History
Sanford Ballou founded the ranch with his son Benton in 1882, and by 1915 it ran to roughly 960 acres of apricots, peaches, raisins and wine grapes. It was listed as a historic district on the National Register of Historic Places in 1993 and is certified by the Historic Vineyard Society. Paul Hofer III, the fifth generation, farms it today. The surviving vines are a fragment of what the Cucamonga Valley was before Southern California grew over it.
The Site
At 11248 South Turner Avenue in Ontario, San Bernardino County, wedged against Ontario International Airport, on deep granitic alluvial sand. Wines carry the Cucamonga Valley AVA. Current planted acreage is reported inconsistently: the Historic Vineyard Society cites fifteen acres of old vines, the ranch's own site says ten acres of wine grapes remain, and a producer's material cites six, probably meaning the Grenache block alone.
Vines and Blocks
The old-vine core is head-trained, own-rooted, dry-farmed Grenache planted between about 1919 and 1930, with surviving pre-Prohibition Mission, Pedro Ximenez and Rose of Peru vines alongside it.
The Wines
A Tribute to Grace bottles a Hofer Vineyard Grenache, and Scar of the Sea makes wine here too. The ranch has historic ties to Galleano Winery and the Cucamonga-era cooperatives.