Estate Vineyard Acreage
Nearly one million years ago, most of California’s Central Coast was covered by a huge inland sea, with the Gabilan and Santa Lucia mountain ranges rising up as great islands. Many geographic events contributed to the current landscape: years of erosion and gradual tectonic shifting heightened the mountains; the last ice age, 17,000 years ago, lowered sea level drastically and uncovered more of the two ranges; volcanic activity nearly 500,000 years ago finally drained the inland sea to the ocean, further exposing the two mountain ranges and establishing much of the current coastline. The Salinas River served as an outlet from this inland sea, depositing sand on its way to Monterey Bay. This resulted in the sandy, well-draining soil of today’s Salinas Valley. Today, the Salinas River begins in the mountains of San Luis Obispo, winds across the Paso Robles plateau, down into the Salinas Valley and out to Monterey Bay. As the river flows downhill into Monterey Bay, it prevents salinated ocean water from entering the valley, creating optimum irrigation for agriculture. With its imposing mountains, sheltered valleys, forests and dramatic shoreline, the Central Coast is an area of startling contrasts and stunning beauty.

The history of the people of California’s Central Coast is as rugged and varied as its landscape. The mild climate and fertile soil drew Native Americans from colder regions. The Costanoan tribe, named by the Spanish explorers that came later, inhabited much of the Salinas Valley, while the Esselens and Salinans dwelt in the Santa Lucia Mountains. Little is known about the Esselen and Salinan tribes, but the Costanoans, or "coast people," were hunters and gatherers who lived in orderly communities solidly based on family. In the late 1500s, when the Spanish were firmly entrenched in Central America, Francis Drake claimed the entire Pacific coast for Queen Elizabeth, threatening the Spanish control of the area. In response, the Spanish sent Sebastian Vizcaino to scout a California port for trading between Acapulco and Manila and to reinforce Spanish sovereignty of the land to the north. He named Monterey Bay for the Conde de Monterey, viceroy of New Spain. When he sighted the coastal mountain range on the feast day of Santa Lucia, the Santa Lucia Mountains were named. In the late 1700s, when Father Junipero Serra began establishing missions and converting Native Americans to Christianity, the Spanish military protected him and reinforced his authority. The Franciscan friar is generally credited with bringing the first wine grapes to California around 1789. The vines were probably some form of the variety Criolla, known in California as the "Mission Grape," and brought to Mexico from Spain by the conquistadors. Historians disagree about whether the first vineyard was established at Mission San Diego by Father Serra or at Mission San Juan Capistrano, by several of his friars; but Mission San Gabriel, near Los Angeles, is generally recognized as having established the first mission winery in the early 1790s. A few years later, at Mission Soledad, the Franciscan friars planted the first vineyards in California’s Central Coast. Settlements sprang up around missions, and influential Spanish families such as the Vallejos, the Soberanes and the Berryessas established themselves in the early colony of Monterey. With Mexican independence from Spain in 1822, Monterey became the center of California’s political activity. An increasingly fragmented population made for an easy occupation of Monterey by the United States in 1846, during the war with Mexico. In 1849 the first California constitutional convention took place in Monterey, with representatives, including those from the old, established Spanish families, speaking to the issue of whether California should remain a territory or become a state. The delegates voted for statehood, drew up a state constitution, and signed it on October 12, nearly 80 years after the establishment of the colony of Monterey.