1871
Hellman sells the 580-acre vineyard to Joseph Garcia, a Portuguese sea captain, for $25,000. Garcia then sells it to Pierre Sainsevain, the younger brother of Jean Louis Sainsevain, who has been managing the vineyard since 1867.
1873
Hellman buys back the vineyard for $35,000. He brings in investors to expand the planting and build a new winery. They include John G. Downey, a former California governor, and Hellman’s business partner in the Farmers and Merchants Bank, Isaiah M. Hellman, his cousin and a dry goods merchant, and wine man Benjamin Dreyfus.
1878
Dreyfus takes over management of the Cucamonga Vineyard, although the partnership still owns the land. When he dies in 1886, his firm, B. Dreyfus & Co., continues to manage most of the vineyard. Hellman, however, had started taking a portion of the annual vintage to sell in 1881.
1894
B. Dreyfus & Co. becomes part of the California Wine Association, which continues to manage the Cucamonga Vineyard.
1895
After all the original partners of the vineyard, except Hellman, had died, the partnership incorporated as The Cucamonga Vineyard Company, with a capital stock of $100,000. The directors were Isaias W. Hellman, his brother Herman Hellman, L. P. Weil, J. M. Harvey (the nephew of John Downey), John Milner, P. D. Martin, and Max Meyberg (a cousin of Hellman’s).
1910
Hellman rents the Cucamonga Vineyard to the California Wine Association for six years.
1917
The vines are dug up and the Cucamonga Vineyard is sold to the Cucamonga Investment Company for $91,011. Hellman also sells the land the Rains house sits on to the same group for $76,532.197
1920
Hugh and Ida Thomas buy the vineyard and winery and plant new grapes.
1967
The descendants of the Thomases sell the winery to Joseph Filippi, whose family has made wine in the region for decades.
1980
A developer acquires the property and builds a strip mall called Thomas Winery Plaza at 8916 Foothill Boulevard. The remnants of the old winery still stand, along with huge redwood barrels that supposedly were brought around the horn by John Rains.
2004
Ken and Angela Lineberger open The Wine Tailor, which brings winemaking back to the site of the original winery. Bryan and Joey Farr now own the business.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
When I would tell people I was working on a book about wine they would roll their eyes and say something like “Tough life.” It’s true that I got to spend a lot of time in the Napa Valley, one of the most beautiful places in California, and drink my share of fantastic wine. But the most satisfying part of writing any book is the people encountered on the way.
The winemakers who were intimately affected by the Vallejo warehouse fire didn’t have to open up to me, but did. Thank you, Delia Viader, Dick Ward, Ted Hall, and many others. It was the Wines Central warehouse manager Debbie Polverino who tipped me off to Steven Anderson’s websites about his brother. Thank you for leading me to that invaluable information and sharing your story. A shout-out as well to Fred Dame, whose mastery of hand-blown bottles and historic vintages gave me important insights into what makes an old wine shine.
There were two men who didn’t seem to mind my dozens of emails, phone calls, and requests for interviews. This book would not exist without the help of ATF Agent Brian O. Parker and former assistant U.S. attorney Steven Lapham. Thank you for your time and all your careful explanations. The ATF also generously allowed me access to files on Mark Anderson.
Many people who knew Mark Anderson in Sausalito also agreed to meet with me. A big thank you to Yoshi Tome, who had not talked to the press before; Ron Lussier, who shared a bottle of Sine Qua Non, an experience I will never forget; and Martin Brown, Mervyn Regan, Eric Johnson, Tom Johnson, and others.
I also have to thank Mark Anderson for being as open with me as he was, however much his credibility was in doubt.
This book happened because Felicity Barringer, then the editor of the short-lived, but much admired, New York Times San Francisco section, assigned me to write about Anderson’s upcoming trial. It turned out to be one of the best assignments of my life and I thank her for letting me pursue what became a six-year long story.
Demian Bulwa of the San Francisco Chronicle was also particularly helpful. In addition to writing great stories on Anderson, he shared with me some of the material he had gathered during his reporting. I also want to thank James Conaway, a southern gentleman if I ever met one, for his advice and guidance.
There has been a small but dedicated group of people researching and writing about the history of California wine. Without their scholarship, I could never have written about the Cucamonga Vineyard, the California Wine Association, or other aspects of the nineteenth-century wine industry. I relied heavily on Thomas Pinney’s two-volume opus on the history of wine in America, Charles Sullivan’s many books, and the work done by Gail Unzelman and the late Ernest Peninou on the CWA. When I was growing up in San Francisco, I used to regularly walk by Peninou’s French Laundry on Sacramento Street (which has been in the same location since 1903) little realizing that Ernest’s second job was amassing data on California wine. Esther Boulton Black’s exhaustive book on Rancho Cucamonga and Doña Merced was also invaluable.
Thank you to Dean Walters for preserving (and showing me) labels and bottles and pamphlets of the CWA. Bernadette Glenn, Doug Murray, and Dora Calott Wang graciously hosted me while I pored over documents at the Huntington Library.
When I first got the idea to write a book, I didn’t know much about wine except that I liked to drink it. Thankfully, the Symposium for Professional Wine Writers at Meadowood Napa Valley was there to fill in the gaps—and please my palate. Thank you, Jim Gordon, the director of the symposium; Bill Harlan, who hosted us at Meadowood; and Linda Reiff and the Napa Valley Vintners, who donate such delicious wine. Hess Winery also generously provided support for a fellowship.
For the last ten years or so I have been blessed by the wisdom and support of an extraordinary group of women. Every question I asked North 24th Writers, every doubt I expressed, every hope I dreamed, was met with sensitivity and acceptance. Thank you, Allison Bartlett, Leslie Berlin, Leslie Crawford, Kathy Ellison, Sharon Epel, Susan Freinkel, Katherine Neilan, Lisa Okuhn, and Jill Story. I want to make an extra shout-out to Julia Flynn Siler for reading and editing so many versions of the manuscript and always being willing to do so.
I want to thank my agent, Michael Carlisle, and his team of assistants at Inkwell Management, Ethan Bassof, Lauren Smythe, and Hannah Schwartz for their advice and hard work on my proposal and manuscript. Michael, your faith in me has been so important. Michel Flamini, my editor at St. Martin’s Press, has also been a terrific cheerleader. I appreciate the delicate care he took with my manuscript. Vicki Lame saved me from many a mistake.
And last but not least, my friends. I have to thank my Berkeleyside colleagues who always told me to take the time I needed to write this book, even though the press of news in Berkeley means we can all be working 24/7: Tracey Taylor, Lance Knobel, Emilie Raguso, and Wendy Cohen.
Finally, my family. My mother, Georganne Conley, died before I completed this work. She was such a staunch cheerleader for my first book, Towers of Gold. I know she would have been at my readings and talks, sitting in the front row, encouraging me on. Mom, I miss you every day.
My brothers Lloyd and Steven—if only there was a family tree in this book. I would not leave you off. Thank you for your love and support. Steven, an extra thank you for making sure I didn’t repeat the same word in a paragraph. My cousin Miranda Heller was gracious in repeatedly talking to me about a difficult experience.
That leaves my husband, Gary Wayne, and my two lovely daughters, Charlotte Wayne and Juliet Wayne. Once again, with love, this book is for you.
NOTES
INTRODUCTION
1. The retail value of the
wine sold in the United States in 2014 was $37.6 billion, with $24.6 billion coming from the sale of 269 million cases of California wine.
1. THE MYSTERY OF WINE
2. Mark Anderson, letter to author, January 11, 2010.
3. A 2011 report prepared by Stonebridge Research Group for the Napa Valley Vintners Association determined that the economic impact of the 789 licensed wineries in Napa County was $13.3 billion a year in Napa, $25.9 billion in California, and $50.3 billion in the U.S. Napa produced 20 percent of all wines made in California in 2011 and 17 percent of all the wine made in the U.S.
4. Patricia Leigh Brown, “Growing in Napa: Club, and Camp, for Wine Lovers,” New York Times, October 21, 2005.
5. Ibid.
2. ALL IS LOST
6. An appellation is a legal definition for a specific geographical area. The Alcohol Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau is the federal entity that awards the designation. While the entire Napa Valley is an appellation, small areas within it with specific subclimates are also appellations, including Los Carneros, Coombsville, Oakville, Yountville, Rutherford, Stags Leap, Spring Mountain, Howell Mountain, and Mount Veeder, among others.
3. THE WRECKED REMAINS
7. Martin Kasindorf and Jonathan T. Lovitt, “Harsh Details amid Unabomber Pleas,” USA Today, January 23, 1988.
4. A SOGGY, CHARRED MESS
8. David Ryan, “Complex Legal Mess May Await Wineries That Lost Vintages,” Napa Valley Register, October 20, 2005.
9. United States of America v. Mark C. Anderson, statement of R. Steven Lapham,
10. Ben Conniff, reprint of “A Winemaker Turns Disaster into a Delicious Barbecue Sauce,” from Tasting Table Everywhere, May 22, 2009.
5. JOE SAUSALITO
11. Undated, unmarked newspaper clippings. Steven Anderson presented them to San Francisco Chronicle reporter Demian Bulwa in 2007. Bulwa gave them to the author.
12. Jeff Greenwald, “Livin’ on the Dock of the Bay,” Smithsonian.com, April 3, 2012.
13. The schools Anderson attended included Santa Rosa Junior College, the University of San Francisco, San Francisco Law School, Golden Gate University, the University of California at Berkeley, and the Sorbonne in Paris, among others.
14. Mark Anderson, letter to the author, March 12, 2010.
6. THE BEGINNING OF RANCHO CUCAMONGA
15. Thomas Pinney, A History of Wine in America: From Prohibition to the Present (Berkeley, Los Angeles, London: University of California Press, 2005), 209.
16. Esther Boulton Black, Rancho Cucamonga and Doña Merced (Redlands, CA: San Bernardino County Museum Association, 1973), 197.
17. Roy Brady, “The Swallow That Came from Capistrano,” New West, September 24, 1979.
18. Ibid.
19. Thomas Pinney, A History of Wine in America: From the Beginnings to Prohibition (Berkeley, Los Angeles, London: University of California Press, 2005), 239.
20. Irving McKee, “The Beginnings of Los Angeles Winemaking,” The Historical Quarterly of Southern California, v. 29, no 1., 59–71.
21. Richard Steven Street, Beasts in the Field: A Narrative History of the California Farmworkers, 1769–1913 (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2004), 40.
22. Street, 39.
23. Charles Franklin Carter, “Duhaut-Cilly’s Account of California in the Years 1827–28,” California Historical Society Quarterly, 8 (September 1929), 246.
24. Letter by Father Bachelot as quoted by Léonce Jore and L. Jay Oliva, “Jean Louis Vignes of Bordeaux, Pioneer of California Viticulture,” Southern California Quarterly, 45 (December 1963), 289–303.
25. Edwin Bryant, “What I Saw In California,” as quoted by Blake Gumprecht in The Los Angeles River: Its Life, Death and Possible Rebirth, (Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1999), 48
26. Pedro Sainsevain to Agoston Haraszthy, June 22, 1886, in The Haraszthy Family MSS C-D 418, Bancroft Library.
27. W. H. Emory as quoted in Pinney, “Notes of a Military Reconnaissance from Fort Leavenworth, in Missouri, to San Diego, in California,” 249.
28. Sainsevain to Haraszthy.
29. Ginoffvine, “Thomas Vineyards, California’s Oldest Winery,” www.ginoffvine.wordpress.com, May 8, 2010.
7. WINE FEVER
30. John Walton Caughey, “The Jacob Y. Stover Narrative,” Pacific Historical Review 6, no. 2 (June 1, 1937): 165–181.
31. Undated news clipping, Hayes Scraps on Emigrant Notes II, V 14, Bancroft Library.
32. A legal document in Hayes Scraps, v. 14, the section of Cucamonga, says that Merced and her sister had about $91,000 worth of cattle and sheep. Rancho del Chino was divided with Merced getting $25,000, bringing her net worth to at least $70,000. The same legal document described how much stock Rains owned.
33. Undated news clipping, Hayes Scraps on California Agriculture.
34. Los Angeles Star, Volume VII, Number 24, October 24, 1857.
35. Joseph Warren Revere, A Tour of Duty in California (New York: C. S. Francis & Co.), 282.
36. Pinney, From the Beginnings to Prohibition, 252.
37. California Farmer and Journal of Useful Sciences, Volume 6, Number 7, September 5, 1856.
38. Daniel J. Thomas, “On Agricultural Statistics of the State” in California State Agricultural Society, Transactions 1859, Table XXV, 344.
39. Pinney, From the Beginnings to Prohibition, 253.
40. Charles Kohler, “Wine Production in California: Account Made Up from Material Provided by Charles Kohler,” 1878, p. 7, Bancroft Library MSS C-D 111.
41. J. J. Warner, Benjamin Hayes, and Dr. J. P. Widney, Historical Sketch of Los Angeles County, from the Spanish Occupancy, by the Founding of the Mission San Gabriel Archangel, September 8, 1771, to July 4, 1876 (Los Angeles: Lewis Lewin & Co. 1876), 62.
42. Pinney, From the Beginnings to Prohibition, 251.
43. W. W. Robinson, The Indians of Los Angeles: Story of the Liquidation of a People (Los Angeles: Glen Dawson 1952), 2.
44. Horace Bell, Reminiscences of a Ranger: Early Times in Southern California (Los Angeles: Yarnell, Caystile & Mathes, Printers, 1881), 35–36.
45. Harris Newmark, Sixty Years in Southern California (Boston and New York: Houghton Mifflin Co. 1930), 202–203.
8. BLOOD ON THE LAND
46. Benjamin Hayes to Col. Couts, November 26, 1862. Hayes Scraps, vol. 14, Bancroft Library.
47. It is difficult to determine exactly how much Rains owed. While he noted his debt as $14,600 on this piece of paper, the historian Esther Boulton Black put the debt at $16,000, or even more, based on testimony delivered in an 1863 trial, Rains vs. Dunlap, in Santa Clara County. Isaias Hellman testified that he was also a mortgage holder; he had lent Rains $5,352 shortly before his death. The author was unable to locate the court files as Santa Clara County had disposed of them.
48. Benjamin Hayes, Pioneer Notes from the Diaries of Judge Benjamin Hayes, edited and published by Marjorie Tisdale Wolcott, 147.
49. Black, 90.
50. Los Angeles Star, Feb. 28, 1853.
51. Richard Henry Dana, Two Years Before the Mast (Boston: James R. Osgood & Co., 1873), 179.
52. Benjamin Hayes letter to Col. Couts, December 3, 1862, LA Court Case 1017, Huntington Library.
53. Benjamin Hayes to Col. Couts, November 26, 1862.
54. Los Angeles News, December 2, 1863.
55. Ramón Carillo testimony in Hayes Scraps, vol. 14.
56. John W. Teal in Arizona and the West: A Quarterly Journal of History, diary edited by Henry Walker, University of Ari
zona, Tucson, spring 1971, pp. 70, 71, as cited by Black, p. 119, and footnote 11.
57. George William Beattie and Helen Pruitt Beattie, Heritage of the Valley: San Bernardino’s First Century (Pasadena, CA: San Pasqual Press, 1939), 160.
58. Joe Blackstock, “Rains House Saved by a Hair,” Daily Bulletin, March 27, 2011.
9. SAUSALITO CELLARS
59. Ron Lussier, interview with author, May 2014.
60. Anderson, letter to author, November 25, 2009.
61. Pinney, From Prohibition to the Present, 217.
62. Ibid., 225.
63. Ibid., 225–226.
10. FOR THE LOVE OF WINE
64. Marin Scope, August 28–September 4, 2000.
65. Bulwa, “Wine Scandal Leaves Sausalito with a Bad Taste,” San Francisco Chronicle, May 29, 2007.
11. WINE FRAUD
66. Christopher Early, “The $2.7 Million Wine Heist,” Orange County Register, November 27, 2013.
67. Sara Jean Green, “Men Plead Guilty in Massive Wine Theft,” Seattle Times, July 14, 2014.
68. Jancis Robinson, ed., and Julia Harding, assistant ed., The Oxford Companion to Wine (Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press, 2006), 26–27.
69. Stanley Hock, Harvesting the Dream: The Trinchero Family of Sutter Home: 50 Years in the Napa Valley (St. Helena, CA: Sutter Home Winery, 1998), 37.
70. Hock, 44.
71. R. Steven Lapham, interview with author.
72. Richard Gahagan, ATF agent, interview with author, March 2014.
73. Donald Woutat, “The Other Players in the Scandal,” Los Angeles Times, January 30, 1994.
74. Donald Woutat, “State Near Bottom of Barrel of Wine Grape Scandal,” Los Angeles Times, January 30, 1994.
75. Michael Doyle, “Justice Department crushes Winemaker’s Hopes of Pardon,” McClatchy Newspapers, January, 8, 2009.
76. Maureen Downey, interviewed in “What Makes a Billionaire Cry? Bill Koch Duped by Wine Fakes,” by 20/20, June 13, 2014.
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