Rancho Huichica was a

Mexican land grant The Spanish and Mexican governments made many concessions and land grants in Alta California (now known as California) and Baja California from 1775 to 1846. The Spanish Concessions of land were made to retired soldiers as an inducement for ...

in present day

Napa County, California Napa County () is a county north of San Pablo Bay located in the northern portion of the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 138,019. The county seat is the City of Napa. Napa County was one of the original co ...

given in 1841 to

Jacob P. Leese Jacob Primer Leese (August 19, 1809 – February 1, 1892), known in Spanish as Don Jacobo Leese, was an Ohio-born Californian ranchero, entrepreneur, and public servant. He was an early resident of San Francisco and married into the family of pr ...

. Carneros Creek forms the northeast boundary of Rancho Huichica, and the grant contains the majority of the Carneros region in

Napa Valley Napa Valley is an American Viticultural Area (AVA) located in Napa County in California's Wine Country. It was established by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) on January 27, 1981. Napa Valley is considered one of the premier ...

History

Leese was a San Francisco pioneer who built the first permanent house in San Francisco. He married General Vallejo’s sister, and moved to Sonoma in 1841. In 1841 Manuel Jimeno, acting Governor of California, granted two square leagues to Leese, and in 1844 Governor

Manuel Micheltorena Joseph Manuel María Joaquin Micheltorena y Llano (8 June 1804 – 7 September 1853) was a brigadier general of the Mexican Army, adjutant-general of the same, governor, commandant-general and inspector of the department of Las Californias, then ...

granted Leese a three and a half leagues extension. With the

cession The act of cession is the assignment of property to another entity. In international law it commonly refers to land transferred by treaty. Ballentine's Law Dictionary defines cession as "a surrender; a giving up; a relinquishment of jurisdictio ...

of California to the United States following the

Mexican-American War Mexican Americans ( es, mexicano-estadounidenses, , or ) are Americans of full or partial Mexicans, Mexican heritage. In 2019, Mexican Americans comprised 11.3% of the US population and 61.5% of all Hispanic and Latino Americans. In 2019, 71% ...

, the 1848

Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo ( es, Tratado de Guadalupe Hidalgo), officially the Treaty of Peace, Friendship, Limits, and Settlement between the United States of America and the United Mexican States, is the peace treaty that was signed on 2 ...

provided that the land grants would be honored. As required by the Land Act of 1851, a claim for Rancho Huichica was filed with the

Public Land Commission The California Land Act of 1851 (), enacted following the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo and the admission of California as a state in 1850, established a three-member Public Land Commission to determine the validity of prior Spanish and Mexican la ...

in 1852, and the grant was

patented A patent is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the legal right to exclude others from making, using, or selling an invention for a limited period of time in exchange for publishing an enabling disclosure of the invention."A p ...

to Jacob P. Leese in 1859. Report of the Surveyor General 1844 - 1886

Winter Winery

In the mid-1850s, William H. Winter of

Indiana Indiana () is a U.S. state in the Midwestern United States. It is the 38th-largest by area and the 17th-most populous of the 50 States. Its capital and largest city is Indianapolis. Indiana was admitted to the United States as the 19th s ...

purchased of the Rancho Huichica from Leese. The first winery in Carneros, Winter Winery was then established during the early 1870s. Beginning in the 1880s

Phylloxera Grape phylloxera is an insect pest of commercial grapevines worldwide, originally native to eastern North America. Grape phylloxera (''Daktulosphaira vitifoliae'' (Fitch 1855) belong to the family Phylloxeridae, within the order Hemiptera, bugs ...

devastated many of the vineyards in the Carneros region. The Winter Winery was sold in 1881 to James Simonton who changed the name to Talcoa Vineyards. Simonton became the first to experiment scientifically, under the direction of Missouri viticulturist George Husmann, to find Phylloxera-resistant rootstock.

Gundlach-Bundschu

Around 1857 Jacob Gundlach and Emil Dresel purchased of Rancho Huichica. Jacob Gundlach, the son of a Bavarian hotel keeper, came to California in 1850 at age 33, lured by the promise of gold. He became successful making beer, founding the Bavarian Brewery of San Francisco. Sometime after 1851 he became associated with Emil Dresel, an architect from Geisenheim, Germany. Around 1857 Gundlach and Dresel purchased of Rancho Huichica, named it Rhinefarm, and turned to winemaking. In 1864, Charles Bundschu came from Germany to work for Gundlach, and married Gundlach's daughter. Dresel and Gundlach separated their operation sometime after 1869, and in 1894 the firm of J. Gundlach & Co. became Gundlach Bundschu.

References

{{California history Huichica Huichica

History

Winter Winery

Gundlach-Bundschu

See also

References