HallCrestVineyards.com
Title
Hallcrest Vineyards
Description
Appropriately named by the Hall family back in the 1880s, Hallcrest is at the crest of a small hill above the old town of Felton. It was a retreat for the Hall family until 1941 when Chaffee Hall, a prominent business attorney from San Francisco acted on his obsession with wine and planted the first vineyard. The winery that is still in use today followed in 1945 with its first vintage in 1946. At the time, it was one of only three wineries in the Santa Cruz Mountains and the only one producing varietal wines from estate vineyards.
Hallcrest wasted no time proving to the world that the wines from the Santa Cruz Mountains were of world class caliber and under Chaffee’s direction, Hallcrest became one of the outstanding wineries in California and a benchmark for Cabernet Sauvignon and White Riesling. The acclaim of the wines combined with Hall’s reputation as a winemaking pioneer in the Santa Cruz Mountains elevated Hallcrest wines to a category we would now call, “cult wine.”
In 1987, John Schumacher and his family bought the Hallcrest site, which had been operating as Felton Empire since Chaffee Hall’s retirement. John and his family restored the name, “Hallcrest Vineyards” and the guiding principle that Chaffee had originally established, namely, making uncompromised quality wines from the Santa Cruz Mountains. Today, Hallcrest is still family owned and operated by the Schumachers and the focus is still on handcrafting small lots of premium wines that bear the Santa Cruz Mountain Appellation in name and character. Chaffee’s label collection, a history in itself still lines the walls of our conference room.
Contact
Administrative:
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- SARATOGA CA
- US 95070-4128
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- 800-211-6630
Registrant:
- Hallcrest Vineyards
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- Felton CA
- US 95018
