The First Vineyards

The Cucamonga Valley's earliest grape vines depended on the efforts and labor of many people, including Spanish padres, Native American Indians, rebels from the American South, and disgruntled gold seekers. On March 3, 1839, Tuburcio Tapia received more than 13,000 acres from Juan Alvarado, the Mexican governor of Baja California, and his Rancho de Cucamonga covered much of what is now Alta Loma, Etiwanda, Cucamonga, Upland, and Ontario. Though the region was regarded mainly as grazing land, Tapia's foreman Jose Maria Valdez planted the first vines from cuttings taken from the Mission San Gabriel's Madre. Tapia's adobe house and winery building were probably constructed by local Kucamongan Indians around 1839 and 1840, and the vineyard, made up of twelve rows of forty-seven vines each, flourished under Valdez's care. After the American annexation, California became a state in 1850, and Rancho de Cucamonga's appearance changed further through the estate developed by Alabama-born John Rains and his wife Maria Merced Williams de Rains. In 1858, the Rains bought Rancho de Cucamonga from Tapia's daughter and her French husband, Leon Victor Prudhomme. Before his murder in 1862, Rains greatly expanded the vineyards Tapia had planted and began producing wines considered to be of quality.

Rancho Cucamonga, California · United States