The Mission Grape at Mission San Gabriel

My husband has us subscribed to SOMM TV this winter and it is really interesting to watch the various shows on this program. One of the episodes that peaked my interest was about the Mission Grape planted at Mission San Gabriel in Los Angeles.
I have blogged about the Mission grape before in Red Grapes of California and California's First Woman Vine Grower and Two Horticultural Wonders.
This episode featured Terri Huerta, the Director of Development and Communications at Mission San Gabriel and the vine growing on the property known as the Mother Vine or Trinity Vine. From photographic evidence it was deduced to have been in existence as far back as 1765.¹

In the 1830s the vineyard at Mission San Gabriel had expanded to more than 170 acres producing as much as 50,000 gallons of wine per year! As Pierce's disease and Prohibition took its toll on grapevines, they fell into neglect with the exception of this Mother Vine that survived due to it's proximity to an underground aquifer.
In 2020, Huerta reached out to three Los Angeles winemakers Jasper Dickson and Amy Luftig from Angeleno Wine Company, Mark Blatty from Byron Blatty Wines and Patrick Kelley of Cavaletti Vineyard to see if they could propagate the vine. The winemakers noticed the grapes growing on the old vine and came up with the idea to make wine from one of the oldest grapevines planted in California.²
Harvest day came on November 3, 2024. Volunteers with BYOL (Bring Your Own Ladders), reached up to the grapes growing on a pergola. ³

Volunteer Jossalyn Emslie was enthusiastic about her participation in the harvest, saying that she was hooked. Nearly 400 pounds of grapes were harvested.

From this bounty, Dickson, Blatty and Kelley used a recipe found in the old Mission records and made their version of Angelica. The winemakers decided to use the Solera system, which is generally used in Sherry production to blend wines across vintages. Older wines add depth and complexity, and younger wines add acidity and freshness. For the Angelica, juice from the 2021, 2022 and 2023 vintages were combined with the initial wine from 2020.⁴
As the harvest ended, a bottle of Angelica, with a depiction of the Mother Vine as the label, was served to the harvesters. The volunteers sipped beneath grape leaves that swayed in the cool breeze, noting the sweet and fruity nature of the wine.

Post Script: Something I learned about the Mission grape. From DNA tests conducted in 2014, the grape vine at Mission San Gabriel is a hybrid betweenVitis girdiana, a wild grape native to Southern California, and Vitis vinifera.¹ The Mission grape is a prolific varietal that originated in the Castilla - La Mancha region of Spain and brought to California by the Franciscan Friars.
The Mission Grape is also known as Listán Prieto in Spain, as Criolla Chica in Argentina and Pais in Chile.


References:
1. Scerra, Jennifer, "The Unfurling Story of the Homestead’s Grapevines", The Homestead Museum, May 27, 2020.
2. Snyder, Garrett, "Wine from the ‘Mother Vine’: A trio of L.A. winemakers are harvesting historic grapes at San Gabriel Mission", Los Angeles Times, October 9, 2020.
3. Romano, Natalie, "How ‘Angelica’ was born: Winemakers honor San Gabriel Mission", Angelus, November 21, 2024.
4. Duzdabanyan, Ani, "Los Angeles wineries release bottling from 18th century vine", Decanter, November 29, 2023.
5. Agran, Libbie, "The Mission Grape – Five Centuries of History in the Americas", Wine History Project, February 25, 2021.