Gottfried Maulhardt planted grapes for a vineyard soon after he began leasing the 1200 acres in 1869 that he later purchased from Juan Camarillo in 1872 along with his partners Jacob Maulhardt and Johannes Borchard.
Vineyards in the area were initially established by the Sanchez family on the Del Norte Rancho along the Santa Clara
River. The historic reference to the area has passed on with the reference to Vineyard Avenue.
By 1877, Gottfried was dedicating his vines to the making of wine for the new Catholic Church that was built in New
Jerusalem, later rechristened El Rio.
In a January 11, 1879 article in the Ventura Signal, the paper reported that Gottfried had a “Small vineyard of 250 of the
choicest varieties.”
Zinfandel Blanc Cuttings from 1880s
The original vineyard has long vanished, but in 2014, with the help of Paul Belgum, Jeff Maulhardt was able to purchase sixty cuttings of zinfandel blanc from the Nature Conservancy of Santa Cruz Island. These vines were originally planted in 1884 by Justinian Caire. He hired Swiss and Italian workers to plant a variety of 4,000 vines from France. Belgum and Maulhardt planted the new vineyards in February 2014.
By 2018, the Master Gardeners of Ventura County began an annual class on pruning the vines. These classes led to a
relationship with David Young, who took on the task of improving the vineyards with the help of Jim Thompson.
The grapevines on the small arbor are Vitis vinifera or Black Prince, and we got the cuttings from Ojai, CA. This was often referred to as Mission grapes, which came originally from Spain with the Spanish.
The grapes on the east fence as you enter are Vitis californica, or California Native vines.