The History of Winemaking in San Luis Obispo County – Part 4

To the west, across U. S. Highway 101, Tassajara Ranch owner Gustave Renkert first planted wine grapes in the 1880s, from cuttings he had brought from the Alsace region of France on the German border.

Renkert enjoyed a long career as a winemaker, and he continued to produce wine during Prohibition, as did several of the area’s vintners. In January 1924, local authorities received a mysterious letter that described illegal activity “in the canyon.”

When police raided the Tassajara Canyon homes of Renkert and two of his neighbors, many barrels of wine were discovered. At Renkert’s house, officers found wine in the cellar, garage, barn, and in a nearby cave. The three winemaking friends were charged with “unlawful possession of intoxicating liquors” and taken to jail. The next day, police confiscated all the illicit wine and placed it under a downtown garage for safekeeping. But in the end, Renkert and his neighbors avoided prosecution. The stored wine was left unguarded and later mysteriously “turned to water.”

Commercial wine production in the Paso Robles area was often a family enterprise that spanned generations. In the hills west of Paso Robles, York Mountain Winery stands as one of the oldest continuously operating wineries in San Luis Obispo County. Owned by three generations of the York family, it was founded in 1882 as Ascension Winery by Andrew York, a native of Indiana who had come to California by ox team.

York purchased an existing apple orchard and a small vineyard that had been planted in 1874. Near his vineyard, York built his Ascension Winery, which he later renamed A. York & Sons. After Andrew’s death, the winery became York Brothers Winery, and finally York Mountain Winery, when Max Goldman purchased it in 1970. The Weyrich family, who own Martin & Weyrich Winery, today also own Andrew York’s pioneer winery.

In the second decade of the 20th century, Polish statesman and concert pianist Ignace Paderewski brought a wider public awareness of the Paso Robles viticulture area. A 1913 attack of rheumatism forced the virtuoso to cancel his California concert tour and retreat to the healing mineral waters at the well-known El Paso de Robles Springs. Enchanted with the countryside, Paderewski purchased 2,000 acres in the Adelaida area and named his property Rancho San Ignacio. Paderewski brought his grapes to the York family’s winery to be made into wine.

Several families immigrated to Paso Robles and established vineyards and wineries in the 1920s—and at least two of these ’20s-era family operations still flourish today:

 In 1923, Frank and Caterina Pesenti planted a vineyard in Templeton with the guidance of their neighbor, winemaking veteran Adolph Siot. Bonded in 1934, Pesenti Winery was operated by the Pesentis’ grandson until 2000, when Turley Wine Cellars purchased the historic property and its 80-year-old Zinfandel vines.

In 1924, Sylvester and Caterina Dusi bought a vineyard east of Highway 101, in the valley between the Santa Lucia Range and the Cholame Hills. The Dusi Vineyard’s old and coveted, head-pruned Zinfandel vines are still producing and are owned and cultivated by the Dusis’ son, Benito, who sells his fruit to Santa Cruz-based wineries. In 1945, Benito’s brother, Dante, planted another Zinfandel vineyard on the family property west of the highway. Today, Dante Dusi sells his fruit to local wineries.

The late 1960s and early 1970s introduced a new generation of winemakers and a modern wine industry to the Paso Robles region. Dr. Stanley Hoffman, a cardiologist from Beverly Hills, bought a 1,200-acre ranch northwest of Paso Robles, in the hills of Adelaida. With the help of legendary Russian-born enological scientist and viticulturist Andre Tchelistcheff, Hoffman planted the Hoffman Mountain Ranch. Owned today by Adelaida Cellars, the HMR acreage is home to some of the region’s first Cabernet Sauvignon, Chardonnay, and Pinot Noir vines.

During the same period, several commercial wineries were established on the east side of Paso Robles, including the Rancho Dos Amigos Vineyard and Rancho Tierra Rejada. Estrella River, the largest of the “east-side” wineries, began in 1977 and is today Meridian Vineyards.

Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow

The mission padres’ New World plots of the Mission grape were a prophecy of a unique grape-growing county whose vintages are now admired by knowledgeable wine-lovers around the world.

Local large-scale commercial vintners and small, family-owned winemaking operations are flourishing as the county’s north and south wine-growing regions attract increasing national and international attention for their premium vintages. Numerous yearly wine festivals are hosted on the Central Coast to celebrate the production of an ever-increasing number of award-winning, world-class wines.

And yet the birth of San Luis Obispo County’s modern wine industry harks back to the patient work of the first mission winemakers, as Old World knowledge and skill are grafted to new-age technology.