A Brief History

Wine grapes have been grown in the foothill counties of El Dorado and Amador since about the 1850's, estimated around the time of gold discovery in Coloma. Early farm settlers, mainly grape growers and orchardists, supplied the mining communities with home made spirits and fresh fruit. During the early to mid 1900's the foothill grape industry peaked and declined in response to forces such as prohibition, grape phylloxera, and poor prices.

In the early 1960's pear decline, a devastating disease affecting El Dorado's premium Bartlett crop, caused orchards to be taken out and growers searched for an alternative crop. Several trial wine grape plantings were established in El Dorado County by 1965 and were evaluated by the UC Davis Department of Enology, confirming the suitability of the area for wine grape production producing wines of distinctive quality.

Meanwhile, Amador County grape growers, many arriving from Italy, survived Prohibition by selling fresh grapes and continued to plant, mostly Zinfandel. Some of these growers also experimented with "dry farming", producing intensely flavored berries. In the late 1960's the Amador wine grape growing area was "rediscovered" by home winemakers who passed their impressive wines made from Amador grapes onto commercial Napa Valley winemakers.
Source: "Old Vines, A History of Winegrowing in Amador county," by Eric J. Costa.

Farm Advisor Dick Bethell and Agriculture Commissioner Ed Delfino admire the Barbera crop from the Ritchie vineyards which brought top of the market prices. Picture taken around 1974.

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Foothill Wine Grape Growing Today

In 2005 the Amador County Crop Report listed a total of 3,874 harvested acres of wine grapes in Amador County, with an average production of 3.4 tons/acres.

The 2005 El Dorado County Crop Report listed a total of 1,906 producing acres of wine grapes with an average of 2.44 tons/acre. for both Amador and El Dorado counties, wine grapes are the leading agricultural crop produced (other than timber and livestock) in both acreage and total value.

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Lynn Wunderlich, Farm Advisor, UC Cooperative Extension, El Dorado and Amador Counties, works with wine grape growers to:

• get information backed by campus-based research specialists out to the growers

• search out practical research-based solutions to a wide variety of problems including; better ways to manage pests, marketing approaches and more

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**Please take note: The UC Cooperative Extension Farm Advisor works with commercial wine grape growers. If you are a backyard grower or interested in starting a backyard family vineyard and you live in El Dorado County, please contact the El Dorado County Master Gardeners at 530-621-5512.