| The Wild West
From steamboats, rodeos, racehorses, and polo ponies to the current winery surrounded by vineyards, comes the wonderful story of the Larson Family Winery...
The heritage of the property on which the winery sets and the history of the family which has owned it since the 19th century, brings to life stories right out of the wild west.
Just a few miles south of the Sonoma Plaza on a lazy bend in Sonoma Creek, rows of Chardonnay vines soak up the Northern California sun. Inside a nearby redwood barn, barrels crafted from oak forests half a world away are filled with wines from last year's harvest.
The afternoon breeze blows in from the Bay like clockwork. It surely greeted the young Lt. Mariano G. Vallejo as he passed through on June, 1834, on his way to secularize the Mission San Francisco Solano de Sonoma, last and north most of the 21 California missions. Vallejo established the town of Sonoma that was for many years, socially and politically superior to Yerba Buena, the little town 50 miles south now called San Francisco.
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The steamer "Sonoma" 1879, at Sonoma Creek
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What is now Larson Family Winery was once the Embarcadero, farthest navigable point up Sonoma Creek from the San Francisco Bay, and the bustling gateway to Sonoma Valley. Where Chardonnay now ripens, small craft landed European visitors as early as 1823. Passengers and freight bound for Sonoma transferred here from sloops and schooners to horse-and ox-drawn carriages and wagons for the ride to the Plaza.
Beginning in 1847, steamboats docked here and turned around for the voyage back to San Francisco. It was a steamboat captain who built "A Captain's House", the Civil War-era farm house that still stands today on the winery property. Tom's great grandfather, Michael Millerick, bought the house and 101 acres of land in 1899.
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Tom Millerick, 1912, State Fair Cutting Champion.
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From 1929 to the early 1950's, the Sonoma Rodeo was held on the Millerick Ranch. The largest and longest-running rodeo in the Bay Area, it was the event of the year in Sonoma. Up to 8,000 people filled the stands, and thousands dined on beef roasted in underground pits. Each year the rodeo began with a "trail drive" -- down the highway and into the arena came a string of 50 bucking horses, all carrying the Millerick's famous Circle M brand. World champion and hall of fame cowboys competed, but the locals held their own; one year vintner August Sebastiani won a roping trophy.
On the site of their family’s old Sonoma Rodeo, where rodeo stock, racehorses and polo ponies once grazed, Tom Larson and his father, Bob, decided to plant Chardonnay in 1977. The 40 acre block on the home ranch gradually led the family far beyond home winemaking. "when we made more wine than we could drink ourselves," Tom recalls, "we got serious." In 1984, Tom earned his degree in fermentation science from the University of California at Davis. Larson Family Winery was founded the same year, crushed in 1988 and released wine in 1989 under the Sonoma Creek label.
Take a virtual audio tour of the winery
Audio Slide Show Tour provided by Artisan Wine Tours.
Join Tom Larson as he tells about the history of the Larson Family, Circle M Ranch, and how a rodeo ranch became an award winning winery. View the Tour.
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