – like a west coast showgirl entertaining the local miners and other denizens of 1850s Sierra mining towns. It’s a wine you can sink a pick into: big berries, rich and meaty, and with a spicy aftertaste that sifts through it all. It's a wine that'll make your taste buds exclaim...."Eureka!"


Next! Veins and Vines 2 - The 1860s: Sierra Wines and the Civil War.