Photos courtesy of galleanowinery.com
The Galleano Winery happens to be Riverside County’s oldest winery. It was designated as a County Historical Landmark and a State of California Point of Historical Interest in 1993. Additionally, in 2003 it was also added to the National Register of Historic Places and the California Register of Historic Places. With such an impressive history to preserve, it is no wonder that organizations like the Cucamonga Valley Viticultural Conservancy have been created. It is an effort to preserve and to educate the valley’s inhabitants to the rich culture right under their feet. In this way, perhaps the preservation and education that the Cucamonga Valley hopes to engage its own inhabitants with can expand, so that not only the Cucamonga Valley, but the inhabitants of California, the wine growing regions of California and the world, and the U.S. in general, can be educated as to the history and legacy of one of California’s richest historical treasures. Current wineries in the Cucamonga Valley, such as J. Filippi Winery, Galleano, Brandt Family Winery, The Wine Tailor (which operates out of the historic Thomas Winery, which is no longer a working vineyard but has the honor of being designated as the oldest commercial winery in California and the second oldest in the United States), and Rancho de Philo, as well as driven winemakers like Dana Chandler in Upland and Ron Mittino in Claremont, are showing that although the Cucamonga Valley wines might not match the status or structure of those found in Napa Valley up north or Santa Barbara County further south, they provide a unique and award-winning range of wines that speak to the complexity and richness of the Cucamonga Valley, and show what the valley and California still have to offer the wine-tasting world. Written by Lincoln McElwee
146 Nationalistmag.com