Renaissance Winery

Open: Year-round

History:

enaissance 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.

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.