Doña Marcelinas

AVA

Santa Rita Hills

Decade

1880s

County

Santa Barbara

Location Notes

Highway 246 at Gypsy Canyon Drive

Historical Producers

Gypsy Canyon Vineyards and Winery

Characteristics

The vineyard was used to produce an Ancient Vine Angelica. This is a rich, hedonistically enjoyable wine, made from the Mission grape planted by the Spanish missionaries. It’s very sweet and decadent, with tangerine, pineapple and apricot-infused creme brûlée flavors and a generous coating of spice that finishes with a honey-rich mouth feel.

Description

We [Deborah Hall] discovered this vineyard in 1998 when we were cleaning up the property to plant our Pinot Noir. The vines were hidden in the sage and had not been farmed in over 70 years. We believe the farmer that planted them let them become overgrown with weeds to hide them during Prohibition. Over the next 3 years we carefully brought the vines back into production. They were DNA tested at UC Davis and confirmed to be Mission. I knew the padres had the most experience with this grape so I turned to the archives library at the Santa Barbara Mission and found their winemaking notes for Angelica. Today, I make an Ancient Vine Angelica fortified dessert wine and release 50 cases a year in 375ml bottles.

The vines are head-trained and spacing varies from 8-10 feet rows and 5-6 feet between the vines. We are farming it from the farmers’ view in 1887.

Submitted by

Deborah Hall

Certified