Rancho Huichica was a
Mexican land grant
In Alta California (now known as California) and Baja California, ranchos were concessions and land grants made by the Spanish and Mexican governments from 1775 to 1846. The Spanish concessions of land were made to retired soldiers as an indu ...
in present day
Napa County, California
Napa County () is a County (United States), county north of San Pablo Bay located in the Northern California, northern portion of the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 United States census, the population was 138,019. The county seat i ...
given in 1841 to
Jacob P. Leese. 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) in Napa County, California. The area was established by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) on February 27, 1981, after a 1978 petition submitted by the Napa Valley Vin ...
.
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 and adjutant-general of the Mexican Army, List_of_governors_of_California_before_1850#Mexican_governors_of_California_(1837–47), gover ...
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 jurisdicti ...
of California to the United States following the
Mexican-American War
Mexican Americans are Americans of full or partial Mexican descent. In 2022, Mexican Americans comprised 11.2% of the US population and 58.9% of all Hispanic and Latino Americans. In 2019, 71% of Mexican Americans were born in the United State ...
, the 1848
Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo
The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo officially ended the Mexican–American War (1846–1848). It was signed on 2 February 1848 in the town of Villa de Guadalupe, Mexico City, Guadalupe Hidalgo.
After the defeat of its army and the fall of the cap ...
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 the California State Lands Commission to determine the validity of prior Spanish and Mexican l ...
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 ...
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, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Lake Michigan to the northwest, Michigan to the north and northeast, Ohio to the east, the Ohio River and Kentucky to the 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 grapevines worldwide, originally native to eastern North America. Grape phylloxera (''Daktulosphaira vitifoliae'' (Fitch 1855) belongs to the family Phylloxeridae, within the order Hemiptera, bugs); orig ...
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.
See also
*Ranchos of California
In Alta California (now known as California) and Baja California, ranchos were concessions and land grants made by the Viceroyalty of New Spain, Spanish and History of Mexico, Mexican governments from 1775 to 1846. The Spanish concessions of l ...
* List of Ranchos of California
References
{{California history
Huichica