Once upon a time...

In 1971, a small group of people armed only with the shared beliefs that positive attitudes, love of beauty, hard work, and patience could transform one's character, bought some land together in Northern California. The land they discovered in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountains had abundant water, and was above the fog and below the snow. But it was hard to tame. Manzanita, poison oak, and digger pines as well as bears, mountain lions, and rattlesnakes were long-time residents.

The days were long. That summer the temperatures reached 115^o F. It would take twelve more years of grueling work to clear the land and to reveal the true fate of this remarkably beautiful hillside: a world-class mountain estate vineyard was there, waiting to be born. And so they named this sleeping beauty Renaissance, which in French means rebirth.

The 100-year Sleep

Renaissance Vineyard and Winery is located in Yuba County. To the southwest lie Marysville and the Central Valley. To the east are the Gold Rush towns of Grass Valley and Nevada City.

Yuba County has a long history of wine-making. The name Yuba in fact came from the early Hispanic explorers who had discovered wild grapes growing on the banks of the river. ("Uba" is a version of the Spanish word "uva", which means grape.)

During the Gold Rush, the wine region of Yuba became famous throughout the United States. Fortune Magazine recognized this fact in its 1933 issue describing the wine regions of the U.S. (see map). A group of French settlers, who founded nearby Frenchtown, were making Cognac-style brandy during this period. Marysville, thirty miles from Renaissance, boasted the largest winery in the state. A man named L.B. Clark had planted 50,000 vines on his 600-acre Rancho Virginia at Collins Lake, only 5 miles from Renaissance. Winemaking was very successful in North Yuba until the early 1880s, when hydraulic mining was severely restricted by law. Soon the mining population dwindled, which in turn forced many farms to be abandoned.

It would not be until the members of the Fellowship of Friends purchased its land in 1971 and created Renaissance Vineyard and Winery that this region would once again regain its world-class winemaking status.