In the 1870s, an epidemic of phylloxera—a root parasite that American vines were resistant to—ravaged the vineyards of France. Before the French could replant their vineyards with resistant rootstock, they needed to save their classic varietals. The French ministry of agriculture asked many French immigrants living in the Western Hemisphere to accept cuttings from the afflicted French vines and graft them onto the hardy Mission rootstock. Dallidet accepted thousands of cuttings, many of which were grafted and planted on his property. He had acquired portions of the mission’s old garden and vineyard acreage that lay just south and east of his adobe home, an area which would later become downtown San Luis Obispo.
With the help of his sons, Dallidet constructed a wood-frame winery adjacent to his adobe. The Dallidet winery produced high-quality wines, blending harsh, low-tannin Mission-grape pressings with high-tannin juice from European varietals. The Oct. 28, 1887, Daily Republic found Dallidet’s wine to be “of excellent quality and the old wine of ten to eighteen years of age is considered by connoisseurs as the best in the world.”
The owner of the first bonded still in the county, Dallidet also made brandy. The Dallidet winery, which ceased brandy production in 1890 and winemaking a few years later, no longer survives, but the original adobe home still stands at 1185 Pacific Street.
Dallidet and his grafted French-and-Mission vines had returned winemaking to the region. Now numerous vineyards were planted, and wineries were constructed beside the fields of growing vines. Winemaking began to spread beyond the mission city, to a nearby coastal valley where a failed marriage led to the creation of a local wine partnership.
South of San Luis Obispo, in the Arroyo Grande Valley, Englishman Henry Ditmas and his wife, Rosa, established Rancho Saucelito in 1880. Named for the many willow trees that bordered the property—saucelito is Spanish for “willow”—Rancho Saucelito’s vineyards were planted with Muscat and Zinfandel vines most likely imported from France and Spain. When husband and wife divorced in 1886, Henry moved to San Francisco, leaving Rosa and their young son, Cecil, to care for the vineyard. Several years later, Rosa married A. B. Hasbrouck, a Bostonian who owned the nearby St. Remy vineyard and winery. For several years, Hasbrouck’s winery had made wine from St. Remy and Rancho Saucelito grapes.
Hasbrouck often advertised in the Arroyo Grande Herald that St. Remy sold “PURE WINES! Sweet Muscat, White, Riesling, Grenache, Dry Muscat, Zinfandel Wines, in any quantity—bottle, gallon, barrel.”
A phylloxera infestation destroyed the St. Remy vineyard in 1915. A. B. Hasbrouck died the same year, but Rosa continued to make wine with Rancho Saucelito grapes at the St. Remy winery until just before Prohibition. During America’s “dry years,” Rosa Ditmas’ family leased the Rancho Saucelito vineyard to several winemakers. (A number of San Luis Obispo Country vintners ignored the Volstead Act that was in force from 1920 to 1933 outlawing the manufacture, sale, or transporting of alcoholic beverages in the United States.)
In the early 1940s, the Ditmas vineyard and winery were abandoned. Bill and Nancy Greenough purchased the old Rancho Saucelito property in 1974, renaming it “Saucelito Canyon Vineyard.” The Greenoughs restored part of the original 19th-century vineyard, bringing back to life the Ditmas family’s winemaking legacy that thrives today.
To be continued in the next blog post….