Historic Vineyard Society in the City – May 9th, 2026
Report on the Historic Vineyard Society in the City tasting held on Saturday, May 9th, 2026, at Gallery 308 at Fort Mason in San Francisco, California. The event featured a tasting of wines sourced from a selection of old California vineyards.
The Historic Vineyard Society (HVS) is a non-profit organization established in 2011 and “dedicated to the preservation of California’s historic vineyards.” They work toward this goal through tastings, tours, and other means to educate the public about “the very special nature of these historical treasures.” Although the HVS operates with no salaried staff, they have done a great job in just a few years to help spread the word about preserving California’s old vines. A number of highly regarded vintners and others help to lead the HVS team, including Bob Biale, David Gates, Mike Officer, Tegan Passalacqua, Joel Peterson, Morgan Twain-Peterson, and Emily Rasmussen.
The central feature of the HVS is their Registry of Heritage Vineyards, which can be found on the HVS website (www.historicvineyardsociety.org). The Registry, which continues to grow as more old vineyards are added, is meant to “compile a comprehensive, fact-based directory of California’s Historic Vineyards.” Key criteria for a vineyard to be included on the Registry are:
• It must be a currently producing California wine vineyard
• The original planting date must be at least 50 years ago
• At least 1/3 of existing producing vines can be traced back to the original planting date
Vineyards nominated for inclusion on the Registry undergo a review process. The Registry includes “Registered” and “Unregistered” vineyards – the Unregistered list includes many well-known sites that have not yet been reviewed sufficiently to be added to the Registered list. The criteria are tough, and there are many old vines situated in larger vineyards where they don’t constitute 1/3 of the overall plantings so they would not qualify for the Registered list. The Registry currently lists over 175 vineyards, with locations ranging from Napa, Sonoma, and Mendocino, east to Contra Costa, Lodi, and the Sierra Foothills, and south to Santa Cruz, Santa Clara, San Benito, the Central Coast, Cucamonga Valley, Temecula, and as far as San Diego County.
There are certainly many more old vineyards that could qualify for the Registry. Some are small “no-name” sites that may have been farmed by the same family for generations but don’t sell fruit to better-known producers so they never garner notice for their old vines. But as more vintners are seeking out older vines, more of these old vineyards are being recognized, though it still takes work to produce documentation of the vineyard’s age to be listed on the Registry. And as the years pass, more vineyards can be added – for example, vineyards planted in the early- to mid-1970s are joining the Registry for the first time as they’re now over 50 years old.
Development continues to eat away at some old-vine sites. Vineyard owners in eastern Contra Costa County, Cucamonga Valley, and elsewhere certainly feel the pressure to sell their property to developers. Another issue is that some vineyard owners rip out old vines as they often don’t produce a lot of fruit, and then replant with new, higher-yielding vines. Replanting with a grape variety that will bring in more money or one that is currently trendy is another reason that growers rip out old vines that may be varieties that were popular a century or more ago but not so much these days. A positive sign is that a growing number of these neglected – and in some cases nearly-forgotten – California grape varieties are starting to gain favor again, which has most likely led to saving some of these old vines. There are even more reasons why old vines are endangered, and although it’s not realistic to think that they can all be preserved, individual vintners as well as organizations such as HVS have been making a difference.
There’s no question that historic vineyards feed into the public’s romantic view of wine – who doesn’t love the sight of gnarly old head-trained vines? An issue that’s often raised is whether wines made from old vines are better than those from younger vines, or even if they are noticeably different. There is disagreement about that and I don’t claim to know the answer, but based on the wines I tried at the HVS Tasting I do think there is something distinctive and special about the wines as well as the old vines themselves.
Overall Impressions:
Some Favorites |
WHITE & ROSÉ
Âmevive 2025 Estate Ibarra-Young Vineyard “Périphérie”
Bedrock 2025 Compagni Portis Vineyard White Wine
Bucklin 2024 Compagni-Portis Vineyard White Wine
Desire Lines 2024 Cole Ranch Riesling
Fine Disregard 2024 Chalone Vineyard Chenin Blanc
I. Brand & Family 2023 Massa Vineyard Chenin Blanc
Madroña 2024 Estate Dry Riesling
Martha Stoumen 2021 “Honeymoon”
Reichwage 2023 Mancini Ranch White Wine
Ridge 2024 “Historic Vines Blanc”
Stirm 2021 Wirz Vineyard Riesling
RED WINES
Âmevive 2023 Estate Ibarra-Young Vineyard Mourvèdre
Arnot-Roberts 2023 Montecillo Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon
Bedrock 2024 “Evangelho Heritage”
Birichino 2024 Bechthold Vineyard Cinsault
Birichino 2024 Besson Vineyard Grenache
Carol Shelton 2022 “Collins Reserve” Collins-Limerick Lane Vineyard Zinfandel
Desire Lines 2024 Evangelho Vineyard Red Wine
Easton 2021 Rinaldi Vineyard Zinfandel
Limerick Lane 2022 Estate 1910 Block Zinfandel
Once & Future 2023 Teldeschi Vineyard Zinfandel
Perlegos 2023 Stampede Vineyard Zinfandel
Reichwage 2021 Mancini Ranch Zinfandel
Ridge 2023 “Evangelho”
Robert Biale 2024 Gaudi Carli Vineyard Barbera
Sandlands 2023 Lodi Cinsault
St. Amant 2023 Marian’s Vineyard Reserve Zinfandel
OTHERS OF NOTE
Âmevive 2023 Estate Ibarra-Young Vineyard Mourvèdre
Arnot-Roberts 2023 Montecillo Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon
Bedrock 2024 “Evangelho Heritage”
Birichino 2024 Bechthold Vineyard Cinsault
Birichino 2024 Besson Vineyard Grenache
Carol Shelton 2022 “Collins Reserve” Collins-Limerick Lane Vineyard Zinfandel
Desire Lines 2024 Evangelho Vineyard Red Wine
Easton 2021 Rinaldi Vineyard Zinfandel
Limerick Lane 2022 Estate 1910 Block Zinfandel
Once & Future 2023 Teldeschi Vineyard Zinfandel
Perlegos 2023 Stampede Vineyard Zinfandel
Reichwage 2021 Mancini Ranch Zinfandel
Ridge 2023 “Evangelho”
Robert Biale 2024 Gaudi Carli Vineyard Barbera
Sandlands 2023 Lodi Cinsault
St. Amant 2023 Marian’s Vineyard Reserve Zinfandel
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This was the fourth large public tasting held by HVS, and the third one at Gallery 308 at Fort Mason. This is a fine space for wine-tasting events – the location is easy to reach by either car or transit, and the space features a high ceiling and large windows along three sides. I thought that attendance was down a little from last year, though there was still a good-sized crowd on hand. Check-in was a breeze, and HVS staff and helpers did a great job of regularly emptying dump buckets and taking care of other tasks to ensure that everything went smoothly – this was a very well-organized and well-run event from start to finish.
About 40 wineries poured their wines at the tasting this year. Even with that number of producers plus all of the attendees, the room never felt overly crowded, and it was easy to get around and to walk right up to most of the winery tables with little or no wait. In addition to all the wine, there was a tempting spread of cheese, charcuterie, bread, olives, raw veggies, and other light fare available for tasters.
The list of participating wineries at the HVS tasting was quite impressive. One thing that makes this tasting really stand out year after year is that so many of the producers were represented by the proprietors / winemakers themselves, some of whom you don’t often see at public tastings – it was really a star-studded event!
Most producers poured from one to four wines each – this made it easy to check out more of them in comparison to some tastings where a single winery might pour seven or eight wines. Even so, I didn’t have time to get to all the producers I would have liked to, and as usual I missed a handful that I’d really hoped to check out. I did still manage to taste wines from 24 producers. Zinfandel, Carignane, and field blends were the dominant red wines I tried at the event, though there were also wines from Grenache, Mourvèdre, Cinsault, Cabernet Sauvignon, and other varieties. There were fewer white wines, with Riesling, Chenin Blanc, Chardonnay and field blends making up most of the ones I tasted. I tasted more library wines this year in addition to current releases – plus a few pre-release bottlings – and have added a separate section in my Favorites list for them.
As in previous years, this was an outstanding wine tasting event, with a strong showing from nearly every producer whose wines I tried. It was tough to pick just a few favorite producers since so many of them poured outstanding wines. My overall favorite wine lineup of the day was from Birichino – they poured more wines than most others did at the tasting and nearly all were standouts. More that were among my top wineries of the day included Âmevive, Bedrock, Desire Lines, Fine Disregard, Reichwage, and Ridge. A number of other producers had very strong showings and were just a notch below the ones listed above, including Arnot-Roberts, Bucklin, Carol Shelton, Easton, Limerick Lane, Once & Future, Perlegos, Robert Biale, Sandlands, St. Amant, and Stirm. It’s no surprise that so many wines made my list of Favorites – often the case at this event!
As has been true of every Historic Vineyard Society tasting I’ve attended, I was very impressed by the quality of wines across the board at this event. HVS is doing a great job of increasing public awareness of old and historic vineyards and of generating more interest in their preservation. They depend on fundraising events such as this tasting and donations to help them continue their work, and I think it’s a cause that anyone who really cares about California wine can support. I highly recommend attending this event for anyone who loves wine from California’s historic old vineyards as well as for those who want to find out more about them. I’m already looking forward to next year’s HVS tasting!
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