Vineyard History

As Paul Draper said on the 1990 label of Ridge Alegria Vineyards Zinfandel—

“When a vineyard has survived eighty to one hundred years, including Prohibition and the Depression, it must be planted to the right varietals for the soil and climate… Once again the empirical wisdom of 19th-century growers has earned our respect.”

Our original vineyard was planted in 1890 by the Brumfield family who came from Virginia and settled here in 1852.

The Brumfields reported, in vineyard censuses of the 1880s, that they were growing Zinfandel and Mission grapes. (There were still a couple of ancient Mission vines near the old house when we bought the vineyard in 1990.)  Field blending was the standard practice at the time, so “Zinfandel” probably meant Zinfandel interplanted with other complementary varieties.

Elizabeth Moes owned the vineyard from 1896 – 1924, and she built a small winery. After her death, during Prohibition, her daughter, Ernestine, with her husband Adolph Dinucci, continued to farm the vineyard until 1943. In 1947, the vineyard was purchased by Americo Raffanelli.

People sometimes describe old vineyards like ours as “Italian field blends”, but they seldom include any Italian varieties,  Fortunately, we do have some Sangiovese in our old vineyard, added by Raffanelli in 1950.

Other varieties inter-planted with our Zinfandel, besides the Sangiovese, include: Alicante Bouschet, Petite Sirah, Carignan, Trousseau, Petit Bouschet, Negrette, Syrah, Plavic Mali, Tannat, Muscat Noir, Peloursin, Béclan, Cinsaut, Grenache, Palomino, and Monbadon. This mix of inter-planted varieties evolved over the years. When a vine died and was replaced, it wasn’t necessarily replaced with the same variety. Our particular mix of varietals is unique.

When the vineyard was planted, the owners left adjacent land as pasture for their workhorses. That land was still pasture in 1990, giving us the opportunity to plant new vineyards in 1991 and 1992.  We were comfortable planting more Sangiovese and Syrah because we could see that they were thriving in the old vineyard blend. We also planted Cabernet Franc and Dolcetto. Later, in 2017, we added Gruner Veltliner and Alvarinho (Albariño).

Honoring the field blend tradition of the original planting, we included small amounts of other complementary grapes in the new plantings.

There is some Viognier and Calairette in the Syrah; Malbec, Merlot, Petit Verdot, and Cabernet Sauvignon in the Cabernet Franc; Barbera and Freisa in the Dolcetto; Caniaolo, Nebbiolo, and Sagrantino in the Sangiovese; other Austrian grapes with the Gruner Veltliner; and other Portuguese grapes with the Alvarinho.  (The small quantity of blending grapes does not limit the ability to varietally-designate the wines.)

There is more detailed information under the Varieties Grown tab.

Alegría Vineyards is registered by the Historic Vineyard Society.