вЂњWeвЂ™re doing small-lot, age-worthy wines,вЂќ Sheri said. Members get one to three shipments per year. Their wine sells for $37-$60 per bottle $30-$48 for wine club members. The Bellantes made wine for 17 years in a co-op before hanging out their own shingle. The fruit is from Santa Barbara County and crushed at a facility in Santa Clarita, then bottled and shipped to Mission Viejo. They released their first commercial vintage, 2015, when they opened their tasting room in March. Some wines are single-vineyard.Д¬huck Bellante and his wife, Sheri, offer tastings and sell their wine by the bottle or case. Wines: viognier from Santa BarbaraвЂ™s Happy Canyon, pinot noir from Santa Rita Hills, mourvedre, syrah from Santa Barbara. Grapevines planted by a more recent owner, Hamilton Oaks Winery, have been revitalized by David Fanucci, vineyard manager for Giracci, A StoneвЂ™s Throw and Cowboy Canyon.Дў9943 Camino Capistrano, San Juan CapistranoДЇriday 3-8 p.m., Saturday and Sunday 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Out back are about 3 acres of orange groves, the last vestige of the orchard Williams and his brother laid down in the 1920s. A Craftsman bungalow, it features original light fixtures, built-ins in every room and a whole lot of character. The tasting room is in the historic Swanner House, formerly the Roger Y. StoneвЂ™s Throw prices will start at $24 for the chardonnay other wines havenвЂ™t yet been priced.

Until new labels come in, StoneвЂ™s Throw is pouring wine made by two neighbors, Giracci and Cowboy Canyon. Wines: chardonnay, a cabernet sauvignon, zinfandel from Paso Robles and Lake County.ДЄ StoneвЂ™s Throw, the new kid on the block, opened its doors in December and makes its wine at Giracci Vineyards GiracciвЂ™s Chad Kearns serves as its winemaker. HereвЂ™s the Coast roundup of Orange CountyвЂ™s best-known winemakers and wineries. Most OC winery owners and operators buy their grapes from the great viticulture regions of the Central Coast and Northern California, although a few labels also draw from small vineyards within the county. In the last 20 years, Orange County has experienced a small renaissance of winemaking, but itвЂ™s more in line with 21st-century realities. Only Temecula remains, relatively isolated and protected by its status as an American Viticultural Area. After World War II, vineyards began shrinking rapidly, and by the 1980s most wineries and their acreages had disappeared. Southern CaliforniaвЂ™s wine industry was finally killed by a man-made predator: development.

In 1936 there were 163 wineries between Santa Barbara and the Mexican border. Phylloxera, microscopic aphids that live on and eat roots of grapes, also took its toll, as did Prohibition, but winemaking persisted in Southern California through the mid-20th century. If not for the die-off, we might now be living in Wine County. Guess what took the place of the doomed vineyards? ThatвЂ™s right вЂ“ oranges. In 1883, most vineyards in Anaheim were struck down with PierceвЂ™s disease, caused by a bacteria spread by pests named sharpshooters. They started a healthy local industry вЂ“ by 1875 there were as many as 50 wineries in Anaheim, and the cityвЂ™s wine production topped 1 million gallons annually.Д«ut the prosperity was short-lived. Prospering from the deal, Kohler and Hansen planted 400,000 vines along the Santa Ana River. John Frohling and Charles Kohler, German musicians who dreamed up the plan, hired George Hansen, Los Angeles CountyвЂ™s assistant surveyor, to purchase land and plat the wine-making colony (still part of LA County, since Orange County didnвЂ™t yet exist). In fact, the city owes its existence to wine.ДЄnaheim was born in 1857, when 50 German-American families from the San Francisco area paid $750 each to invest in the Los Angeles Vineyard Society. Ironically, Southern California winemakers were shipping their product north to prospector country, not far from what is now the California wine industryвЂ™s hub.ДЄnaheim was an early center of wine production. What drove the growth? The Gold Rush, for the most part.

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