The Proud History of Winemaking

Source Document:  The California Wine Association and its Member Wineries 1894-1920. Authors: Ernest P. Penninou and Gail G. Unzelman. Published: 2000 by Nomis Press Santa Rosa, CA. Full URL:  Not Available Book Summary @ Online Archive of California.

Introductory Excerpt

“As the California Wine Association entered the 20th century, vineyard land was needed for the growing demand for wine grapes.  The southern Santa Clara Valley was an ideal location for expansion – the area produced good grapes, land was available and inexpensive, and the vines were free from phylloxera.  Between 1902 and 1904, the Association had purchased large amounts of the district’s grapes to be shipped to their San Jose plant for vinification.

But in 1904 the Association clearly needed a local winery with a large capacity to handle the present and future vintages. The following year, the CWA built a sizable wooden winery at Gilroy, and named it Las Animas Winery. Ready for the 1905 vintage were one hundred and fifty-one giant wine tanks (redwood), from five thousand to eighteen thousand gallons of capacity.

The Association had hired William Rankin, manager of the Los Gatos Cooperative Winery and the CWA district agent, to put the deal together.  One mile north of town, along the railroad track, he purchased seen acres for the winery site, and leased vineyard property from Henry Miller, a land baron and cattle king of the area, who in the past had supplied the CWA with grapes from his Glen Ranch vineyards.  The Association leased MIller’s vineyards and additional land to plant more grapes that brought the total to seven hundred acres – planted mainly to choice varieties on resistant rootstock – and at the same time secured long-term grape contracts with local vineyardists.   By 1907 the winery was largest wine production facility in the south end of the county, making over 500,000 gallons of wine, and output was soon increased to one million gallons.  The Las Animas Winery operated until Prohibition, providing the CWA with immense quantities of premium dry wine.  The CWA’s Glen Ranch Vineyards eventually totaled 700 acres by 1909. During Prohibition, the Association liquidated the winery property in 1922 to a real estate firm in San Francisco for $16,000.”