The Howell Mountain Appellation was approved by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (BATF) in 1983. Mike Beatty, owner of Beatty Ranch and a partner in Howell Mountain Vineyards, was chairman of the committee of the Howell Mountain grape growers that petitioned the BATF. In order to be part of the appellation, the BATF ruled that the vineyards must be at least 1400 feet in elevation. This is the history of the appellation as it was submitted to the BATF. They ruled that Howell Mountain was, indeed, worthy of one of the few appellations that the Bureau granted in the early 1980's.
The Howell Mountain area, east of St. Helena and the Napa Valley Floor, was not much a part of the region's viticultural picture before the 1870s. Apparently the few vineyards located there were little more than after-thoughts of landowners in the area, whose primary interest was extensive rather than intensive agriculture.
Toward the end of the 1870s, however, an interest in the expansion of the Napa Valley winegrowing interest and the inexpensive land on the Howell Mountain uplands encouraged a more commercial movement into the area by interested parties. It appears that this interest was sparked by the quality of the few grapes produced there in those early days, which had found their way into valley fermenters.
Chief among those moving early onto the Mountain to establish vineyards were the partners Brun and Chaix. The enterprise formed by these two Frenchmen in 1877 brought together two experienced winemen who planted vineyards and made a success of the wines made from the grapes grown. Jean Adolph Brun (1845-1894) and Jean V. Chaix (1851-1902) built a small winery there, probably in the early 1880s although most secondary sources date it from the formation of the partnership in 1877, which is doubtful. This Howell Mountain winery eventually had a capacity of 150,000 gallons. It was linked to the partners' Oakville operation, which they styled Nouveau Medoc, one of the most successful of the area's wine businesses during the boom of the 1880s.1 Eventually this operation sold out to others and was closed during Prohibition. The California Wine Association had control of it for some years. After Repeal there was some wine made at that winery until 1946.
The most famous winegrower to move onto Howell Mountain in the 1880s was Charles Krug, who had planted about 100 acres of vines there by 1884. He too was attracted by the special flavors that seemed to be associated with wines made from Howell Mountain grapes.2 W.A.C. Smith also planted 60 acres there in 1884. Vineyards on Howell Mountain had developed an excellent reputation for their wines by the end of the decade and the J. Thomas Winery in St. Helena was making about 25,000 gallons of Howell Mountain wine in 1889.3 Another operation was the Spring Hill Winery, begun in 1885 by George Mee (McMee).4
The man who made the name of Howell Mountain wines world renowned was W. S. Keyes, who set out his Liparita Vineyards in 1880 and later built a good stone winery that still stands on Las Posadas Road. Keyes was the son of General E. Dl. Keyes, an early commandant of the San Francisco Presidio, whose Edge Hill Winery on the valley floor was an important part of the area's wine scene in those days.5 Keyes' operation was on land previously part of the Seranus Hastings estate, which also had a large spread of wine grapes and a substantial winery that handled 300 to 400 tons of Howell Mountain grapes each year.6
By 1891 there were probably 600 to 700 acres of wine grapes planted on Howell Mountain, perhaps more. The total is obscured by the fact that property held by valley winegrowers was included in their totals. Wine growers were listed then by the place that they chose to pick up their mail. Those who got theirs at Angwin in those days included Keyes with 100 acres and the Hastings estate. Edwin Angwin, who gave the town its name, had a five-acre vineyard. S. Baskerville had ten, J. Martinelli had eight and the Murray brothers had fifteen. Robert Austin had 30 acres and made up 55 tons of Zinfandel and Riesling in 1881. Keyes was listed as handling 370 tons and the Hastings place totaled 365 tons.7
Keyes made excellent wine and developed such a reputation for his Howell Mountain vintages that he was persuaded in 1899 to enter his wines in the upcoming Paris Exposition. Another to heed the challenge was Frederick Hess, who had established his Pine Crest Vineyard near Keyes' from native stone quarried on the property. Hess was a native of Locarno, Switzerland, in the Ticino district of that country, which had supplied California many another capable winemaker. He was also the publisher of the German language California Democrat in San Francisco. Hess' partner in the earlier days was Jacob Goldberg, one of the founders of San Francisco's famous Goldberg-Bowen stores, which concentrated in stocking fancy foods for San Francisco's elite. The California press generally identified the wines as coming from the Howell Mountain district. The La Jota Vineyard Co. label included in Exhibit "A" clearly shows the Howell Mountain designation.
Exhibit
A
Keyes entered two wines and Hess entered three. When the awards had been distributed the Keyes wines had won a gold and a bronze medal, the first for a claret, probably made from Cabernet Sauvignon or Zinfandel. Hess' bronze medal was for his La Jota Vineyard Co. Blanco table wine. The Keyes victory was made much of in the California press. This Howell Mountain claret had proved the longstanding reputation of Howell Mountain red wines.
Later, in 1904 at the St. Louis Exposition, Keyes repeated his Paris triumph by winning a grand prize for his red wine. Always it was noted that this was a Howell Mountain wine. He was in good company in this competition, the only other California producers receiving grand prizes being Sonoma's Dresel & Company and Saratoga's Paul Masson.8
Following prohibition some vineyards were still to be seen here and there but for the most part they were abandoned or ripped up and Howell Mountain had ceased to be an important premium winegrowing district by the 1920s. When Repeal came in 1933 some of the wineries there tried to start operations again, but none was able to last.
The second wine revolution began in California in the 1960s and several of the old properties had been purchased by persons interested in revitalizing and reestablishing the Howell Mountain name for premium wines. There had been much talk about the unique taste qualities of Zinfandel and Cabernet Sauvignon grown on the mountain in recent years, no surprise to those who knew the literature of California wine history three quarters of a century ago. Many new vineyards have been established and old ones revitalized, even the owners of Bordeaux's Château La Mission Haut Brion have bought land and are planting on the mountain. And Ridge Vineyards has purchase Zinfandel and Cabernet Sauvignon grapes grown there and bottled the Zinfandel under the Howell Mountain designation, something of a symbolic reunion of the ties established by the great victories won in Paris in 1900 by the Keyes winery.
[1] Pacific Wine and Spirit Review, 10/22/1884; St. Helena Star, 10/15/1886; Frona Eunice Wait, Wines and Vines of California, San Francisco, 1889, 109-110.
[2] Pacific Wine and Spirit Review, 4/18/1884.
[3] Pacific Wine and Spirit Review, 10/22/1889; 7/30/1890.
[4] Irene W. Haynes, Ghost Wineries of Napa Valley, San Francisco, 1980
[5] Leon D. Adams, Wines of America, New York, 319; Redwood Rancher, November, 1980, 25.
[6] Directory of the Grape Growers, Wine Makers and Distillers of California, Sacramento, 1891, 83. Wine and Wine Making – Napa County after 1892, 30.
[7] Directory………., 83.
[8] Pacific Wine & Spirit Review, 3/31/1904, 10/30/1904