The maps below reflect shifts in land ownership in Rutherford
and the Napa Valley between the years 1876 and 1915. The
preceding narrative is an effort to place in perspective
this shifting landscape and wine industry fortunes over
the past 150 years.
Today, in the year 2000, grapegrowing in Rutherford and
throughout the Valley is essentially a thriving monoculture,
but this has not always been the case. Consider that just
150 years ago, Sonoma had three times as many vines as
Napa, and both counties paled in comparison to Los Angeles,
which had ten times as many vines planted.
In the 1860's, wheat was king in the Napa Valley, though
interest in grapegrowing and winemaking was increasing
apace. Throughout California during this time, much
of the grape harvest became brandy or a fortified wine
called Angelica. This began to change as better
varieties of grapes were planted in the 1870's and 1880's.
Grapegrowing in the Rutherford area really took off in
the early 1870's. By 1886, Rutherford produced over 4,600
tons of wine grapes and 464,000 gallons of wine. Five
years later, the number of winemaking operations in Rutherford
had mushroomed and its status as a grapegrowing and winemaking
center of distinction really started to take hold.
Even as Rutherford and Napa Valley wines started reaping
worldwide accolades in the 1890's, Phylloxera was wreaking
its devastation throughout California vineyards. By the
turn of the century, millions of vinifera vines grafted to
resistant rootstock were being planted in the Napa Valley.
Following replanting, the land above Yountville once again
became grapevine-intense; but south of Yountville prunes,
pears and walnuts also became important, along with fodder
crops and grazing land.
By 1913, Napa County ranked fourth statewide in prune
production. By the onset of Prohibition in 1920, there
were more acres planted to prunes than to grapes. For
grapegrowers, the home winemaking craze of the 20's meant
they could still grow and sell wine grapes and planting
actually accelerated for a few years. Unfortunately,
the call to plant grapes that also shipped well spelled
disaster for the best wine grape varieties -- more often
than not, they were either grafted to heavy-yeilding,
thick-skinned varietals, or pulled up. Then grape
prices plunged in the mid-20's and grapegrowing became
unprofitable for most producers... By 1928, the
Napa Valley prune crop was worth twice as much as wine
grapes.
The Napa wine industry then jumped from the "frying pan"
of Prohibition into the "fire" of the Great Depression. The
total acreage of California grapes in 1926 would not again
be attained until the boom years of the 1970's. Napa Valley
grapes would not again become more valuable than prunes until
1944.
Rutherford's Beaulieu Vineyard (BV) stood quite apart
from other Napa wineries -- indeed any California winery
-- when Repeal came. Georges de Latour was very
profitably engaged in the altar wine trade during Prohibition
and had increased wine production since 1930, anticipating
Repeal. Also, unlike many others, he had not pulled
up his Cabernet Sauvignon vineyards. His achievements
during the dry years were unmatched, and at the end of
Prohibition he was uniquely poised to enter the premium
wine market with a trained staff, grape sources and plant
capacity. Within five years, he employed André Tchelistcheff
who would prove key to BV's long-term success.
At Repeal, Suzanne Niebaum decided to reopen her husband's
Inglenook Estate (Gustave had died in 1908), also in Rutherford.
A crack viticulture and enology team was brought in and
technological/production upgrades were quickly wrought. John
Daniel Jr., her great-nephew, took over operations in 1939, and
by the 1940's Inglenook's wines once again were declared by
many to be the best in the Valley.
Despite excellent table (dry) winemaking by such luminaries as
BV and Inglenook, relatively few Americans appreciated their
wines. Consumer tastes had changed during the long years of
Prohibition and "sweet " became a byword for California wine.
Even as late as the early 1960's, 80 percent of California wine
production was concentrated on fortified sherry and dessert
wines.
Only through intense wine marketing efforts over many years
have consumers again come to appreciate premium, dry styles of
wine. A boom in planting and revival of interest in premium
winemaking exploded in the late 60's and early 70's. Then,
in the late 70's and early 80's, the amount of wineries in the
Napa Valley more than doubled -- attesting to the area's
continued attraction for those interested in "the good life"
and the Napa Valley's growing prestige in the world of premium
winemaking.
Since 1985, there has been an as-yet-unending growth
in the rise of premium table wines -- in itself a true
revolution -- while consumption of inexpensive wines continually
declines... All of which bodes well for the growing reputation
of Rutherford and the Napa Valley.
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Simply click on the thumbnails below to view both the more
concentrated Rutherford area and the wider Napa Valley views.
Unfortunately, especially with the full-size maps, the detail
is difficult to make out. These are digital versions of
original title maps measuring on average 3' x 5' -- and they
were not in the best condition when we got them. But there
is still plenty to see that's fascinating -- especially for
map enthusiasts.
After you've checked these out, compare the parcels/
title ownership with today's Rutherford map on our home
page...
On each of the maps you will note a reference to the
"Caymus Rancho." This is the name of the land grant
originally conceded to George Yount in 1836, containing
what eventually became the town of Rutherford. The
reference to Caymus Rancho remains on these title maps
through 1915, even though the last acre of land passed
out of the Yount family in 1897 -- when the San Francisco
Savings and Loan Society took possession of the Rutherford's
ranch to satisfy a mortgage. Family members had
previously owned 2,500 acres surrounding the town.
The Caymus name lives on today as one of our member properties:
the celebrated Caymus Vineyards, owned by the Wagner family.
Thomas Rutherford married Elizabeth, one of George
Yount's granddaughters, in 1864 -- they received 1040 acres
of the Caymus Rancho as a wedding present. The settlement
around their ranch was thereafter known as Rutherford. It
started showing up on maps as Rutherford Station in 1868,
the year the railroad running through it was completed.
Note that one of the later owners of the Rutherford Ranch
was the St. Joseph Agricultural School for Boys, owned
by the Catholic Church -- specifically the San Francisco
Archdiocese. The larger portions of the original
Rutherford Ranch now belong to Beckstoffer Vineyards,
Round Pond and the Wilsey family.
The Rohlwing family for many years owned the property
where the Rutherford Station stood. This property was
purchased by Gustave Niebaum, who eventually also purchased
Inglenook Ranch, owned by the Watson family (Mrs. Watson
was another Yount granddaughter ), in 1879. Mr. Watson had
already planted wine grapes. The chateau-cum-winery was
finished in 1887 and the Niebaums and their descendents
retained title to the property until selling to Heublein in
1964. Today much of the original estate has been
re-purchased by Francis Ford Coppola and is now known as the
Niebaum-Coppola Estate.
The Thompson family had long owned the property purchased
by Georges de Latour in 1900, founding what would become the
world-famous Beaulieu Vineyard. For those of you familiar
with the winery's location at the northeastern corner of the
Rutherford Crossroad/Rte. 29 intersection, it may come as a
surprise to know that the original vineyard called Beaulieu
was actually originally located across the street, on the
west side of Rte. 29 (see the 1915 map). The current
location was not purchased until 1923, when Mr. de Latour
bought the Valley View Winery (est. 1885) and surrounding
property from the Ewer family.
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