Wine Made from Vines Planted in 1880 Selected for Pouring at Prestigious Convention This Fall
May 20, 2025 (Arroyo Grande Valley, CA) — Saucelito Canyon Vineyard today announced that its “1880 Zinfandel” has been selected for pouring at the upcoming Old Vine Conference 2025, a five-day global convention dedicated to the celebration, heritage and preservation of wines made from historic vines. The original vines at Saucelito Canyon are among the oldest in California and are the oldest in San Luis Obispo County on California’s Central Coast. The 1880 Zinfandel is made exclusively from vines planted 145 years ago.
Titled “Meeting of the Minds,” the Old Vine Conference 2025 will be hosted by the Old Vine Conference organization in partnership with Zinfandel Advocates & Producers (ZAP) on October 31 through November 4 at locations in Napa, Sonoma and Lodi.
Saucelito Canyon’s 1880 Zinfandel will be shared at the opening Gala Tasting & Dinner featuring keynote speaker Jancis Robinson MW at Napa’s Culinary Institute of America. The conference will also feature field trips, seminars, master classes and more. In the words of the organizers, “The Old Vine Conference 2025, Meeting of The Minds, will draw an international audience of trade and media to discuss the most pressing issues facing the world’s old vines.”
“We are honored to have Saucelito Canyon recognized as one of the world’s pivotal producers of true old-vine wines,” said Bill Greenough, proprietor and founding winemaker of Saucelito Canyon. “It speaks to the heritage that we have tirelessly worked to preserve and cultivate over the decades.”
Rooted in Legacy
The old Zinfandel vines at Saucelito Canyon were planted in 1880 by an English homesteader. After producing wines for many decades, the vines were abandoned after Prohibition and lost to history until Greenough purchased the old Rancho Saucelito more than 30 years later. Rather than uproot the overgrown old vines and plant anew, Greenough cleared the brush, dug into the root zones and trained new shoots from the old roots—fully restoring three acres of the original vines in the rugged upper Arroyo Grande Valley.
The old vines have contributed to Saucelito Canyon’s iconic Estate Zinfandel since the inaugural 1982 vintage. Additionally, for the past 20 years, the winery has produced the limited-edition 1880 Zinfandel ($75) crafted exclusively from the old vines to showcase their unique quality, character and lineage. Critic Matt Kettmann of Wine Enthusiast has called the 2019 vintage “a resounding testament to the glories of old-vine Zinfandel.”
The old vines at Saucelito Canyon have been preserved via cuttings at the U.C. Davis Zinfandel Heritage Vineyard Project and they are also registered with the Historic Vineyard Society.
Saucelito Canyon Vineyard today remains a Greenough family affair, with two generations now producing a diverse range of limited-production wines while maintaining the winery’s heritage of estate-grown Zinfandels. Bill Greenough and his wife Nancy remain actively involved in the winery, while Winemaker Tom Greenough and his sister Margaret Greenough M.D. are leading Saucelito Canyon into the future.
This month, Saucelito Canyon was selected as “Best Winery for Red” in the San Luis Obispo New Times’ annual “Best of SLO” readers poll. “We love the juxtaposition of our wine being featured at a global conference while we still remain connected and rooted in our local community,” said Nancy Greenough. “It’s a testament to the staying power of our vineyard and of the California wine industry.”
About Saucelito Canyon
The Saucelito Canyon story begins in 1880, when three acres of Zinfandel vines were planted in the rugged terrain of the upper Arroyo Grande Valley on California’s Central Coast. A new chapter was written a century later, when Bill Greenough painstakingly restored the abandoned old vineyard and began making what has become one of California’s most distinguished Zinfandels. Our story continues today under the guidance of second-generation Winemaker Tom Greenough, as we merge new methods in sustainable winegrowing with our own family traditions and winemaking style, which we collectively call the “Saucelito Way.” Visit the winery tasting room in Edna Valley and find out more at SaucelitoCanyon.com.
