Cline Cellars Winery is a family owned and operated winery located in the Carneros wine appellation of

Sonoma County, California Sonoma County () is a county (United States), county located in the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 United States Census, its population was 488,863. Its county seat and largest city is Santa Rosa, California, Santa Rosa. It is to the n ...

that specializes in

Zinfandel Zinfandel (also known as Primitivo) is a variety of black-skinned wine grape. The variety is grown in over 10 percent of California vineyards. DNA analysis has revealed that it is genetically equivalent to the Croatian grapes Crljenak Kaštel ...

Rhône The Rhône ( , ; wae, Rotten ; frp, Rôno ; oc, Ròse ) is a major river in France and Switzerland, rising in the Alps and flowing west and south through Lake Geneva and southeastern France before discharging into the Mediterranean Sea. At Ar ...

-style wines, Chardonnay and Pinot Noir.

History

In 1982, after receiving a small inheritance from his maternal grandfather, Valeriano Jacuzzi, one of the seven Jacuzzi brothers credited for inventing the

Jacuzzi Jacuzzi Brands LLC (; ), through its subsidiaries, is a global manufacturer and distributor of branded baths, hot tubs, pools, saunas and, formerly, aircraft. Founded in 1915 by the Italian family of the same name, Jacuzzi is a federally regist ...

whirlpool bath, Fred Cline opened Cline Cellars winery in

Contra Costa County ) of the San Francisco Bay , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = United States , subdivision_type1 = State , subdivision_name1 = California , subdivision_type2 ...

in the town of

Oakley, California Oakley is a city in Contra Costa County, California, United States. It is within the nine-county San Francisco Bay Area. The population at the 2020 United States census was 43,357. Oakley was incorporated in 1999, making it the newest incorporate ...

. Fred Cline was one of the first vintners to plant French Rhône varietals in California, and is one of the original

Rhone Rangers The Rhone Rangers are a group of American winemakers who promote the use of grape varieties from the Rhône Valley. They are mostly based on the West Coast, particularly California, and have created a not-for-profit organization for the promotion ...

. In 1991 Fred Cline and his wife Nancy Cline, relocated the winery from Oakley, California to a 350-acre property in the Carneros region of the Sonoma Valley that is the site of a former

Miwok The Miwok (also spelled Miwuk, Mi-Wuk, or Me-Wuk) are members of four linguistically related Native American groups indigenous to what is now Northern California, who traditionally spoke one of the Miwok languages in the Utian family. The word ' ...

village and the original site of

Mission San Francisco de Solano Mission San Francisco Solano was the 21st, last, and northernmost mission in Alta California. It was named for Saint Francis Solanus. It was the only mission built in Alta California after Mexico gained independence from Spain. The difficulty of ...

. In the 1850s the property was owned by German immigrants Julius & Katherine Adolph Poppe, who operated a dairy and supplied the majority of San Francisco with carp, which they kept in six spring-fed ponds that remain on the property. In the 1970s the property was bought by Haddon Salt of H. Salt Esq. Fish and Chips to raise horses. Cline purchased the property from Salt in 1989. In 2007 Fred and Nancy Cline opened Jacuzzi Family Vineyards across the street from Cline Cellars as a tribute to Fred's maternal grandparents. Cline-3

Vineyards and farming practices

Cline Cellars is best known for production of their "ancient vines" wines out of Contra Costa County. The head winemaker is Tom Gendall, who joined the operation in 2017. The Cline's historic Oakley vineyards are planted with Mourvèdre, Carignane, Grenache, Palomino and Zinfandel. The vines range in age from 80-120 years old. Approximately 42 acres of Carignane and Zinfandel vines were planted in 1906 and 1925, and 14 acres of Mourvèdre vines date back to 1920. The sand soil of Contra Costa County is naturally resistant to

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 ...

. The vineyards in Contra Costa County are all on their original rootstock, and the vine-eating aphid never affected newer plantings. The winery is dedicated to sustainability and their farming processes reflect this dedication. Cline Cellars is Certified California Sustainable in the vineyard and in the winery as well as Sonoma County Certified Sustainable. It became the second largest winery in California that is completely solar powered when it installed 34,625 square feet of solar panels. Cline calls his farming practices Green String certified for his use of natural cover crops to nourish soils, practice of using sheep to eliminate weeds in the vineyards, and use of compost teas for fertilizer instead of petroleum based equivalents.

Visiting

Tasting room

The

tasting room Dégustation is the careful, appreciative tasting of various food, focusing on the gustatory system, the senses, high culinary art and good company. Dégustation is more likely to involve sampling small portions of all of a chef's signature dishe ...

is located in a rustic 1850s farmhouse that is original to the property and is surrounded by six spring-fed ponds and thousands of rose bushes. The winery is open to the public daily for touring and tasting and a

wine club A wine club is a developing extension of modern wine culture. Wine clubs are designed to provide customers with a series of wine bottles on a monthly or quarterly basis that they would otherwise have to find and purchase on their own. Wine clubs o ...

is offered to interested parties.

California Missions Museum

To celebrate the site's history and connection to the Sonoma Mission, Nancy Cline opened the California Missions Museum on the property in 2005. The museum was built to house a full set of

California Mission The Spanish missions in California ( es, Misiones españolas en California) comprise a series of 21 religious outposts or missions established between 1769 and 1833 in what is now the U.S. state of California. Founded by Catholic priests o ...

models that were constructed by a team of German cabinetmakers for the 1939

Golden Gate International Exposition The Golden Gate International Exposition (GGIE) (1939 and 1940), held at San Francisco's Treasure Island, was a World's Fair celebrating, among other things, the city's two newly built bridges. The San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge opened in 1936 ...

. In 1998, the Cline family saved the California Mission models from being auctioned off individually and built the museum for their display. The museum also features a life-sized figure of Father Junipero Serra, mission paintings by Robert Morris and Henry Nelson, and two stained-glass panels originally housed in San Francisco's

Mission Dolores Dolores, Spanish for "pain; grief", most commonly refers to: * Our Lady of Sorrows or La Virgen María de los Dolores * Dolores (given name) Dolores may also refer to: Film * ''Dolores'' (2017 film), an American documentary by Peter Bratt * ' ...

prior to the

1906 San Francisco earthquake At 05:12 Pacific Standard Time on Wednesday, April 18, 1906, the coast of Northern California was struck by a major earthquake with an estimated moment magnitude of 7.9 and a maximum Mercalli intensity of XI (''Extreme''). High-intensity sha ...

. The museum is open to the public daily and admission is free of charge.

References

External links

* {{coord missing, Sonoma County, California Wineries in Sonoma County, California Museums in Sonoma, California History of Sonoma County, California Tourist attractions in Sonoma County, California