The Santa Cruz Mountains, Los Ranchos, Vine Hill, Santa Cruz County has a long history, dating to 1863, when George and John Jarvis bought 300 acres in the Santa Cruz Mountains and began clearing the land for vineyards. Within a decade, the brothers were making 33,000 gallons of wine annually and nine of the county's 16 winemakers were located in the area. By the 1880s, the Jarvis Brothers had planted all 300 acres to vineyards in what was then to become known as the Vine Hill District. The winery began to fall on hard times around the time of the general depression in 1873. In 1876 some of John's holdings were repossessed by the bank. His brother George had previously sold his shares and moved his "Jarvis Wine & Brandy Co." to Santa Clara. In 1877, John managed to buy back some land from a business associate, Alfred Lay, and he named the land Union Vineyard, which is today's Vine Hill wine growing area. Union Vineyard consisted of 63 acres of various varieties including Riesling, Semillon, Sauvignon Blanc, Mourvedre, Petite Pinot, Zinfandel, Malvoisie and Balaret with a small amount of table grapes. By 1890 the wines from Vine Hill area had gained recognition as the wines were shipped to the East Coast. Energies were turning to producing premium wines but phylloxera and a disastrous fire in 1899 destroyed much of the vineyard. When John Jarvis died in 1892 at the age of 60, he left the Union Vineyard to his son Henry, who planted Zinfandel vines on the property. The vineyard was continuously farmed before and after Prohibition, with the vines surviving until David Bruce replanted the vineyard in 1968. The combination of good soil, climate and the coolness from the Pacific provided an ideal climate for growing premium grapes.
The Pesenti-Locatelli family acquired the mountain vineyard in 1935. David Bruce, a physician from Santa Clara aquired part of the Joe Locatelli ranch in the early 1960s. Later, he planted Zinfandel and made some award winning Zinfandel wines. Ken Burnap, a restaurateur from Orange County (The Hobbit) with a passion for Pinot Noir was searching for the perfect site to source Pinot Noir in Northern California. He had studied Burgundy for years, traveled to Burgundy with Joseph Swan and Kermit Lynch, and had established a number of criteria for Pinot Noir vineyard success. He was taken by Bruce's 1968 Zinfandel. Sipping Pinot Noir one day together, Bruce told Burnap he was selling the mountain vineyard. After performing soil tests and climate research, Ken acquired the 16-acre Vine Hill property in 1974 and named it Santa Cruz Mountain Vineyard. He then removed the Zinfandel vines and replanted the vineyard to the Wente clone of Pinot Noir on its own roots. The first vintage of Pinot Noir from the property in 1978 was a success and wine writer Jerry Mead told Burnap that his first Pinot Noir was his best ever.* Ken was also instrumental in establishing the Santa Cruz Mountain Appellation.
The Alberti's also purchased land which was part of the original Locatelli apple ranch. Alberti Vineyard, continues in the tradition of producing an estate grown and limited estate bottled Pinot Noir wine in this "sweet spot" in the Santa Cruz Mountains two hundred meters from the first established vineyards in California. Having been influenced by Ken Burnap and his ideas about vineyard management, the Alberti's planted their vineyard in 2006 with a Phylloxera resistant 110r rootstock. Atop the newly developed rootstock are the Dijon clones of 777 and 115. Sal Godinez, winemaker at Vine Hill and early crafter of the first Dijon clone based in California, was a mentor to Alberti in developing the production style of the Pinot produced by Alberti today.
*Some historical info taken from: http://www.princeofpinot.com/winery/1544/
